Part 23 (1/2)
”There are three possible Fates, but I only know of one. She lives nearby. You know her pretty well, actually - or as well as anyone can know that old bag of rags. And what does she do all day long? She whistles through the s.p.a.ces where her teeth used to be, she pulls the wings off innocent pixies, and she generally just stinks up the place.” He frowned in concentration. ”Yeah ... that pretty much covers what she does on a daily basis.”
I got a bad feeling in my stomach, my sausages like lumps of lead weight in there. I knew exactly who he was talking about, and all those boxes of tiny mimickers were suddenly taking on a whole new meaning for me.
”It's Maggie, isn't it?”
”Of course it's Maggie. Who else would it be? You? I know the description was a bit deceiving, but no, it's not you. It's the old hag in the woods. Your lovely grandmother.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.
I WANTED TO TALK MORE about this disaster of my arch rival Samantha being a Fate for all the fae around me, and my grandmother being a friggin Fate with a zillion tiny soul parts in her closet, but I lost my audience as soon as he spied the wrapped package lying on the table in our sitting room area.
”Oooh, what's this? A present? I wonder who it's for.”
”It's probably for me,” I said, walking over.
Tim beat me to it. ”Ha! Wrong! It's for me!” He spun around to face me, his eyes all aglow. ”What do you think it is? It has no return label on it.”
I smiled knowingly. It looked suspiciously like the fabric that my cloak had come in, but wrapped around a much smaller package.
”Open it and see.”
”What if it's a trap?” he said, eyeing it warily now. ”I have valuable information. Someone might be trying to silence me.”
”As if anyone could silence you. Just open it.”
”You do it. If it's a trap, it's better if you fall into it.”
I laughed. ”Why me?”
”You don't have a wife and child.”
”True. But that doesn't mean I want a spell on my a.s.s.”
Tim flew down closer to the package, hovering just above it, moving back and forth to view it from all angles. ”It looks safe.”
”Can you detect any magic on it?”
”No. But I'm only good with listening spells.”
”Here.” I walked over and picked it up. ”I'll do the string. You do the rest.”
I pulled on the colored twine that was wrapped around the fabric paper covering the item inside. I could feel the soft body of the cloak in my hands, turning it over so Tim could reach the open edges of the wrapping.
”Go ahead, pixieman. Open it.”
Tim flew over and grabbed one edge, flying backwards to pull it over and away from the contents. Then he came back and took the other edge, repeating his earlier motions, revealing a purple and green, sparkling piece of material underneath. It matched his wings to perfection.
He gasped, throwing his hand up over his mouth. ”What the ...?”
I smiled, looking out towards the garden. ”Hey, Abby! w.i.l.l.y! Come over here and check this out!”
w.i.l.l.y came flying up from the table, food all over his face. ”Lellamental!” he shouted, coming straight for my forehead. I closed my eyes, waiting for impact, but it never came.
I heard a giggle and opened one eye. w.i.l.l.y was hovering just at the end of my nose.
”See me, Lellamental? I can stop now!”
”That's awesome, w.i.l.l.y. You're as good as your daddy. Just stay away from my nose, okay?”
”How come?” he asked innocently.
”Because you might accidentally lose a polly ball up there again.”
”Oh, that wasn't an axe-ka-dent, silly. They were there because I put them in there for a game.”
Before I could discuss the terrible idea of using my nose as part of a polly ball game, his mother came up beside him. ”w.i.l.l.y, leave Jayne's nose alone. I've already talked to you about this before.”
”I didn't touch it! She said it, not me!”
”Hey, guys,” I said, interrupting the tantrum I saw coming, ”guess what ...Tim got a pretty cool package today. I thought you might want to see him open it.”
Tim was frozen in place, his hand over his mouth, his face white. If I wasn't mistaken, I thought there might even be a couple of tears gathering in his eyes.
”What's wrong, darling?” asked Abby, rus.h.i.+ng over to be next to him.
”Papa, why are you crying?” asked w.i.l.l.y, sounding like he was ready to bawl himself.
”I'm not,” he whispered. ”I just ... I just can't believe this.”
”Can't believe what, Tim?” asked Abby, staring down at the package. She looked up at me. ”What is this, Jayne?”
I pushed open the last two flaps of wrapper that were covering the gift. ”I think it's a cloak.”
Abby gasped at the winking lights that came up to greet our eyes as the magic in the material was fully revealed. Then she gasped and shrieked, grabbing onto Tim's arm and shaking him like a ragdoll. His head whipped back and forth. ”Tim! It's a councilman's cloak! It's a councilman's cloak!”
”I know it is!” he shrieked back, grabbing her hands and shaking them right along with her. They started bouncing up and down together in the air, both of them busting with pride and excitement. I was a little worried someone was going to get pixied if they weren't careful.
”What's dat?!” yelled w.i.l.l.y, trying to get a closer look.
Abby grabbed his arm as he flew by, halting his forward progress and jerking him back and making him look like a dog who'd run out of leash.
”Lemme go, Momma! I wanna touch it!”
”Don't do it, Baby Bee,” I said. ”Anyone who touches it who's not supposed to gets a really bad burn. Owie.”