Page 84 of Samhain

“Bleeding Christ,” he said. “I thought you’d gone home.”

Ivy didn’t answer him. She just held the key up by her index finger. “Is our room still available?”

He looked from her to me and then to Poppy in my arms.

“Who’s that?” He nodded at the girl.

“My niece,” I answered, my voice sounding strange and foreign even to myself. Perhaps that was the shock, too.

“I don’t remember you having a child before.” Bill furrowed his brows, staring at her.

“Well, we have a child now,” Ivy snapped, her tone more forceful. It brought his attention back to her. “Do you have a room for us or not?”

He paused, the urge to debate flickering behind his gaze. He had questions about the girl, and based on the conversation we’d had with him a few days ago, he must have suspected what she was. But he didn’t say anything. He just nodded and gestured to the stairs.

“I was going to give you another two days. If you didn’t come back, I planned to send your stuff to the address on your check-in form.”

Ivy gave him one of her infamous death stares before forging ahead, but when I passed Bill, he put an arm on my bicep to stop me.

“If that’s a fairy child, you’d do well to put it back where you found it before they come for you.” There was no mistaking the terror in his eyes, the sheer unwillingness to be a part of whatever fairy scheme we’d hatched and survived.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Come on, Bill. Does she look like a fairy child?”

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing at the movement. “I don’t rightly know what she looks like. But not a person around here will go against the fairies. I’m not looking for trouble, if you take my meaning.”

Yeah, loud and clear. If anyone came looking for her, he’d turn us over in a heartbeat. I clapped him on the shoulder with my free hand. “Thanks for the hospitality, my dude.”

I followed my wife up the stairs to our room, finding Lex laying Miri out on the far bed once I got inside. I placed Poppy’s sleeping form on the couch and covered her with a blanket, deciding to let her rest before I woke her for a bath. She was as muddy and bloody as the rest of us. Maybe I’d get a little food in her, too. I didn’t like how thin she was. I could feel each of her bones through that flimsy thing the fairies called a dress.

“Carter,” Ivy said, drawing my attention up to them.

Now that we were mostly safe, a hot jab of rage twisted through my gut. They’d wanted to leave her. They’d wanted to leave a child alone to face that monster by herself. I didn’t know they could be so cruel.

“We need to make a game plan,” Ivy said.

“Game plan?” I asked, venom lacing my tone. “Since when do you care?”

“C’mon,” she pleaded, softening her stern eyes. “I didn’t say we should leave her. Just that we needed to think it through.”

“Technically, I said we should leave her,” Lex whispered, yanking his shirt over his head. “I stand by that.”

“You’re a heartless prick,” I said.

“You’re goddamned right,” he snarled. “What if you put her in more danger by bringing her here, huh? She’s human, but the fairies live differently than we do. Is she going to be able to adapt? Is she even safe on this side of the realm? You don’t know.”

“The queen wouldn’t have given her to me if she didn’t think I’d protect her.” I crossed my arms, infuriated that he’d leave a child defenseless.

“You were the closest body.” Lex rolled his eyes. “The queen would have given her to anyone with a pulse.”

That set me off. I didn’t know why I felt so protective over Poppy, maybe because she reminded me of Lizzie, but I wouldn’t stand for Lex talking about her like that. I launched myself at him, shoulder to his gut, taking him down on the mattress behind him. He growled and elbowed me in the chin, but I punched him in the solar plexus and made him buckle to the side.

“Hey,” Ivy hissed, coming to stand at our side. “Knock that shit off right now. We’ve got more important things to do.”

I shoved Lex’s shoulder but rolled off him, sitting up at his side.

“It doesn’t matter if we should have brought her or not. She’s here now.” Ivy stood in front of us with her hands on her hips, staring down her nose like a disapproving schoolmarm. She took a deep breath, calming her fury before she spoke again. “We’ve been gone twelve days. I’ve got ten voicemails from my academic adviser and fourteen from my mother. Now, we have a child to take care of. What do we do next?”

Neither of us said anything. My chin ached from Lex hitting me, and my pride throbbed from Ivy putting me in my place. I had no good ideas that didn’t involve raging at everyone and everything.

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