are you all right?” My mom was pounding frantically on the door now.
“She’s fine,” Finn said. “Everybody calm down a minute.”
“I don’t know who you are,” my mom shouted, “but if you lay hands on my daughter you’ll wish you were never born!”
Yeah, my mom can spout clichés with the best of them. Usually, I would roll my eyes when she did that, but right now I was too desperate to see her with my own eyes.
“I am your daughter’s bodyguard,” Finn said. I tried one of the kicks Keane had taught me, and my foot made solid contact with Finn’s shin. He winced, but I hadn’t been cold-blooded enough to kick with the kind of force I’d need to really hurt him. He wasn’t the enemy, after all. “And if I open the door for you, it will break some of the protective spells Seamus has put on the house. That would be inadvisable at the moment.”
“You have no right to keep my daughter from me!”
“It is for her own protection. There have been attempts made on her life. I’m sure you’d prefer she be as well defended as possible.”
Oh, yeah. Telling my mom people were trying to kill me was guaranteed to improve her state of mind. Not!
“I’m okay, Mom,” I said before she could throw a fit. “Between Dad’s spells and Finn, I’m as safe as if I were packed in with cotton. Please don’t worry.”
I winced at my mom’s wrenching sob. Usually, her tears don’t have much effect on me anymore, but there was no denying she had a legitimate reason to be upset. Worse, I couldn’t think of anything to say that would make her feel any better. I thought the knowledge that both Queens of Faerie were on my enemies list would drive her completely around the bend.
“Seamus will be home around five,” Finn said. “Come back then and he’ll be able to put the defensive spells back up once he lets you in. Meanwhile, why don’t you go get some rest?”
Mom didn’t answer, just kept sobbing.
“Mom, I’m fine,” I said in my most reassuring voice. “Why don’t you go back to your hotel and call me so we can talk before Dad gets home?”
If we’d been playing out this scene at home, with my mom sitting on a doorstep bawling and otherwise making a public spectacle out of herself, I’d have been so embarrassed I’d want to sink into the floor. But my short stay in Avalon had already changed me. Of all the problems in my life, being embarrassed by my mom ranked somewhere around five million and one.
“Please, Mom,” I continued in the same voice, though I sounded more like I was talking to a frightened child than to my mother. “You’re here, and I’m safe, and I want to talk to you. Please hold it together and call me. So much has happened since I got here…”
I was kind of glad Finn was there, big, solid, and unmoved by my mother’s hysteria. If it had been just me, I’m not sure I could have stopped myself from opening the door and breaking my dad’s spells. Maybe nothing would have come of it and it would be perfectly safe. But I didn’t want to risk both my life and hers testing the idea.
Eventually, she cried herself out. At least for now.
“I’ll wait here until Seamus comes home,” she said between sniffles, and I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. Luckily, she couldn’t see me.
“What would be the point in that?” I asked, hoping she wasn’t completely past seeing logic.
“We can talk here.”
Obviously, more logic was needed. “If we talk here, we’ll both get hoarse from shouting through the door. And we’ll have an audience. Just go back to your hotel and call me. I’ll catch you up on everything that’s been going on.” I crossed my fingers when I said that, because I knew I was going to have to edit some of the details to keep Mom from completely wigging out. “Then you can come back and see me in person when Dad comes home.” And wouldn’t that be the cheerful little family reunion?
“Okay?” I prompted when she didn’t say anything for a while.
She sniffed again. “I just hate letting you out of my sight for even a moment now that I’ve found you.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
There was another agonizingly long pause. Then she heaved an enormous sigh.
“All right. I’ll go back to the hotel. I’ll call you as