He inhaled deeply and a fanged smile lit his face at the sight of his new favorite dessert. “When did you make this?”
“Oh, believe me, the lemon pie was the easy part, it was everything else that took the whole day. Let’s see—” She pulled plates and some of the weirdly shaped forks and a slicing knife from the xenari galley as she counted things off. “My lawyer also has power of attorney to sell the Alexandria house and its contents to put in a trust. Sarah Jane bought my car.” Summer sliced the pie and placed the pieces on plates, topping them with homemade whipped cream and candied lemon peel. “I resigned from my job. Hmm,” she said, licking some of the filling off her thumb. “Of course my boss wrote back and implied that he had always intended to make me Director of Marketing in the new year, which is a bunch of bull; he’s just being catty.”
Emma appeared at her side. “Can I have pie in there so I watch the movie?”
Summer said no at the same time Ke’lar said yes.
Then she had two sets of blue eyes, one human, one glowing, looking at her pleadingly.
“Oh, fine.” Summer gave a sigh and handed the girl a slice. “Go ahead.”
She handed Ke’lar a plate with an extra large slice of pie as Emma ran to her place in the living area. Not that it would matter—she knew he’d wind up finishing the rest of the pie off—but it looked nicer to serve it to him sliced and topped each time.
“I called the daycare,” she continued. “Told them Emma won’t be coming back after the holidays. They were pretty nice about it, though. They even refunded the new year’s registration fee.”
She couldn’t help grinning at the rumbling sound of happiness that he made as he took his first bite of the pie.
“It’s love that makes it so good. Well, actually,” she amended, spearing a bite from her own slice, “love and gobs of fat and sugar.”
He gave a huffed laugh. “And your uncle?”
“Yes, I got hold of him—finally! Real estate agents live on the phone so he doesn’t carry his cell on vacation but I got him at his place in Florida. ’Course I had to call him at six this morning to do it, which he wasn’t thrilled about. But he was happy for me and my new boyfriend, the anthropologist—”
He raised an eyebrow. “Anthropologist?”
“—and that Emma and I were off to exotic places with him to explore cave paintings and such. You know,” she said proudly, “that whole thing with Ezzari might have really helped. I think Uncle Lester actually bought it. And I just finished cleaning and closing up the cabin . . . that’s all of it.”
He scraped the plate, finishing the last of his pie, and put the plate down.
“I can take you home,” he rumbled softly, his eyes warm on her. His brow creased. “You are worried.”
“What’s to worry about?” She put down her half-eaten pie, brushing her hands on her jeans. “Just your clan, and the Ruling Council and the Betari clan and Ar’ar . . .”
He took her hands in his. “Nothing will take you and our daughter from me,” he promised. “Nothing.”
“I know,” she said, leaning against him. His arms went around her; with her check against his chest she could hear his heart beating strongly.
But even you can’t fight them all . . .
“If you keep looking back at her like that you’re going to crash this thing,” Summer chided, the forest of Hir speeding by below.
“The proximity detector is engaged. I cannot crash.” Ke’lar faced front again, his fingers never leaving the transport’s controls. “And I want to be sure Emma is strapped in properly.”
“You strapped her in yourself,” Summer reminded. “She’s fine.”
She really was too. With a child’s innocence, Emma simply accepted that that carpets could fly, candles could sing, and glowing-eyed men could show up one winter night and whisk them both off into the sky.
Emma had been dazzled by the stars, accepting spaceflight as easily as she would a plane ride. She had Ke’lar so wrapped around her tiny finger Summer was surprised he hadn’t just turned over the ship’s controls to her.
“Do they know we’re coming?” Summer asked quietly. She’d actually been surprised that they hadn’t been arrested at spacedock, that they’d been permitted to reach the capital city at all.
“My father has long since ordered my return to the clanhall. He sent the message as soon as we were known to be missing.” His fingers moved calmly over the controls. “I have acknowledged his command. They will be expecting us to arrive shortly.”
Summer’s stomach clenched and she looked out over Hir’s forests as they sped toward the Erah enclosure.
“This is really a beautiful world. Your clanhall is amazing. Emma’s lucky she’ll get to grow up there. No clanhall climbing though.” She threw him a mock-warning glance. “Not till she’s eight.”
He smiled faintly. “Perhaps nine.”
“How much longer?” Emma demanded. “I want to see the castle!”
“What castle, baby?” Summer asked.
“The castle!”