Escaping Death

Magnolia

“Yoo hoo, housekeeping!” Xander shouts from behind the door, knocking loudly in an obnoxious and erratic pattern.

Ro drops his face to my stomach, groaning with irritation, and pulls me up so I’m sitting rather than laying on his office desk beneath him.

I’m fixing my shirt when Xander opens the door with playful hesitancy, justifiably worried to be interrupting something.

When he finally enters the room Ro and Varian roll their eyes at his childish antics. “Seriously, Xander? Still? It’s been over a month!”

“I could ask you the same question! Fucking like rabbits everywhere you please. Forgive me for thinking this was an office.” He argues with no heat. I swear the three of them are like overgrown pups always horsing around. I almost preferred when they were at each other’s throats.

“Can you blame us?” Varian licks his lips before biting down on his lush, bottom lip, scanning my body with unambiguous thirst.

“Not at all,” Xander tosses me a wink, “but my wife didn’t find the situation as funny as I did. Somehow it was my fault I found you in the throes of passion in the middle of a work day in my office.”

“Our office,” Runidar corrects Xander as he walks through the door to join us. “You’re not the only one plagued by their incessant mating.”

“She’s not mad at you for finding us, she’s mad she wasn’t there to joi—“ Varian begins to retort but I swiftly elbow him in the ribs to shut him up.

“Sorry, did you need something or did you just come here to irritate me?” I tease Xander and Runidar.

The four of them share a discernible look of understanding. Whatever it is that needs discussing, I’m painfully aware that I’m the last to know.

“It’s about Sol. I think it’s time you brought her home.” Xander says, any previous playfulness has evaporated from his features.

“Has it gotten that bad?” Varian asks in surprise.

“Spikes happen from time to time, especially this time of year, but this is different. The chatter is increasing daily.” Xander continues.

I walk over to Runidar and snatch the folder he’s holding from his hands. “Explain. Now,” I command and begin browsing the documents.

“You know I have connections in the Underdark, I like to keep tabs on any unsavory chatter — bounties, death threats, etc.” Xander begins. “Mags, there’s been a bounty put on Sol.”

I pin him with an unimpressed look, “if I locked down every time one of us had a bounty on us I’d never leave the Grove.”

“Fair, but this newest one was posted with a ten million dollar reward. It’s generated a lot of attention. Forgive me for saying this, but I’m not sure that your reputations are enough anymore to keep people in line.”

“How do you figure?” Between Ro, Varian, and me we’ve made enough of a name for ourselves that most threats are empty or quelled by people too afraid of our wrath — especially after what happened nearly a century ago in Drow Hollow.

“Because now the reward is worth the risk.” Ro supplies, cupping his chin between his thumb and index finger.

“Well, be that as it may, good luck getting her here.” I laugh to myself. They’ll have to bring her here kicking and screaming — that is, if they can find her first.

I’ve trained Sol well. She loves to hunt, and she loves to hide. As a hybrid, she’s better suited to it than any of us. Which is probably why we’ve never paid any threats against our family, especially her, much mind.

My musing ends when I realize the guys are all suspiciously quiet and when I turn to face them they’re all looking at me with guilty expressions.

“Princess,” Ro’s nickname for me rumbles from deep within his chest. I know that sound, he saves it for when he wants me to do something that he knows I’m not going to want to do. “You’re the only one she’ll listen to. It’s up to you to bring her home.”

“Getting her here is the easy part, but what is your plan to keep her here?” I challenge them because bringing her here with a half-baked plan will backfire immediately and I’ll only be able to get her here once.

“I’ve got a friend of a friend who knows a guy who might be able to help with a solution,” Xander says sheepishly.

“Wow, that’s quite the endorsement.” I lash out at him with sarcasm. “I better get going. Give me 48 hours.”

“You think you’ll be able to find her in just two days?” Runidar scoffs with skepticism.

I blow smoke out of my nose, “I already know where she is. The two days are for you four to figure your shit out before I bring her back here.”

***

I perch myself on the porch railing and wait, it’s only half past midnight so she should be sneaking back over any minute now.

The night has always been so peaceful here, I’ve missed Shadowmoon from time to time over the years. There are a lot of great memories here even from the brief time I spent here in its heyday.

Solana has always been drawn back here ever since her dads first brought her here a few decades ago. Despite the passage of time, we’ve never been able to settle on what to do with the property.

Renovate, sell, repurpose, all of these have been ideas that we’ve considered and shot down quickly. So here it has sat, vacant and hidden. Its only occupant now is my little sunflower, Sol.

Her wings disturbing the air around me is the first indication that she’s landed. The second is the knife that comes spiraling towards my head. If I wasn’t her mother, and if I didn’t have the speed I do, that knife would have hit its mark through my skull.

I uncloak myself from the shadows and greet my daughter, “your aim needs work.”

“Your stealth needs work. I could see you rippling from the edge of the driveway.” Sol walks over to me, drops her knives, and throws her arms around my neck. “Hey, Mom.”

“Hey, Sunflower. Working late again?” I hug her back, I don’t get to see her as often as I’d like anymore but I’m trying to give her the latitude she needs to live her own life on her own terms. Something that I’ve never been able to do as the heir to the Grove and especially not now as Queen.

“The city never sleeps. You’d know that if you ever left the Grove for any meaningful length of time.”

“Brat.” I chuckle and let her go.

“You going to keep me in suspense or are you going to tell me to what I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

“Your fathers sent me,” I say slowly, waiting for her to catch on and run but she waits for me to finish. “You know there’s a new bounty on you?”

Sol takes a seat on one of the porch swings she fixed up but I remain where I am leaning up against the railing with my feet crossed at the ankles and my arms crossed over my chest.

“I’m aware.” She sighs heavily. “Mom, it’s not the first bounty that’s been out on me and it won’t be the last. I’m friends with most of the hunters on the east coast, no one has ever tried to collect.”

“What about Nightshade? Has anyone submitted your name?”

“No, my name has never appeared on Nightshade’s list. Why?”

I shrug, “just trying to figure out if this is a personal vendetta or something else. It’s the largest bounty we’ve seen yet, but if they’re not going through Nightshade then either it’s not personal…or —“

“Mom please, I’m always careful. This will blow over.”

“Maybe. But until it does your fathers want you home.”

I can hear the air leave her lungs and anxiety begin to build in her chest. “You know I can’t do that,” she whispers.

She’s right, I do know that. My girl is the strongest one of my children— not that I’d ever admit that out loud to them— but she’s developed a hardness to her ever since Hunter left.

“You can stay in my suite if you want, or you can stay in yours. No one goes in there but me.”

Her pained eyes plead with me not to ask this of her.

“Besides,” I continue, “it’s your siblings’ centennial birthday soon. It would be nice if you showed up…if only just for them.”

“Mom,” she breathes a final plea, “please. I’ll lay low, I’ll stay here and just work on the pack house some more. I can’t go home.”

I nod somberly. I wish I knew exactly what happened four years ago to make her so painfully averse to coming home. She and I have always been close, but this is the one truth she’s ever kept from me.

“Griffin misses you. He won’t admit it, but Ember tells me that he asks Xander about you often. You want to stay with him?” I say, going for the jugular.

“How long?” She grits out through clenched teeth.

I grin to myself, careful not to let her see the victory written on my face.

I’ve got her now.

“Two days, three tops.”

She releases a long, exaggerated groan, dragging her hands down her face like she’s bracing herself for torture.

“Is this a full lockdown or can I come and go?” She says, giving me a brief, glorious glimpse of the teenager-esque attitude typical of her age. When Hunter left, my carefree, playful “teenager” left with him. Sol didn’t smile as much, didn’t laugh as much, my sweet sunflower wilted a little more everyday until, like fallen petals in the wind, she was gone.

“I think your fathers would prefer it if you stayed within the grove.”

“Can I atleast go to Caligo?” She asks.

I have to be careful here because if I give Sol an inch she’ll take a mile. “Let’s just go home and take it one hour at a time, hmm?”

Her shoulders slump forward in defeat and she hangs her head. “Can I stay with Aunt Kat?”

I push off the railing and sit next to her, pulling her up from her hunched over position so she’s in my arms with her head on my chest.

“Whatever you want, Sunflower.” I kiss the top of her head and sit with her in silence for a while, relishing the feeling of having my baby in my arms again.

“Okay,” she says softly after some time has passed. “Let’s get this over with.”

With that, she and I take off together for the Grove.