As you might imagine… But we’d rather sell it to someone who appreciates the work of Frank Pedrewsky.”
“Okay, fine,” Tom said. “Eight-fifty. I’ll get the terms to you tonight.”
Eight fifty! Eight fifty!
I was a little worried that maybe we won on the technicality of a nymph sex act, but you bet your boots I shot a photo of the offer sheet to Kiersten and Caleb that night.
good for you girl, Kiersten wrote back.
“Oh yeah. She’s pissed. We won! We won!” Billie said, and we did a triumphant dance around the kitchen.
Tom and Maya’s wedding was a month after ours and she seemed to have Tom’s heart wrapped around her finger. There is no happier bride than a nymph leaving the water for the first time.
Except me, of course.
Chapter Thirty
Twenty Years Later
Helena
“My wedding was one of the happiest days of my life,” I said, flipping through the photo album. “It was the first time I had a family gathering that was all the people who loved and supported me and everyone was just having a great time.” It was always fun to see those pictures; Charlotte in a funky dress carrying her newest family addition everywhere, Harris, Montague and Alec doing karaoke, Grandma Sullivan passed out surrounded by empty wine glasses, wolf kids running around with their clothes abandoned on a corner of the dance floor, Marisa making an appearance in a gown with a train held up by swans. “I wanted a small wedding but then by the time we invited all the Sullivans it was huge.”
“I like your dress, Mommy.”
“It was a little much for me. It came from Lord and Lady, the faery couture house. Uncle Harris’ old friend Daisy got it for me specially, and it lit up after dark like stars. It reminded your daddy Byron of the Way of Paths so I had to get it but it meant everyone kept looking at me all night because I was glowing like a Christmas tree.”
“I want a dress just like it!”
“I still have it. You can try it on later if you want, Brigid.”
She looked stunned with excitement. “Now?”
“Well, how about after dark so you can see it glow? Then you can show everyone.”
“Oooh…definitely.”
It was our wedding anniversary, so the photo albums and the mementos were out, Jake and Byron looking over my shoulders while Jasper was half-assedly sweeping up Cheerios and Graham was out picking up takeout seafood for lunch. Tonight, we were planning on hot dogs and Smores around the bonfire with as many friends as wanted to drop by—some members of the familiar council, Billie and Gaston, and Bevan and his family.
Hulda kept turning the pages when I stopped. “When was I born?”
“You aren’t born until a couple of albums later,” Byron said. “Your mama was a busy bee.”
“I sure was. Those were some exhausting years when we first got married. You know what this building is?”
The girls studied the ruins of the old building carefully. “Is that…Thoth Hall?”
“Yep.”
“It looked like that!?”
“You fixed it, Mommy?”
“I fixed more of it than anyone,” Jake said.
“Oh, that’s news to me and the hours I spent on the roof,” Jasper muttered.
“Yeah, we all fixed it. It took a whole year,” Jake said. “Wow, I forget how bad it was.”
“The building used to be an old sanitarium,” I said. “It had some bad vibes too! We had to cleanse it and cleanse it…but when it opened it was the first school and assembly hall for familiars and the familiar council. Graham was so proud of it. That was really his baby. Your uncle Firian worked hard on it too. Graham’s probably going to be bummed that we looked at these pictures without him.”
Three years into our marriage, Graham went to work full-time at Thoth Hall while our business became, more properly, a Sullivan family endeavor with Billie leading on decor, because she still had the best grasp of southern witch tastes. When I got married I did take the Sullivan name. It was symbolic for me because I wanted to start fresh with a family that loved me from the first moment, although Harris and I had been un-disowned from the Von Hapsburg-Nicolescu clan, neither of us were very excited to return. Mainly I just had dreams of getting my hands on my beloved Ladyswald when my parents died and buying it to escape the Louisiana summers in my old age someday, so I kept a toe in the door so to speak.
Thanks to us, the region between