Jenna Black - Glimmerglass

“You’ve had a long day,” he said. “Perhaps you should get some sleep.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” I swallowed down another yawn.

There was an awkward moment, as neither one of us seemed to know what to do. It wasn’t like I was going to kiss him good night or anything, but there was still an uncomfortable feeling like I should make some demonstration of affection. I think Dad felt it, too, but was just as flummoxed by it as I was.

“Well, good night,” I finally said.

“Good night,” he replied with a formal bow of his head. “Sleep well.”

And I supposed that was about as affectionate as we were going to get.

I couldn’t sleep. I felt exhausted from today’s ordeals, but my mind refused to shut down and let me escape for a few hours. Tonight, the futon felt as hard as I expected a futon to feel, and I tossed and turned restlessly. I had come to Avalon in part to get away from my mom and her drama, but I think in part I’d also hoped that I would find in Dad the parental care and guidance I was missing in Mom. I had wanted someone older and wiser to help me make sense of my life and plan for the future.

You know that old Chinese proverb about being careful what you wish for? Man, did I ever understand it now.

I shoved the tangled covers away from me, sitting up and turning on the light. If I wasn’t going to sleep, then I had to find something else to do, or else I’d be lying there making myself into a nervous wreck until morning. I glanced at the clock and saw it was almost one A.M. Which was prime time in the United States. Maybe I’d get lucky this time and my mom would answer the phone. You know what they say about the third time being the charm.

I held my breath as I dialed, hardly believing how badly I wanted to hear my mother’s voice, even if it was all drunk and sloppy. Even if she screamed and yelled and then burst into tears, which I would usually try to avoid at all costs.

I almost gasped when I heard the click of the call connecting. But the voice that greeted me was not my mother’s.

“Hathaway residence, may I help you?” the woman said, like I was calling a business or something.

My heart gave a nasty thud in my chest. Oh my God! What did it mean that someone other than my mom was answering? Was she hurt? Sick? Dead?

My whole body was one aching knot of tension, and I could barely manage a whisper, my throat was so tight. “Where’s my mom? Is she all right?” Oh, please, please, please let her be all right! I couldn’t bear it if something had happened to her because I’d run away.

“Dana?” the woman asked. I still didn’t recognize her voice.

“Yes.”

“This is Frances, your neighbor?”

I recognized her now. Frances, who made a point of looking down her nose at my mom and made everything she said sound like a question.

“What are you doing answering our phone?” I demanded. “Where’s my mom?”

“Don’t you worry, Dana honey. Your mom’s just fine. You gave her a nasty fright, you know?”

The last thing I was in the mood for right now was being lectured by our nosy, snotty neighbor. I wanted to crawl through the phone and shake her.

“Please tell me where she is,” I begged, and I guess I sounded pathetic enough that Frances decided not to continue the lecture.

“I imagine she’s somewhere over the Atlantic right about now.”

“What?”

“She’s going to Avalon to find you. I’m watering the plants while she’s gone.”

My mind reeled, though not so much that I couldn’t entertain the cynical thought that Frances was in our house to snoop. If Mom was on a plane right now, then she’d only been gone a few hours, and the plants would hardly need watering yet.

“Mom is coming to Avalon,” I repeated, though I knew I’d heard correctly.

“Yes. She’ll be there tomorrow. She’s real worried about you, sweetie.”

Ugh. I didn’t know Frances anywhere near well enough for her to call me “sweetie.” Hell, I didn’t know anyone well enough for that. But if I tried to correct her, I’d just be on the phone with her longer.

“Thanks for taking care of the plants,” I said. “And if my mom checks in with you, please tell her to call me at my dad’s house.”

I hung up before Frances could answer. To hell with social niceties. My mom was coming to Avalon!

I could hardly believe it. First off, I could hardly believe she’d been sober enough to plan a trip like this at the last moment. Second, I could hardly believe she was just planning to show up out of nowhere. Shouldn’t she have called before taking such a drastic action? I hadn’t had any trouble finding Dad’s number, so she shouldn’t have, either.

Of course, if she’d called before yesterday, she wouldn’t have found me here. It made me wonder if my dad had spoken with her and neglected to tell me about it.

I turned off the light and lay down again, though I was no closer to sleep now than I had been before. I stared at the ceiling and wondered how badly I’d underestimated my mom. I’d fully expected her to get depressed and mopey because I’d left. I’d expected her to feel even more sorry for herself than she had before. Never in a million years would I have expected her to come after me.

Maybe a miracle was actually going to happen. Maybe my running away had finally been the splash of cold water in the face that made her realize what a mess she was making of her life. Maybe it would be the push she needed to get help and stop drinking.

I don’t know how long I lay there like that, wishing, hoping, praying, begging the universe to let it be true, but eventually I managed to fall asleep, and I didn’t wake up until after ten in the morning.

Finn looked almost back to normal the next morning when I came down for breakfast only to find my father already gone for the day. Even the shadows of the bruises were gone from his face, and he didn’t move like a man in pain anymore. I was glad the Fae heal so fast. It helped me feel a little less guilty about what had happened to him yesterday.

I did a double-take when I saw the stranger slumped in the love seat next to Finn. I knew on first sight that he was related to Finn somehow, because they both had the same amazing green eyes, but that was where the obvious resemblance ended. Where Finn’s hair was golden-blond, the stranger’s was dyed jet black, and where Finn was built like a Mack truck, the stranger was lean and wiry. He was also a lot younger than Finn, and he did not have Finn’s conservative taste in clothing. A faded black T-shirt clung to his chest, and his legs were poured into tight black jeans. Unlaced black combat boots spilled out from under those jeans, and the short sleeves of the T-shirt showed off the Celtic armband tattooed on his biceps. To top it all off, he had about fifty earrings in his left ear, and his hair swept across his brow, dangling almost in his eye.

I’d never been a big fan of the bad boys I’d met at school. They were always so full of themselves, and they thought acting like jerks made them cool. However, from a distance, they sure were nice to look at. And a Fae bad boy … Totally drool-worthy.

Finn smiled at me as I stood gaping in the doorway. “Your father gave the okay for your self-defense lessons,” he said. “This is Keane.” He gestured toward tall, dark, and surly. “He’ll be your teacher.”

Keane didn’t straighten up from his slouch, and the look he gave me was … unfriendly.

Finn smiled even more broadly, obviously enjoying himself. “If you can overlook the attitude,” he said, “Keane is an excellent teacher.”

Keane stared up at the ceiling like he was praying for strength. Call me crazy, but I had the feeling he wasn’t overly enthusiastic about this gig.