Page 79 of Cathmoir's Sons

Teddy snorts. “You—and they—will probably regret that after the first of Gal’s tantrums, but I ain’t gonna say no.”

I twist so I can look at Law over my shoulder. “You’re offering them Cait House?” I mouth at him.

He winks.

Unhelpful.

I turn back to my friend. “Teddy?—”

“Mmm?” She bounces Nor, who has climbed up into her lap. “Whatever you’re about to say, don’t. We were probably gonna end up back at Bevington sooner rather’n later. Holly King’s pressuring Callan sommat rotten to foster the twins at Ivywhile. I don’t fancy bein’ away from them yet. Dar’s the only one of us who can walk the Fae Ways comfortably every day, so he can commute. We’ve got another nine months of parental leave at Anadl Draig. We’ll figure sommat out by autumn term.”

“Teddy—I can’t ask you to leave yourcountryto bail me out?—”

“Didn’t hear you askin’,” Teddy responds, scooping up Gal, who is whimpering for her share of parental attention. “I told you, you’re not alone, Kells. We couldn’t be there for you like I wanted when you were going through hell but fuck if I’m gonna stand by and let some plonker ruin your career. We always shoulda been a package deal. Now we can be.”

I climb off Law’s lap and cross over to my friend. She unwraps her arm from around Nor and holds it out to me. I sink onto the chaise and sandwich the babies between us as I hug her.

“I can’t thank you enough?—”

“Shurrup,” Teddy says, bumping my forehead with hers. “I shoulda come up with a way for us to be better friends to you while I was preggers. That’s on me. Doing sommat we were prolly going to do anyway? Doesn’t warrant a thank you. Just don’t shed us when you’re off somewhere exotic chasin’ down Trojan treasure. This time, I want in.”

“You’re pregnant,” I object.

“I’m two minutes pregnant. It’ll be months before I show, much less get too big to do fun shite. I’ll pass on the Shark God—” She pauses to snort at Evan’s strangled groan. “But we’re in for the rest.”

Law slides onto the chaise behind me. “Perhaps we should show your friends our new base of operations in Italy?”

Teddy narrows her eyes at me. “New base of operations?”

I canfeelhow red my cheeks are. “We got a villa.”

“A villa,” Teddy repeats. “Yougota villa. Like yougothag pox or sommat?”

“Weeelll.”

Teddy snorts. “Never, ever wanna hear about Princely again.”

I rub at my fiery cheeks.

By the time Rhodes and Luca join us, we’ve moved into the “little” dining room. As opposed to the “big” and “really big” dining rooms. Teddy better not tease me about “my” princes. At least our Italian villa only has one dining room.

The little dining room is still big enough to seat the fifteen of us. One end of the room opens into Faery through a set of French doors, with a patio leading into a meadow of wildflowers, crossed by a small brook. I spot some fluffy sheep at the far endof the meadow, enthusiastically munching wildflowers. Fairly sure those are my sheep. I did say Teddy could borrow some, but I didn’t realize Teddy, or more likely her fae prince, could cross into my realm without me knowing about it. I put that question on my to-do list once tensions aren’t running so high.

And tensions are running high enough to give everyone indigestion, despite Darwin’s excellent fairy cake. Because the Holly King joins us for dinner.

Chapter 22

Fairy Cake and Faery Kings

LAW

Three surrogate grandchildren and a blood grandchild on the way. Surely that will appease my father enough for him to overlook me gnawing off the Holly King’s head.

The fae king gives Caileán yet another long, assessing look from under dark lashes. His hair is blacker than Luca’s human’s today, his eyes greener than the grass in the meadow outside the room’s open doors. I hate it. I can shapeshift, too, of course. My hair is blue today because I’ve noticed Kellan likes it. But I despise him for doing it. It’s fake when he does it. Deceptive.

As soon as the Holly King arrived, Caileán awakened. One moment my mate was warm and soft in my arms as we fed one of Princess Teddy’s rather adorable children. The next moment her spine was steel and her claws so long I had to pluck the spoon out of her hand before she scratched the toddler’s cheek. Her pretty gray dress gained a metallic blue sheen; fabric and buttons unfurled up her throat. I’m sorry to lose my view of her tempting breasts, but not sorry the Holly King lacks that view. From bantering with her friends, Caileán went nearly silent. I sense she’s watching. Listening. Weighing each word.

The Holly King’s the only one around the dinner table unaware of the change in my mate. Teddy exchanged glances with her husbands and the pink-haired Darkswerd before steering the conversation to sports. Luca stopped questioning the Thistle prince about ley lines. The intense conversation Evan Lords was having with Luca’s human petered out and the Capricorn fell silent.

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