Episode 69: Running Mates (Rhyss)

Just like that, the darker-skinned woman moved them to a different realm. It was a bigger change than when Emily had done it, because this woman moved them outdoors and the air went from humid-by-the-sea to dry and hot.

The little girl, Nellie, offered her hand again. “Let’s go! Want to see the robot?” She rocked back on her feet. “I can take you there!”

Rhyss’s mom…Indigo…whoever she was…got pale. “I think we shouldn’t go back there. Now or ever.”

Rhyss didn’t think she was really his mom. Zane being his dad, he could kind of believe, because they were both tall and had the same face. He didn’t see how Indigo, with her little body, could have a kid as huge as him.

“We will all go when it’s our turn,” the queen woman said to Nellie, “but right now why don’t you draw us pictures and maybe we can make the same place here in case they ever visit?”

Rhyss felt weird.

He thought it was a bad idea to talk like that was possible.

He wished he’d had someone to talk to him like that, growing up.

But it wasn’t Indigo doing it. She looked away when the queen said it and he got the feeling she wouldn’t have played along either.

Maybe they were related.

“I can make their house here?” Nellie gasped. She bounced and jumped and slid all around them, crazy kid movements that made Rhyss wonder, with worry and longing, what it would be like with twins. “Even the slide? But I want it in my bedroom, not here.”

“Okay,” the queen promised. “You want it to be your bedroom? Or just a place to go?”

Rhyss ignored them.

He liked his bedroom at home. It was his. It had always been his, as far back as he had memories.

He looked around while they walked. It felt like a desert, so he thought it should have cactuses and scraggly coyotes glowering at them from behind some tumbleweeds or something, but all it had was an orderly garden.

It was hot, too. He took his jacket off and rolled up his sleeves.

Sylem was having a cool week. This place wasn’t.

It smelled good though. He wanted to paint the heat and make the colors run together like they were melting.

That guy from the job fair came over, the gay Lavesque that wasn’t really Zane’s just like Rhyss wasn’t really Sam’s.

“Hey,” the guy said. He offered his hand. “Spence.”

“Yeah, we met the other night.” Rhyss shook his hand anyway.

Brother. He had a brother. A gay brother, but still a brother.

He had no idea what to do about that.

“I didn’t know if you remembered my name,” Spence joked. “What are we doing?”

“An inter-realm locating spell…parent to child?” The queen said and then asked. She seemed to like taking charge of things, so Rhyss guessed it was good she was a queen.

Spence didn’t seem like someone who liked being in charge. He looked more like the thing lurking in the alley.

“You didn’t inbreed, right?” the queen asked him.

He hadn’t thought of that. He didn’t know who he was anymore.

“I don’t think so,” was the best answer he could give.

Nellie danced around them. Her hair flopped around when she moved. “What’s inbreed? Can I do that? Can I do that at a tea party with my dolls?” She did a cartwheel. “That. Was a flip-the-world. All you guys turned upside-down!”

Spence laughed.

“You can pretend to,” Aadya told Nellie. Indulging her again. Rhyss wondered if Emily liked fantasy or practical better. He thought probably practical, but she might be different with kids.

If it was her, and their kids, he didn’t think he’d mind it so much.

Spence was watching Rhyss all this time, so Rhyss tried not to look annoyed.

He probably always looked annoyed.

“This is the royal fairy garden,” Spence said. He pointed around the giant courtyard they were in. “The part that most uses wiccan ingredients.”

Rhyss hoped they weren’t going to find out he couldn’t do magic. It wasn’t any of their business.

“I’m going to go draw my bedroom!” Nellie announced. She did a flip in the air off a bench and landed on her stomach.

“Oof,” she said. She got back up and started bouncing again.

“I think the red angel’s friend is on his way,” Aadya said. She pointed toward a door on the far end of the courtyard, where someone with orange hair was walking into the garden.

“So they told you?” Spence asked Rhyss. He had a knife in his hand and he kept tossing it into the air so it spun, and catching it by the handle. “I thought you were too pissed to bring up that we’re brothers the other night.”

“I already knew who you were,” Rhyss muttered. He tried not to sound surly. “I just didn’t want you using Clovercrest as a stepping stool.”

“I want to help people,” Spence said. “I don’t care where I’m helping as long as it’s needed.” He tossed the knife in an extra tall throw and caught it. “I’m not going to help some peninsula mom screw in a lightbulb and say I’m awesome.”

Behind Spence, Rhyss saw Indigo roll her eyes, but she looked like she thought it was funny, too.

Rhyss shoved his hands in his pockets.

He liked helping people. That was his whole plan, right?

“Did you pick someone to run with yet?” he asked Spence.

“Not yet.” Spence sheathed the knife and met his eyes, waiting.

“Do you want one?” he asked.

“If it’s you, yeah.”

So that was going to be a thing now.

Rhyss could do this. He could help Spence help Clovercrest and the other unhappy neighborhoods.

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s me.”

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