“So you’re just going to become a homeless person? Because of a faery you just met?” Ida asked, sounding angrier than Katherine had ever heard her. “Why would you trust him? He could say anything. Your dad told us how monstrous they were, Katherine. Don’t be ridiculous. Plenty of people make decisions with their”—she gestured below the waist—“but you’resmarterthan this. Sex isn’t worth ruining your life.”
“I am one of ‘them,’” Katherine said. “These monstrous things? I’m as much them as human. I know you taught me to fear and hate them, but did you ever think what that said to me? Did it ever occur to you that you were asking me to hate myself?”
Her mother and aunt exchanged looks, but Katherine was done. She knew it wasn’t going to go easily, even if she came alone. They were prejudiced in their way, hating her for the part of her that scared them. That’s all prejudice really was: fear. It festered into hate, and too often into violence. But at the heart, it was fear.
They are afraid of faeries.
I am fey.
How can they think I don’t need to go away?
Katherine walked to her room and started to pack. She wasn’t taking much. Some clothes, toiletries, and a notebook were all she really needed. It struck her that a life moving from town to town had prepared her for this in a way she hadn’t realized: travel light, take only the essentials. Her life was not weighed down by things.
“Take a few weapons,” her mother said, coming to stand in the doorway. “If you’re doing this, do it right.”
She was holding out a short sword in a leather sheath. “This was your father’s. Metals the fey can touch. I saved it for you.” Then she walked over to the suitcase and put a dagger in it. “I had this one made. The hilt is safe for faeries to touch. The scabbard is, too.”
“But the blade isn’t?” Katherine guessed.
“Exactly. Sharp and steel.” Her mother’s smile had an almost vicious edge to it. “Anyone hurts you? You have this. A weapon you can wield, that is poisonous to them.”
“You’re terrifying sometimes,” Katherine said.
“I’m a mother.” Octavia opened her arms. “And I’d slaughter anyone who hurt you, Kitty Kat.”
Katherine let herself be held close and tight. “You aren’t mad at me?”
“I’m worried, but I understand. You are your father’s daughter. So ofcourse, you want to roam and meet people and fall in love . . . I knew this day would come, and maybe I’m mad at myself, too. I swore I’d be ready, but I’m not.” She pulled back and stared at Katherine. “But don’t forget me, okay? I want visits and calls.”
“Definitely.”
Her mother nodded, and they finished packing together. It wasn’t as comfortable as they usually were together, but it wasn’t the slamming of doors that it had seemed like it would be at first.
Just before she left, Katherine paused as Aunt Ida came into the room.
“I think this is terrible,” she said. “But, you can come home when you realize that. The door is always open. I won’t even say ‘I told you so.’”
Katherine sighed. “And I won’t remind you how wrong you are right now when I return. I’m sure of myself.” She looked at her mother. “I have great examples, and I am certain of this. Urian is the one for me. I’m not marrying him this week or anything--”
“Katherine!”
“Look. When you know, when you’re what I am, what Dad was, you just . . . know.” Katherine realized what she was saying as she spoke. Shedidknow. She was as sure as he was about her feelings. Hurriedly, she said her goodbyes.
She had to tell him.
Maybe a wedding wasn’t a terrible idea. Not today. But maybe sooner than she realized initially.
When Katherine left the building, she had a suitcase and a satchel. It wasn’t much, but it was all she needed—other than Urian. A wide smile stretched over her face at the thought of days and nights and months with him. Everything seemed to happen so quickly, but maybe that was the upside of the no-lying limits. She felt like she could trust easily because everything he saidhadto be truth. I mean, sure, he could misdirect or omit things, but he spoke directly and clearly. She knew he was as invested as she was.
But when she left the building, stepped outside into the New Mexico sunlight, he wasn’t there.
“Uri?” she called several times, circling the building.
No one answered. There were no faeries anywhere she could see, and that was odd. Someone was always nearby.
“Is anyone here?” she called, louder now
Katherine felt like there was something wrong, but there weren’t any clues that supported her feeling. He was a guy, and he left. That happened—especially since he was agancanagh.Had she imagined his sincerity?