“Codicil,” Elias corrects. “And yes.”
“And Coda says …”
Elias grimaces almost imperceptibly at that.
Kitty takes a deep breath, as if she hasn’t been breathing properly through all the words she’s trying to force out. “Coda says all awry protect each other. That it’s this big web or weaving or … something … like all our power tied together.”
“And I’m old enough to sign the bond group papers,” Tommy says quietly. “I don’t need Mom’s signature. I doubt she’d give it anyway. Not, like, without a big cash payout or something.”
“That’s not true,” Kitty says loudly, her bottom lip suddenly quivering.
Tommy swallows and lowers his eyes. “Lord Hereford says no one is going to dispute a claim from the royal household anyway,” he mumbles. “It will be … public record … by next week.”
That probably shouldn’t be true — no one disputing a claim from a member of the royal household — but Elias isn’t wrong.
I set my hand on top of my knee, palm up. Kitty is already holding my other hand. Tommy looks at my hand for a long while, then he slowly slips his own into my light hold.
“We’re going to figure out what is going on with your mom as best we can,” I say to the eleven-year-old.
“But … I’m yours, right?” he mumbles. “Christoph … Lord Williams … said … he said that I’m powerful because you’re powerful. Lord Hereford says that … we have a … metaphysical connection.”
“Yes,” I say gently. “I think you belong with us. But that doesn’t have to preclude your other family, okay?”
Tommy shrugs, but I can still feel that mixture of sadness and despair simmering within him, especially when he flicks his gaze back to his sister.
Only Kitty was supposed to have been taken last night. That had been the little awry’s own admission, her own observation. Tommy wasn’t the intended target.
“And … Kitty is awry,” Tommy says, as if building on whatever argument he’s got going on in his own head. “She sees stuff, even if the purple in her eyes comes and goes. So she needs to go to a proper school, where she’s … you know … taught all the stuff she needs to be taught.”
“Yes, Kitty is awry.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
Tommy shrugs belligerently. “I’ll go to that snobby school and wear a stupid uniform and learn and stuff. Just to look after Kitty. Everyone always thinks she’s weird, and I got to watch out for her.”
“Hey!” his sister shouts.
Tommy ignores her. “And in between semesters, we’ll all live in your castle … or wherever you are …” He meets my gaze. “You, Mirth.”
“And Mom?” Kitty asks tentatively. “When Mom comes back?”
Tommy squares his shoulders. Then he says definitively, “Mom, too. Right, Mirth?”
Despite the uncertainty leading up to this moment, my heart is so full of joy that I think it might burst. “Yes. I’ll make sure you have everyone you love, everyone who loves you, all together. As much as possible.”
Tommy darts a grateful look my way, still trying to protect Kitty. Even from their own mother.
I honestly hope that Kitty’s belief in Gail Walsh, rather than Tommy’s doubt, is closer to the truth.
“I hate to break it to you, kid,” Sully drawls. “But your sister isn’t going to be ostracized for her weirdness where you’re going.”
“Hey!” Kitty exclaims, whirling around to glare at Sully.
He just shakes his head at her. “The richer assholes are, the more they want to know when they might die. You know, for estate planning.”
“That’s a lesson for later, perhaps,” Elias snaps, still crouched before me.
