Page 112 of Ulune's Daughter

Icrack my knuckles, spoiling for the coming fight.

Luca’s parents glance up from their breakfasts, trade lifted eyebrows, and go back to their steaming piles of ... I’m not sure what they’re eating. I swear the lumps on Luca’s dad’s plate look like mice in some kind of cream sauce. He’s been piling them on toast and chewing enthusiastically.

Luca’s younger sister—I can’t really say little anymore because she’s as tall as Kellan even though I think she’s only thirteen—stretches in her chair and crunches down a piece of bacon. “Are you going to hit my brother?” she asks.

I flatten my hands on the table. “Of course not.”

I definitely am.

“I thought your foursome was all wine, roses, and scissoring,” Luca’s sister says.

Scissoring?

“Aine,” Luca’s mom says repressively. “Isn’t it time for school?”

“No way am I missing out on this fight,” Aine retorts. “I’ll take the detention.”

“Aine, school,” Luca’s dad growls.

She throws the stub of bacon onto her plate and pushes back her chair. “Kellsies will tell me what happens,” she says as she stomps out of the breakfast room. “She’s gonna be my bestie.”

Luca meets my eyes across the table and sniggers. “Our mate aside, Law’s going to tear his fangs out just dealing with Aine.”

I’mgoing to tear Law’s fangs out. After I’ve found out if he’s outed me. I don’t see how he could have avoided it. Luca shot upright next to me around two in the morning. “He’s taken her to Cait House,” he whispered into the darkness. “What the fuck is he thinking?”

We got back to sleep eventually but Luca dragged me through the Fae Ways—much less gently than Kellan—first thing this morning. His parents were already sitting at breakfast. Having visited Cait House several times, I know that meals are leisurely events and breakfast can stretch to noon. We joined them but I haven’t been able to eat a thing as we wait for Kellan and Law to emerge.

Luca’s appetite is totally unaffected. Probably because he’s the only one of us who hasn’t been lying to Kellan for months. While he eats, he chats with his mother about the preparations for the Hallows. The Cait have different traditions than human magi, which makes sense since they’re wild fae and only about half of the Cait also wield the Mother’s gift of Elemental magic. But they celebrate All Hallow’s Eve similarly, with bonfires and memorials to the dead. Their big commemoration of life is around Yule, with something they call the All-fire. That’s held in Faery and I haven’t attended it, but Luca’s made it sound important. He and Law never miss it.

Luca’s mom keeps glancing at the door into the breakfast room from the hallway where the family’s bedrooms are. Although the twins get their looks from their dad, she shares their high, slanting cheekbones and tapered chin. It’s a look all the Cait have. Feline and angular. On Luca, it makes me want to nibble his jaw. On Luca’s mom, it gives her an ageless quality. I know Luca’s dad is older, over a hundred, but I have no idea how old Luca’s mother is.

She’s wearing anticipation on that fine-boned face this morning. Luca’s dad is placid. I’ve rarely seen him anything but calm, almost sleepy. Once, our freshman year, something attacked Cait House. He knew it was coming for weeks before it did and I saw him prowling around Cait House, his hair bristling, claws extended. Power rippled around him like fur. That’s the only time I’ve seen what Luca calls “his true face;” he never shows it otherwise.

Law fought in whatever battle followed; he came back covered in claw wounds that Luca licked closed. But his father made Luca stay at Bevington. Law and Luca aren’t supposed to fight together, not until Law’s had a son or two.

Allie’s face relaxes, then tenses, when the door opens and Law strolls into the room.

“Darling, where’s your mate?” she asks.

“Sleeping,” he answers. “She’s exhausted.”

Law’s barefoot and shirtless, wearing dark sweatpants slung low on his hips. His hair, midnight-blue today, is damp, roughly combed back from his face. He’s shaved but missed several spots along his jaw, which is more prominent than usual. In the family rooms, away from the public spaces of Cait House, Luca’s family is informal. His parents are wearing soft pajamas and the black fur robes I see them in often. Even so, Law’s looking unusually rumpled. Kellan’s not the only one who’s had a rough couple of weeks.

Luca’s mother tips her cheek up for his kiss, sighs, then rubs her hands together. “Well, better to meet her when she’s rested. I don’t want to mar her first impression of us. Is there anything she needs?”

Law shakes his head. “When she wakes, I’ll bathe and feed her. I’d like to show her the library today. I might also spend some time as her cat, so don’t be surprised if you see her carrying me around. It gives her comfort.”

“Not if you’ve told her the truth,” I say through gritted teeth. “Have you?”

“Good morning, human,” Law says, seating himself in Aine’s vacant chair, at his father’s right hand. “I’ve told her many truths. But none that concern you.”

I work my right knuckles in my left palm. “I need to see her.”

“I’m not stopping you. She plans to call you today in any event.”

“To say what?”

“If I could read her mind, human, this all would have gone much more smoothly.”

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