I was not marrying a Leprechaun! Who thought that would be okay? A sense of betrayal overtook me, worse than any feeling I’d ever experienced.
“Hurry, pretend to sleep again,” Mom ordered. I placed my elbow on the armrest and leaned my head against my hand, closing my eyes. When I felt the shimmer of magic I couldn’t lift my heavy head. All my life I’d stayed positive no matter what, knowing if I allowed negativity to invade it would take over like a weed. All of my subdued fears and doubts surfaced like a blitz, ignited by my parents’ secrecy. I leaned my face into my palms and burst into tears.
Cassidy sucked in a breath, her voice warbling. “Oh, my gosh… Robyn? Mom, you made her cry!”
They both rubbed my back and smoothed my hair. Sobbing was demoralizing and humiliating. I wanted more than anything to stop, but my body wouldn’t cooperate.
“Shush, dear. Please don’t cry,” Mom crooned. “I hear he’s the tallest lad in the clan.”
Oh, no she didn’t.
I looked up through hazy, swollen eyes and choked out, “So he’s four feet tall instead of three?” Cassidy had the nerve to giggle.
“Maybe he’ll be the funniest and the sweetest wee man in the clan,” Cass said brightly. I shook my head in my hands and my chest heaved with another round of uncontrollable weeping.
“Don’t say wee man!” Mom hissed at Cassidy. To me she whispered, “There, there, love.”
“Flying shitballs,” Cassidy grumbled. “This is bad.”
“Watch your mouth,” Mom scolded. “You know I hate that word.”
“If there was ever a time that warranted the use of ‘shitballs,’ it’s now, Mom.”
“Och! For the love of all things holy, child. Attempt to filter what comes out of your mouth!”
Lost in my own anguish, I barely registered the bickering between them.
I’d always felt like an Amazon woman, standing as tall as the guys at school, and even taller than many of them. Next to McKale I was sure to be an absolute giant. How could my parents have agreed to this? I mean, I know it was important to keep the magical bloodlines alive so the Fae secrets could be kept in as few families as possible around the world, but still. There needed to be basic attraction between two people if they were going to bind their lives together and try to have children, right? Everything about this was wrong and unfair.
Impossible.
I took a deep, cleansing breath and sat up with a mild shudder. My practical nature raised its head, composed. Time to stop crying and get answers. I wiped my face and looked at Mom. My voice was thick.
“You should have told me sooner. I need more time than just a day to process something this huge.”
I wanted to keep going, to tell her off completely and make her feel the betrayal I was experiencing, but she looked miserable.
“Yeah,” Cassidy chimed in, rambling with indignation on my behalf. “Not cool. This is a major detail. I mean, how short are they anyway? Are we talking ‘sit on your lap’ short or ‘sit on your shoulder’ short? Because if he’s only a foot high I don’t know how anyone expects them to do it.”
Gah! Images of a Ken doll popped into my mind.
“No, no, it’s not like that.” Mom cradled her forehead in her hand like she did when a migraine was coming on. Something wasn’t adding up.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I yelled in frustration.
Dad cleared his throat and rustled the magazine, causing the three of us to turn to him.
“Or you, Daddy!” I wanted to cry all over again. How could they keep this from me? Why would they pair me with a freaking Leprechaun?!
He spoke without looking away from the pages, keeping his voice low so passengers a few rows ahead couldn’t hear him since he wasn’t in our magic bubble. “Don’t be so hard on your mother, girls. Perhaps we didn’t have much choice in the matter. The Fae can be quite… convincing.” He looked directly at Mom now. “You need to tell them, Cecelia.”
Cassidy and I turned to Mom, who nodded once before draining the rest of the wine. Her lips were stained light crimson. She pushed brown locks away from her face and I noticed a few strands of gray. Those were new.
“The Leprechaun clan is mostly made up of dwarfs, or little people—”
“Midgets?” Cassidy asked.
“Well, yes, but that word’s not politically correct and some consider it derogatory,” Mom stated. “Anyhow, in order to keep the bloodlines alive, the Fae gathered a sister clan of dwarf females in a nearby town and gifted them with magic in return for their agreement to pair up with the Chaun men. After all these years, for some reason the clans are not successfully reproducing anymore. There’ve been many miscarriages and stillbirths or babes who die young with internal defects. Some say the two clans have exhausted the variety in the bloodlines and there’s fear of accidental incest—”
“Ew!” Cassidy cut in. Mom ignored her and continued.