Page 96 of A Fae in Finance
I looked back at Sahir, but he only waved me away. So I followed Everly into a cozy combination living-dining room.
There was what could only be described as a chesterfield sofa on one wall, framed by two tall, rickety bookcases and catty-corner with a simple wood bench. On the near side of the wooden bench was another table, nicer than the one in the kitchen, laid with a lace runner I was almost positive my grandma also owned.
The two short sides of the table had one large chair each, and the other long side had two smaller chairs. Everly, practically bouncing, started to divest herself of forks.
I followed her, laying plates down—three along the bench. “And Uncle Sahir will sit with me,” Everly said. “And Pap will sit with me, and Grumps will sit with you, and Grumpy will sit with you.”
“Grumps and Grumpy?” I repeated, convinced I had misheard her.
“My parents,” Sahir said, appearing next to me with two stacks of glasses. “My dad, Grumps, and my mom, Grumpy.”
“Is that…” I trailed off, glancing down at Everly. She’d turned to look at her uncle as soon as he walked in, mouth agape.
“Are the descriptions accurate?” he filled in for me. “You will have to decide for yourself.” With a wink, he tossed the glasses in the air—I gasped—they hovered, unstacking themselves, then floated to sit at the right hand of each plate.
“Show-off,” I muttered. But Everly squealed in delight.
“Again!” she crowed.
“Everly, where will Mamsie sit?” he asked her, having apparently heard her entire speech.
She shrugged. “Mamsie sits at the top,” she said, pointing to the head of the table. “Mamsie is in charge.”
It was hard not to smile at that.
“Very true,” Rijska said, entering with a large tray. “Sahir, will you get Grumps and Grumpy?” They grinned at each other.
Sahir saluted his sister and went up a narrow spiral staircase I had not noticed, in the shadowy corner of the room.
“Mom! Dad!” he shouted as he went, which made me smile again, imagining him as a kid. I wondered what childhood was like in Faerie, and what Aram had meant when he’d said Sahir wasn’t old enough to remember the last time humans had been in Faerie. There were at least three humans in Faerie right now.
I suppressed a shudder, remembering Chad and Milo.
Everly grabbed my hand and put me in one of the chairs on the long side of the table, against the wall; then she went around to the other side and slid to the middle of the bench.
Aram—I hadn’t noticed him come in—laid several dishes of food out and then joined his daughter, yanking on one of her pigtails as he sat.
She giggled. Everly appeared to be a generally delighted and delightful child. If I ever had a daughter, I wanted one just like her.
Except I would never have a daughter now. I stared, aching, at the staircase in the corner.
Sahir’s boots were visible first, followed by two bare pairs of feet. The three of them spilled out into the room almost simultaneously and jerked to a preternatural halt as one.
“Grumps,” he said, gesturing at the man, “and Grumpy”—with an affectionate clap on the woman’s shoulder.
I stood up, unsure what to do, and knocked the chair over. “Oh, no—” I said, but Sahir had already righted it with a tendril of brown magic.
“This is my lady,” he said. “In Court we call her Lady of the True Dreams, or Lady of the Cats.”
“Nope, not the cat one,” I said. “But really, Miriam is fine.”
“We are not so determined to hide our names here,” Grumpy said, giving Sahir a look. She had the same sharp brown eyes as her son, the same way of standing so she took up more space than her body. “Nor will we use yours ill, Miriam.”
Since I doubted Sahir’s parents had been auspiciously named Grumps and Grumpy and then found each other and started a family, this felt a bit ironic.
“Dinner looks delicious, Rijska,” Grumps said, smiling at his daughter. His children got their riots of silky black curls and the broad strong angles of their faces from him. “Let us sit and eat, and we can discuss your query, Sahir.”
Query?
