Page 3 of Evidence of a Folktale

“All right, that’s all the gifts,” Flynn said, oblivious to Bel’s misery. In his defense, their sons were finally old enough to understand Christmas, and his head was in the clouds as he prepared for that morning’s magic. “You ready for bed?” He extended a hand to his wife.

“I should be,” Briar said. “It’s after midnight, but I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see the boys’ faces.”

“Well, this Santa is tired,” Flynn said. “Night, Bel.”

“Night guys.” Bel watched her sister climb the stairs with jealous tears in her eyes. Eamon should be here to carry her to bed. This wasn’t how their first Christmas as a couple was supposed to play out.

Her vibrating phone interrupted her self-pity, and her heart stumbled at the name on the notification.

Eamon

Merry Christmas.

Two words. A single phrase. That’s all he wrote, but after days of nothing, she knew. He’d kept his promise. He hadn’t left her, not yet at least, and she burst into tears as she typed a response...

And then deleted it. A text was too small to contain the scope of her emotions, so she shoved her phone into her pocket and climbed the stairs to knock on Briar’s bedroom door.

“Bel?” Flynn pinched his eyebrows in question as he answered the door. “Are you okay?”

“Yes… sorry.”Back inher father’s house, habit made Bel forget that she couldn’tjustbarge into her sisters’ rooms anymore. “I can talk to Briar tomorrow.”

“Actually,I forgot to eat the cookies the kids left for Santa,” Flynn said. “They’ll be bummed if they wake up to whole cookies. I should go take a few bites.” He smiled graciously at his sister-in-law and left the room to give the siblings privacy.

“I feel bad for kicking him out,” Bel said.

“Don’t be.” Briar patted the mattress beside her. “With two young boys, we’re always too tired to stay up late, but with family here to help, he can afford to stay up for a beer to watch a show that isn’t animated. He’ll have a blast.”

“Okay.” Bel climbed onto the mattress and collapsed onto her stomach like she used to when she was little.

“I can’t remember the last time you crawled into my bed.” Briar rubbed her back before pulling the blankets over them. “You okay?”

“No,” Bel said. She’d been young when their mother had passed, and Briar had stepped into the maternal role for her. She hadn’t needed mothering in recent years, but she was suddenly twelve again andin need ofher big sister.

“Is it Eamon?”

“Yes.”

“He isn’t working, is he?”

“No.”

“What happened? Did you two break up?”

“No,” Bel said. “I don’t think so. Ihope not. We were fighting… well, having a conversation I didn’t like, and Dad interrupted at the wrong moment. He heard somethingthat’strue, but hedoesn’tunderstand the context, so he kicked Eamon out of the hospital. We haven’t talked since, and I’m afraid it ruined us.”

“Conversations, no matter how difficult, don’t end healthy relationships,” Briar said. “I saw you two at Thanksgiving. You seem to have a strong connection, so I doubt one fight will ruin things. Can I ask what the conversation was about?”

“Eamon blames himself for my problems this past year, and he stupidly believes I’ll be safer if he leaves.”

“Oh…” Briar blinked as she realized she might’ve put her foot in her mouth. “Why does he assume that?”

“Abel kidnapped me because he was jealous of my attraction to Eamon,” Bel said, omitting the story of her scars. She already had one family member ready to murder her boyfriend. She didn’t need another. She also didn’t care to explain to her sister that Eamon’s immortality demanded he consume human blood.

“Then he dragged me into the Darling kidnappings only for me to almost get blown up,” she continued.

“Blown up!” Briar shouted before clapping a hand over her mouth to keep from waking her sons in the next room. “Blown up?” she whispered. “Oh my god, Bel.”

“Right…” Bel’s cheeks turned pink. She’d forgotten who she was speaking to for a moment. She usually hid the fatal stories from her motherly older sister. “I guess I should call more.”

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