Page 52 of Cathmoir's Sons

I groan. “He’s a student.”

“Ooo, naughty, Professor Wyndham, naughty,” she croons.

I really am going to smack her. “Benighted Mother, do not start.”

Rachel giggles, a chime like struck crystal. “Of all people, I am not going to judge you.”

“Good, because there’s nothing to judge.” Because I’ve broken it off with them. A trickle of my anger comes back, prickling around the edges of my hangover. “He and his brother had their laugh at my expense,” I say, although I’m not sure I believe that anymore. It was an unbearable thought, that the three of them had conspired to ruin my career. That cut almostas deeply as Law pretending to be my pet. “I’ve learned my lesson.Again. End of story.”

Please, let it be the end of the story. As I look around this huge hall, filled with some of the brightest magickal minds on the continent, I contemplate how they’d look at me if they knew I’d been sleeping with two students.

They wouldn’t be as non-judgmental as Rachel, that’s for sure.

Rachel hums and I can tell she’s not going to be satisfied with that answer, but I’m spared an interrogation by Teddy’s arrival.

She’s announced by caterwauling. Great Mother, Gal has a set of lungs on her. I see Charlie and the kids caught up with them as Teddy plows down the aisle of seats from the other direction. Teddy’s got baby Carrie swaddled against her chest. Charlie’s carrying Carrie’s wailing older sister. Gabe’s got Honour and Darwin’s bringing up the rear. He’s wearing full fae robes in deep green and silver and fits right in with the fae following him: his father, the Holly King, and two of Rachel’s fellow Darkswerds.

Teddy’s expression is grim. I know she hates being the center of attention, but honestly, between the babies and the fae retinue, she doesn’t have a chance of going unnoticed.

She sits down next to me and reaches for Gal. As soon as Gal’s in her mother’s arms, the wailing stops. She rests her head on her mother’s chest and I expect her to close her eyes. Instead, she looks at her sister and starts whispering.

My necklace warms.

“Gal-me-girl,” Teddy says over her daughter’s whisper. “Baby’s sleepin’. She can’t hear you.”

Gal lifts her curly black head to glare at her mother. Dang, I would not want to be on the receiving end of that glare.

“Mummy,” Gal says in a tone that suggests she’d be planting her tiny fists on her hips if she was standing. “Teach Car-Car. Shh.”

I can’t help but giggle at the consternation on Teddy’s face. Rachel joins me.

“You’re so screwed, mummy,” I tell Teddy.

She sighs. “Don’t breed. Learn from my mistakes.”

Evan slides into the seat next to Rachel and puts a hand on Rachel’s belly, which isn’t showing any bulge yet. “Too late,” he says merrily.

Rachel lights up like Times Square, rainbows bursting from every crystal. I squint behind my sunglasses and, when that doesn’t help with the daggers sinking into my eyes, cover my sunglasses with a hand.

“Lightshow, Rach,” I grumble.

“Sorry,” she says. “It’ll fade in a minute.”

It doesn’t. It takes forever to fade, during which Gal starts whispering to her sister again. It’s hard to hear her over the crowd, plus Teddy picks that moment to start bantering with Gabe, but I catch some words that a toddler shouldn’t know.

Great key. Infernal plane. Ash Flower’s Throne.

“Uh, Teddy, we may need to have a word about Gal,” I murmur.

Teddy breaks off flirting with her husband and whips her head around to peer at me. “What now? She smear sommat on you? Gal-bee, I’ve told you banana’s not a present everyone wants?—”

Her assumption of the tiny terror’s guilt tickles me, since it’s usually warranted. “No, she didn’t. Do you know what language she’s speaking?”

“Um, is it a language?”

“Definitely. Necklace is translating it.”

Teddy glances down at the babies in her lap, then at my neck. “Sure it’s workin’?”

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