Jace slid into the passenger seat and looked at me. “That took a while – but did you get the promise?”
A satisfied smile slowly crossed my face. “I did. Milo?”
He wiggled his phone and held it up a bit. “Got an alert on her, don’t worry. And on all her contacts. I’m still searching back as far as I can – 60 some years is a lot of stuff to go through – but as near as I can tell, she hasn’t said anything to anyone else.”
“Good.” I considered for a moment, then put the car in drive. “Let’s go give Gwen the good news and let you all meet her.”
~~~~~
Gwen listened as I went over the conversation with Agnes – not delighted at all that Agnes revealed the secret, again, but at least to a knowing party this time. She was clearly relieved that I did succeed in getting the promise sealed with magic and that Agnes was just there for the week, plus Milo’s explanation about how he was setting up alerts for any time Agnes mentioned anyone in Gwen’s family or unicorns seemed to help, too.
Sterling, meanwhile, was delighted Elyse had come because he apparently was a fan of hers. He basically ignored our entire conversation and asked her all about her writing process and what she drew inspiration from.
“So,” I said as I concluded our explanations, “I don’t think she’ll be a risk anymore – she literally can’t tell anyone else that your mother was a unicorn or that you or your family are – which should cover Sterling, as well – and Milo’s work should ensure that even if she said something in the past to someone, we can probably find out and take action. Granted,” I admitted, “it doesn’t cover verbal conversations as well, but I think she was probably telling the truth about not saying anything before now. She didn’t seem comfortable with the topic of your mother initially and she admitted she hadn’t talked about her pretty much since her death. But it’s up to you – is that enough or do you want to take additional steps?”
Gwen frowned, tapping her fingers against the dining room table agitatedly as she thought.
“I can try to erase her memory if you’d prefer,” Jace volunteered, much to my surprise. “But the surest way to do that would involve hair from your mom, so that could be difficult, I’m assuming? If I took one from you and your brother, though, I could at least make her forget that you ever existed – she could see you and never realize who you were.”
Gwen seemed surprised. “You can do that?”
Jace shrugged. “Witch magic. My magic’s not super strong anymore, but it’s enough to do that.”
I was still just impressed that he was offering to do magic for someone, though. He rarely did any, and despite what he was saying, this would be a larger spell because it would cover decades of memories.
Gwen thought for a long time. “For safety,” she said slowly, “I think I’d like that. Just – just to be extra sure. I know with the promise it should be enough, but I don’t want her to even mention to other people that Mother had kids in case someone finds out about Mother’s murder and puts the pieces together. She can keep the memories of Mother – they were friends, at one point – but if she could forget Mother had any kids, that would – that would be better, I think.”
“Okay.” Jace was unphased with this. “I’ll need some of your hair, and your brother’s. I assume you can get one from him? I should be able to get the rest of the ingredients here, I can check with local witches maybe, or if not, I know we have a fairy back in Port Fylin who should have the rarer stuff, so I could drive over there and pick it up. Then Dad can probably run into her again ‘by accident’ and come up with some excuse to get her to drink some tea with him or something, I assume,” he gave me a look which said I needed to agree with this plan.
“Sure,” I complied. “That shouldn’t be too hard. I know where she’s staying now.”
“Hold on.” Milo held up his hands. “What about people back home? What if she starts talking about your mom and talks about how she doesn’t have any kids and people back there correct her? She’s a familiar – she might realize there was witch magic involved and get suspicious.”
“Hmm, maybe I could make enough extra that she could take the tea home and drink with her friends?” Jace mused.
That sounded a little iffy. “Milo, where does she live now?”
He checked his phone, then held it up to show me. “This place where you grew up?”
“No.” I thought for a minute. “She’s clearly moved – maybe near her grandchildren? Chances are, though, she doesn’t see anyone regularly who might also remember that Jane had kids apart from her husband, Roger. If we make the tea lemon flavored, I think that should be enough to get him to drink, too. He used to like lemon tea as I recall.”
“Tea for two, very doable,” Jace nodded. “Also a lot less likely to be suspicious. So, we still on for this?”
Gwen looked at him, then Milo, then me, and threw her hands in the air. “Sure, let’s do this. Let’s make sure Agnes has no possible way to put our lives in danger. Let me call Percy about his hair.”
As she went to call her brother, I decided to give work a call and take some unexpected leave – not just for tomorrow, but the two days after as well. That should give Jace time to get the ingredients and work his spell and me time to casually manage to give Agnes the tea before she went back home.
Jace also called his work to get leave, while Milo started browsing local hotels.
“We want two rooms, Dad?” He asked me. “Or three?”
“Unless you and Jace want to share a bed, three.”
Elyse paused in her conversation with Sterling to turn her head in our direction. “I can share a room with you, Dad. I don’t need my own space.”
I liked to give her privacy given that she was the only girl in our family, but it would be more convenient to just deal with two rooms.
“No need for that,” Gwen told us briskly as she came back into the room. “Percy’s got some houses in the area. Since you’re here to help us out, the least we can do is arrange your housing. Sterling? Thoughts on which one?”
Sterling tilted his head to one side, thinking, then his eyes lit up. “The winery!”
“Uh, winery?” Jace looked very doubtful. “That doesn’t sound like a great place to stay, plus Milo’s underaged.”
“Haha,” Milo rolled his eyes mirthlessly. “Very funny.”
Techno vampires didn’t get drunk. Neither did regular vampires, for that matter. Their biology prevented it. Still, legally speaking, Milo wasn’t allowed to consume alcohol even if it would have absolutely zero effect on him.
“No, no,” Sterling explained. “It used to be a winery. It was remodeled into a house and Uncle Percy liked the look. It’s near his place, too, so maybe while you’re here Tony could go over and shift into dragon form? I still really want to see that.”
Jace’s and Elyse’s heads both snapped in my direction. Milo, who’d already been aware of this plan, was looking at me hopefully, too.
“Really?” Jace looked almost as excited as Sterling. “You could show us your dragon form?”
I laughed a little at the enthusiasm of all four kids. “Fine, yes, why not? Let’s deal with Agnes first, then we can have fun, okay?”
“Yes!” Sterling gave Milo a high-five. “I’ll shift for you, too! Seems only fair.”
“A dragon, a unicorn, Queen Gwenevere, and Sir Percival,” Elyse mused. “I believe we are about to go back in time.”
Gwen groaned. “You were not supposed to realize our full names! Though,” she paused and gave me an almost shy look, “I suppose under that context it does sound something like a medieval story.”
“Don’t forget the witch, vampire, and gryphon,” Sterling pointed out. “Those…have to fit in somewhere, right?”
“They will,” Elyse assured him, a smile twitching on her lips. “I’ll make sure they do.”
~~~~~
When it came down to it, I was kind of nervous about shifting in front of everyone. Not that I’d have trouble doing so or anything, I was just worried I wouldn’t live up to their expectations.
We’d dealt with the spell and getting the tea to Agnes – I gave her a “sample” to try now, which she loved, and she was eager to take some back to Roger to try, so it seemed a success – so now the only thing left was our evening at Gwen’s brother’s house showing off shifted forms, apparently.
Although the initial reason for the trip had been a concern, I was actually glad we’d ended up taking it after all. Having Jace and Milo helped a lot with dealing with the potential threat Agnes posed, plus all of my kids now got to meet Gwen and Sterling and Gwen got to meet my kids as well. Elyse was doing a lot better than I’d expected for a trip like this, but she seemed to be enjoying Sterling’s company as she listened to him talk about his work and the ocean.
I’d only encountered Percy the once in the street, and we hadn’t really talked, so I wasn’t sure how this was going to go. Gwen had explained that Percy had several acres fenced in and protected with fairy hearth magic – the product of his son-in-law, apparently – to ensure that humans wouldn’t see anything in the forest behind his house even if somehow they managed to see over the high privacy fences around the property. It made a safe space for her and Sterling to shift and run and for other supernaturals as well.
Milo beat me to the front door and started knocking on it like he was afraid Percy wouldn’t be able to hear us.
When Percy opened the door a few moments later, he looked almost bewildered as Milo and Sterling dashed right past him. “Um, hello?”
“Hi.” Gwen stopped to kiss his cheek, leading the rest of us inside. Elyse was on Jace’s arm and he was giving her quiet cues as to steps and things to avoid walking into.
I offered my hand after we were all inside – well, most of us, that is, since Milo and Sterling already seemed to have escaped to the backyard. “Tony. I don’t think we’ve officially met. The crazy one with Sterling is Milo, and these are Jace and Elyse. Thanks for letting us do this here.”
Percy politely greeted us all and then gave me a quiet smile as we ended up falling to the back of the group. “No problem. I think my son would probably be disappointed he can’t see you, actually – he’s very curious about the supernatural world and I’m pretty sure he’s never seen a shifted dragon before. Not that I have, either.”
This made me somewhat curious. “Isn’t he a supernatural, too?”
“He is,” Percy confirmed, “but I only met him a year ago – I wasn’t even aware that I had a son before that – and he grew up mostly with his human mother or on his own until less than a year before that, so he’d always assumed he was human. He’s eager to learn about any supernaturals, really.”
“Well, my kids haven’t seen my shifted form, either,” I admitted, “so he’s not the only one who might be curious to see it. We don’t live all that far away, so maybe sometime when he’s visiting I can drop by and shift for him, too.”
Percy seemed happy at that suggestion, even though I’d basically just invited myself back to his house. “I bet he’d love that.”
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