Episode 204: Dinner Plans (Giana)

She was exhausted after the work she’d done: Soap-making lessons for any fairies who wanted to learn, as well as herb and flower-drying classes. She rarely worked so much now that Viggo was in school.

She showered, before Mel came back, to remove the smell of lye and various floral things that Mel might have found pleasant if it weren’t for the lye.

By the time he returned, she was just finishing her hair, pinning it into a loose knot at the back of her head, ready for whatever he wanted to do with their evening.

“Hi,” he said, when he entered. He slid his hand from her back to her waist and kissed her.

“Hello,” she breathed against him, happy to be in his embrace.

“I’m sorry that took so long,” he said, though he needn’t have apologized; she had been busy until all of two minutes ago. “Are you interested in going out this evening?”

She assessed him; formal and focused. He had something serious in mind.

“I would love to,” she said. “Where?”

“Sylem?” He kissed her neck, nudging against her a little. “Spence won’t be able to attend the campaign dinner. Rhyss and Annatto may be going though.”

A campaign dinner. It should have been daunting, but she’d been to so many charity dinners in her youth that in some ways it would be more familiar to her than it would be to Mel.

“Are they much the same in every realm?” she asked.

“I suspect so. Do you have anything here you’d like to wear, or would you like something new?” He kissed her again and added wistfully, “We would have to hurry, but we could manage it.”

She had things here she hoped would be suitable. She opened her closet door and pulled out a dark blue evening dress with a subtle black floral print and black sequined latticework bodice. “Would this suffice?”

He nodded his head. “I have something to match,” he said, and he pulled from his own closet a simple navy pinstripe suit with a red tie.

“Why is Spence unable to go?” she asked him. She couldn’t help but watch him undress his marble-white chest. It was an impossible thing for her to not admire.

“Aadya wanted me to arrest him,” he said. He slid his arms into the crisp white sleeves of his shirt. “She believes he may start a war if he attends.”

“A war?” she half-laughed. “Is it so dire?” She could not imagine Spence starting a war. Leading one, yes, but provoking one? Not at all. Unless, perhaps, someone hurt Acheron.

And even then, there was no army that was his to command.

“It is,” Mel answered. “From my understanding, Sylem mirrors Babylon’s European region around two thousand years ago. Large groups claiming control of large areas, new groups taking control. Frequent war.”

Spence still wouldn’t have an army. Unless he did little more than trigger the war, and others fought it.

“What is our goal tonight?” she asked.

“Not start a war,” he said, amused enough that his smile grew. “Gain support for the fairy alliance and the Lavesque family.”

“I think we can manage that.”

“It’s like you’ve been to one of these before,” he teased.

“A campaign in Denmark? Scandalous.” She kissed him, and his fingers tempted every inch of her skin. Echoes of this morning’s encounter rippled through her. She wanted him, so badly. “I love you,” she breathed instead. He’d said they needed to hurry.

“I love you,” he agreed. He didn’t want to go either. She could feel him against her, longing, wanting.

Yes, please. Surely they could spare ten minutes.

He pulled away. “We need to stop by and see if Rhyss and Annatto are joining us. Then we can go.”

She kissed his neck, unbearably hungry for him. “And then we can come back?”

He laughed. “Yes.” He tucked his finger under her chin. “You look beautiful.”

“So do you,” she teased, with a raised eyebrow. She took the curve of him in her palm and squeezed.

He breathed in, deeply. “Ready?” he asked.

So much for that. “Yes,” she acquiesced. She unlatched the door and swung it open into the hall. “How is Annatto?”

“Doing well enough. Adjusting. I believe Rhyss was the right decision.”

Of course he believed that; he had luck, which would warn him if Rhyss was the wrong home for Annatto.

“How was your afternoon?” he asked as they walked.

“Not nearly as interesting as yours, but I taught a group of women how to dry plants and herbs.”

He knocked on Zero’s apartment door. “Did you enjoy teaching?”

“I enjoyed watching them discover it, yes.”

The door to the apartment opened. Zero greeted them. His hair, usually gelled to perfection, was askew. “Evening, Meldrick,” he said, as though Gi were not even there.

“You as well,” Mel said.

Zero ushered them into the apartment, which was overcrowded with kids and Rhyss. He looked up when they came in, a mirror of Zero in so many ways, although Gi had never seen him Gel his hair. She wondered if that was a choice, or if it had never occurred to him.

“Oh, hey,” Rhyss greeted. “I think I’m going to sit this one out. I’m not sure I’d even know if I said the wrong thing.”

Mel nodded his head. “Okay. We’re still going, if you decide to come later.”

“I volunteered to babysit,” he apologized, “because…some people…” He wiped his palms on his jeans as he stammered. “Are having babies.”

Poor Rhyss. Was he still in love with Talise, two years later? What a mess for him. It would not get better or easier, except either by separation or Talise leaving Niels for him, or Rhyss finding someone so absorbing that he could manage to forget about her.

Giana knew firsthand what it was like to long for someone.

And she had Mel now, at last.

“After this evening,” Zero asked Mel, “can you speak to Spence about Sylem and the realities of his campaign?

“I didn’t volunteer to babysit,” Annatto announced, his eyes on Mel.

“Yes you did!” One of the many children said. Orris, she thought his name was. Spence and Acheron had adopted him and his sister. “You did!”

“You want me to talk to Spence?” Rhyss asked, as though Zero had been talking to him and not Mel.

Maybe he had, and Giana was just so fixated on Mel that she assumed everyone else was too.

“It may help,” Zero answered. “If he was at risk of starting a war this evening, then it won’t be the last time.”

“Do you want to come?” Mel offered to Annatto.

“No,” Rhyss said. “I still think it’s a bad idea.”

Annatto scowled. “Yes,” he insisted. He looked at Rhyss, pleading. “I won’t start a war.”

“It’s your decision,” Mel deferred to Rhyss. “We would keep him safe.”

Rhyss opened and closed his hands, studying Annatto. “Okay,” he breathed out. “Just make sure you listen to them.”

“I will,” Annatto promised. He flexed his hands in front of him and looked at Mel. “What should I wear?”

“We can stop by a store and get you something on the way,” Mel said.

Gi bit back her annoyance. Stopping by a store anyway? They could have left Annatto here and had an easier, more free evening. They could have used those ten minutes to be together, not to be Annatto’s personal chaperones.

It was silly. She knew it was silly.

It was also disappointing, in a subtle way. But she knew he wanted her, in the end. He had obligations, work to do, long-term plans to orchestrate.

She was part of that, but not central to any of it.

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