Episode 147: Daughters (Indigo)

Sawyer wouldn’t care. Indigo knew he wouldn’t need any warning; high school was years out, and he’d already finished a year of school in the Dells.

Mallory, on the other hand…

She was weeks away from starting, which meant they had weeks to make a decision that would impact her life forever.

Indigo suspected that Zero believed she’d made up her mind already, before she even mentioned it to him, but she hadn’t. She wanted Mallory to be happy, and Mallory had been excited for months about leaving and following in Spence’s footsteps.

And Spaden…he wouldn’t be happy either.

One kid at a time.

For now, she cornered Mallory into helping her in the kitchen. Usually she did painting time, but Mallory liked to cook and Indigo was a terrible cook, so it was an opportunity for both of them to learn something.

They were making some Babylonian food called stroganoff. Not for supper, but for something new for Indy to try. She’d bring it to a family whose dad had recently died, so the mom wouldn’t have to cook. It taught Indigo a new dish, gave her a chance to talk to Mallory, fed a family, and saved Aadya the trouble of doing it herself.

Indigo might not have been a queen, but this was her kingdom, these were her people. She would never undermine Aadya; it required a careful, skilled, suggestion-making that never said “I should be doing this because I know these people, but you’re doing it because you passed your trial.”

In Indigo’s mind, it was teamwork; Indigo could do little things, always saying they came from Aadya, and serve the kingdom. In some ways it was better than actually ruling herself.

In some ways, it made her immensely angry at Gramm that she had to do this little dance of never accidentally usurping Aadya, all because Gramm had insisted on marrying her.

And now he was back, alive, somewhere, and he’d passed their trial.

She would have passed too, if Drey had left her in there. And her kids wouldn’t be here, and she wouldn’t have Zero, and she certainly wouldn’t have Gramm because she never had him to begin with, and Aadya would still be ruler of this kingdom.

It was why she wasn’t more angry with Drey for pulling her out of the trial. She’d gotten the better end of things, ultimately, and there was no sense in being angry at a dead person. His decision to pull her from the trial, so that she could lead the war, had ended in his death.

They’d been sort of responsible for each other’s fates; her failed trial, his death, all went together.

And her kids…Spence had figured most of it out, but not all of it. Camilla knew more than she let on, Indigo was certain, because she was never willing to talk about their shared past, which meant she knew she couldn’t lie and she didn’t want Indigo to know how much she knew, or what she felt about it.

Spaden didn’t seem to care. He liked his life and Indigo had no clue whether he had a deep thought in his brain or if everything for him was just surface and contentment. He and Spence were so different she struggled to believe they had the same parents.

But, of course, they did.

And Mallory…

Mallory was as bad as Spence, when it came to contemplative.

“What is it about Sylem that appeals to you?” Indigo asked her now. “What do you like about that school?”

Mallory had assigned herself the process of preparing soft beef, and left the chopping and stirring to Indigo. Now she looked over from her pan of carefully-prepared whatever-it-was and shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know. Alandrial here, Lavesque there.” She shrugged again. “It doesn’t really make a difference.”

Royal either way. Hiding feelings from parents either way.

“Mal,” she started, but Jinx’s ears perked up and the apartment door opened. Zero led in a blonde girl. She carried a duffel bag and Zero carried two.

“This is Jinx and her offspring,” Zero told the girl, in a tone of voice that suggested he was helping her acclimate. Here’s the fridge and your bedroom and the bathroom you can use. Help yourself to anything you need, and make yourself at home.

An enormous snow leopard, bigger than Jinx by almost a full hand of height, followed the two of them into the apartment, and the snow leopard and Jinx went through a cat introduction ritual: tails bristled, noses in the air, circling each other.

“Don’t Spence and Spaden live here?” the girl asked Zero. She had a silky voice that surprised Indy – it reminded her of Zero’s rich tones.

The snow leopard interrupted herself to look up at the girl and said in a deep but undeniably human, undeniably feminine, voice, “Scared? They might see you with clown makeup.”

The girl blushed as badly as Acheron on a good day.

“Spaden does,” Zero told her, cautious. He made eye contact with Indigo across the dining room. “Spence has his own apartment with his kids.”

The blonde girl laughed. “Spence doesn’t have kids,” she said, and then her face paled. “Oh.”

Indigo wondered what thing she was remembering, besides the obvious governor campaign that had Spence trolling all over Sylem with his kids.

She wondered even more why this fact upset the girl.

Mallory switched the pan of meat to low, and some of the sizzling sound went away so they could hear better. Good girl, Mallory. Indigo smiled at her, a thank you. Mallory might be inscrutable most of the time but she was absolutely Indigo’s daughter.

“He has eight,” Zero explained.

The girl’s eyes brimmed with tears, but she didn’t say anything.

Indigo leapt enthusiastically into the silence. “Hi,” she said.

Zero straightened his shoulders in his apology stance. “This is Delaney, Leonora’s daughter, and a very special cat.”

Not a very special cat, the very special cat. They’d met Onyx, and now they met his mate, the other cat Zero’s ex had created.

“And my familiar, Onyx,” the girl, Delaney, managed through her tears.

Delaney. Indigo knew that name. She stretched her memory back to the conversations that had followed Spence’s death years ago, his desperation to be straight, the only girl he’d ever noticed was someone named Laney who was just girl Acheron and he probably only liked her because of that.

Laney, Delaney. The blushing.

“I was hoping they could stay with us, instead of join the Caelum,” Zero explained. He gave her a look, that wanted to say more but couldn’t. Something else was up.

She smiled to Delaney. “Of course. Welcome.” She looked at the cat next. “You should meet my brother. His name is Nell, and he’s usually in the barn.” She stepped closer to Delaney then. “Would you like some soup? I’m Indigo, by the way.”

“I’ve seen pictures of you,” Delaney said.

Ah.

Indigo, because she was using Zero’s ex’s body, was a bit infamous. It was part of why she was universally happier and more secure in Elesara, despite the luxuries Zero had in Sylem. She knew that was a city in need, but she’d never been able to bring herself to help directly. Fear of recognition had kept her at bay.

Spaden saved Indigo from having to think of a response that wasn’t as cold as she immediately felt: He ambled into the room with his bear familiar, Cora, and froze in the hallway. “Oh, hey,” he stammered. He stared at the girl and the cat. “Delaney?”

She blushed, like Acheron on a bad day, and raised one arm in shy greeting. “Hi,” she squeaked.

Good lord.

Well, Indigo wouldn’t ever need to worry anymore about what girl Spaden was going to meet. He was going to meet Delaney and it was going to be intense and teenager-painful.

Adult relationships were so much easier to understand, because they’d developed a modicum of self-control.

She wasn’t doing this out here. She passed the knife to Mallory and walked into the art room, hoping Zero would follow. Delaney and Spaden would be fine for a few minutes. Even the worst teenagers couldn’t go from just meeting to pregnant in five minutes.

Zero followed her, to her relief, and shut the door, and pressed her against the wall with a kiss.

She recalled their first time together, the intensity of that. It hadn’t ever faded, somehow.

“Indy,” he breathed. He looked up at the ceiling. “I just kidnapped someone.” That was interesting. Kidnapped Leonora’s daughter. Aadya was going to be less than thrilled. “Are you mad?” he asked.

No, but Aadya might be. She faked an angry face and then burst into laughter. “Spaden sure isn’t. Why did you take her? What happened?”

“She has a book, with a spell about the dolls Eulalee has. And, Naomi made that cat.”

The book. Interestinger and interestinger. That was dangerous magic to have in a house with Spence in it. He was too prone to creative interpretations of morality.

“Who is the girl? Besides a Spaden headache,” she asked.

He ran his hand over his jaw. “Spaden is unusually interested, isn’t he,” he murmured. He was thinking of something he hadn’t told her about yet. Somehow, it was part of whatever had kept him busy all morning.

“He seems to be,” she agreed.

Whatever it was, it was done. She shrugged her shoulders. “She’s girl Acheron,” she joked. “Of course he’s interested.”

Zero flexed and unflexed his hands. “I think Delaney…it’s a spell. Sam did it.”

Ahhh.

She wasn’t having another pregnant son. Rhyss was having twins, Spence was bordering on insane, Spaden was not allowed to complicate his life at sixteen years old.

“Well take it off,” she suggested, in a way that was really almost an order. “He’s only sixteen. Spence was enough fun.”

“I can’t,” he admitted. He loathed being unable to protect his family. “I need her parents’ blood, at minimum.”

“Is she staying here?” Indigo asked, trying not to panic.

He did the hands thing again. “If I’m right,” he apologized, “she’s my sister…heir to the Caelum.”

Then yes, she was staying here. Indigo nodded her head. “I’ll get her some tea.”

He nodded his head in relieved agreement. “I love you, Indy. I didn’t mean to kidnap her.”

Of course he didn’t. But she was his sister. And, it seemed, Spaden’s future wife.

Indigo had a strong suspicion that Spaden wasn’t the only one affected by that spell. Spence hadn’t liked Laney because she was so much like Acheron, he’d fallen for Acheron because he was so much like the girl Spence was supposed to fall for.

Two brothers, one girl.

Spence’s gayness had always been a fact, an amusing family trend passed on from her brother despite the lack of genetics between them.

Indigo had never expected to be grateful for it.

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