The Fox’s Tale

As we walked back upstairs Ellery and Esmeralda both yawned. Lucas shot me a smug smile. “Esma, dearest, why don’t you and Ellery go share the bed? There are a few things I would like to discuss with Xander and Quinn in private.”

“Oh, but Lucas, I’m not the least bit tired,” she protested as another yawn escaped her. She winced as she walked and ran her hand over her hips.

“Of course you aren’t, but our granddaughter is.” He leaned in and whispered “she has grown used to the presence of another as she sleeps. Keep her company. We won’t be long.”

She sighed and yawned once more. “Very well.”

She leaned against Ellery and the two of them disappeared into our bedroom. Lucas held up a hand to keep us quiet and after about two minutes had passed we heard Ellery’s bumblebee snore and then the deep breathing of two beings in blissful slumber. I looked at Lucas in amazement.

His face was serious. “Sit. We have work to do, and much to discuss.”

I sat, eyeing him with trepidation. “I’ll say we do. How did you pull that off?”

He shrugged. “It was simply the power of suggestion.”

“Bullshit.” I saw Quinn trying to hide a smile. “Tell me the truth.”

“My blood flows in their veins. Ellery is my granddaughter and Esma is my Chosen. The Fae only mark with their hands now, but for eons they also marked their Others with their teeth, and that is the only way an Incorruptible can be marked.

"Consequently, the only way that Esma would have fallen asleep in this manner is if she bit me, and I know now that she spoke the truth, and Rowan was truly mine.”

“Wait a minute…I bit you.”

He smirked back at me. “And I have bitten you, twice. That is why you are still awake, because I wish you to be.”

“You can do that?” I asked; flabbergasted.

“I can do any number of things.” To emphasize that point, stacks of books and papers appeared in the living room with gentle thuds.

I glanced around, bewildered at the amount of stuff that had just appeared. Bad enough when the house did that, now I had to worry about Lucas pulling shit out of thin air too.

“What the hell is all of this?”

Lucas picked the book closest to him up. “They belonged to my father. The answer to who is behind this can be found here, I am certain of it.” He looked between me and Quinn. “Don’t just sit there, start looking.”

“How can we look for something when we don’t know what it is?” asked Quinn as he gamely picked up the book closest to him.

“You and Alexander are two of the cleverest individuals I have ever known. I’m not saying it will be spelled out in black and white for us, Father was too devious by far to have put anything explicit in writing, but something in one of these books will trigger a series of thoughts or questions that will enable us to figure this out. I will not have my family hunted for any longer than they already have been.”

We worked in silence for about ten minutes while I built up the courage to ask the question that was rattling around in my brain.

“Say, Lucas, did you really doubt Esmeralda on the issue of Rowan’s parentage? Because she was pretty emotional and straightforward when she told you.”

“It wasn’t doubt, per se. To be precise, it was about establishing trust. I love Esma, but we’ve had nearly two centuries of silence between us which has made it difficult to build anything healthy. You’ve no idea the depths of pain I endured when Esma became pregnant.

"How it felt watching her grow heavy with child, all the while believing that child belonged to another. Then, to learn she was mine when she has been dead for close to twenty years?” He ground his lips together and then went on in a voice that was low and angry.

“Had Esma confided in me when Rowan was born, had she come to me directly when my father threatened her, I would have disposed of him then. Perhaps we would all have been spared a great deal of heartache and misery. Perhaps Rowan would still be with us and I could-”

He broke off, his jaw clenched tight. He flipped through the ledger in his lap too fast to be actually looking at anything. He slammed it shut and stood up.

“Excuse me. I need a moment.” He stalked into the kitchen.

“Should one of us go after him?” I asked Quinn.

“Nah, when he gets like this he needs some space.” Quinn scrunched his face in a sympathetic wince. “Poor Luc. It’s gotta cut deep, to hear he had a child. Lucas practically raised all of his siblings, because his father sure as hell didn’t. Hell, he even helped raise me when my parents were at a loss over what to do with me. But don’t worry; he won’t do anything drastic because it would wake up Ellery and Esmeralda.”

I sat up straighter, alarmed by that expression. “Define drastic.”

“Well… in my lifetime he’s only been this upset twice, and I only saw the second time, since the first was when Rowan was born and I was two. I only know about that because our brother Asher told me so I’d be prepared, but I don’t think even Asher knew why he did it. The second time was when he found out Rowan had been murdered, and everyone who knew her even just a little bit felt like doing it.”

“Doing what?” Quinn’s attention was diverted by what he had been reading. “Quinn. Quinn! What did Lucas do when he found out Rowan had been murdered?”

“Huh? Oh. He set himself on fire.”

“He fucking did what?” I yelped. My ears picked up the distinctive sound of our gas cooktop hissing to life and I bolted into the kitchen. “Don’t do it, Lucas!”

He was standing by the range, lost in thought, waiting for a kettle to boil. He looked up, alarmed, when I burst in. “Don’t do what? Make myself some tea?”

I gasped in a few breaths as relief flooded my system. “I thought. Quinn said.” I pointed at the flames licking the bottom of the kettle. “Fire.”

Lucas made a noise of annoyance in the back of his throat. “Quinn says things he shouldn’t. I admit that in the past I did not handle my emotional pain in the healthiest of ways, but despite my inner turmoil over Esmeralda’s deception regarding our child, I have everything I’ve ever wanted within my grasp. I will not incapacitate myself in my grief. I have too much to protect.”

The kettle began to whistle and Lucas snapped the burner off, before pouring the water into the teapot on the counter.

“Why didn’t you just ask the house for a cup of tea?” I asked as we walked back into the living room.

“A Seelie house will not brew Incorruptible tea. It was an act of kindness that it delivered the tea bag.” Lucas slowed to a stop and his shoulders sagged in defeat. I followed his line of sight and saw that Quinn had fallen asleep with the book on his face.

“Looks like it’s just the two of us then.”