“Well, he’s been in there for a long time. You think you need to go check on him and make sure everything is okay?”
I heaved a heavy sigh and reminded her, yet again.
“He said he didn’t want to be disturbed. He has Ameria in there with him, and I’m sure he’s doing some kind of proof of life conference call. I don’t want to bother him. He’ll come out when he’s ready.”
“But, maybe—”
I cut her off. “No, Mother. Why don’t you go ask Father if dinner is ready? I know Finn will be starved when he’s done. And ask him if the other things are ready too.”
This brought a smile to her face, and she rushed out of the room to go check on the preparations. Just as the door closed behind her, the opposite door opened, and Finn came out of his bedroom holding the baby in his arms.
“Hello, princess.” I reached my hands out to her.
She reached for me, babbling, “Baba tree, pup pup.” She growled an adorable play puppy growl, then said, “Gorm,” followed by another growl.
“What’s this Gorm she keeps talking about, do you know?” Finn looked concerned, but I hadn’t found anything that could even remotely be called Gorm for her to be upset or mad about.
“I have no idea. She started saying it after we got here, and it’s always with her puppy growling when she says it. Maybe it’s a game she made up to play with her puppy.”
Finn didn’t look convinced, but it was the best I could come up with. He let Ameria down, and she walked and crawled around the room, exploring with her puppy while we talked.
“How did the calls go? I didn’t hear any shouting, so that must be a good sign.”
Finn stroked his beard, then uneasily slid his hand to the back of his neck and rubbed it a few times without making eye contact.
Uh oh.
“What? What happened?”
“Hear me out. I called one of the other Mages, and she’s in a relationship with Ameria’s relative. She was pissed until I explained the situation. She gets it, and so does Marik. She acted as a mediator between her father, who is on the Elvin council, and me. It took a while, but he’s agreed to hold the council off. I assured him that Ameria is perfectly safe. She hasn’t been kidnapped, and that the Fallen do not want to interfere in any way after this. But they did have a few demands.”
Finn didn’t continue right away, and that made me very nervous.
“And?”
“They demanded that someone come here and make sure Ameria is safe and happy, but I told them that was impossible for a million reasons. So, as an alternative, they wanted to have a video call where they saw her interacting with all of you, so they know she’s not scared or being mistreated. I told them I’d call them at dinner tonight if that’s all right.”
I was so ridiculously excited about this that I threw my arms around him and kissed him silly before letting him go.
“It’s better than all right, Finn. It’s perfect! Call them right now and tell them to get ready to sing.”
Finn scrunched his eyebrows together as if he thought I was crazy. Maybe I was, but this was too perfect.
“Just trust me. Come on. You’ll see.”
I gathered the baby, and Finn took care of getting everyone on the call while we walked to the dining room. I was lucky that my parents had let us stay in their house. They had more than enough room and guests, and they loved to entertain. This night was a treat for them.
As we walked in, the room burst with colored balloons, confetti, and streamers of every color. The table was set with brightly colored decorations and hats. Finn was scowling next to me at all the noise and mayhem being caused by my parents and my siblings, who had small children. The discordant sound of people singing Happy Birthday at different levels of talent spread through the air all around us.
“What is going on here, Henry?”
He held the phone up so the chat participants could see the room and everyone in it, and they could hear our conversation.
“Did you forget what today is?”
“Henry, I was in a coma for two weeks. I’m not even sure what year it is at this point.”
I heard a shrill yell coming from the phone, and a female voice shouted out, “Fucking hell, Finn, it’s March twenty-fifth. Read the banner, dude. It’s our baby’s first birthday.”
Finn turned the phone around, and a small woman with brilliant blue hair sat next to an obvious member of the Fae who had silky strands of lighter blue hair cascading over his shoulders. Finn turned the phone more toward me and did introductions.
“Henry, this is Nic, one of the Nightshade Guild Mages, and one of her men, Marik, who is also a relative of our sweet princess.”
I waved and then helped Ameria focus on the screen so she could wave at them too. While they talked and cooed to the baby, I walked us over to the table. I gave Finn a jerk of my head and a raised eyebrow, and he got the hint to cut the chat short.
“Okay, it’s party time. Do you want to stay and watch, or do you want to go?”
“Hell yeah, we want to stay! This is awesome. I don’t want to miss her digging into the cake.”
I helped Finn arrange the phone so they could have a good view, then we joined the party. I introduced Finn to all my siblings and all of their children. There were about twenty adults, including spouses and partners, and just as many kids of all ages.
