Return to the Shadows (Shadows #2) by Angie West

  Chapter Eleven

  Promises

  The trek back to Grandview flew by, literally, with the help of the fairies, and we hiked up the hill to Bob and Marta’s in what was probably less than twenty minutes. I pondered that as Mark, Aries, the little girl, and I took the porch steps two at a time and entered the house. It took about that much time to effectively put an end to Lydia’s entire operation, and to make a serious dent in the number of guards Kahn had spent years recruiting. It was still a lot to process, and there was no time to dwell on it right then.

  We hadn’t even had time to close the heavy lead glass front door behind us before a small blur of purple, sporting dark hair, flew into us and clung for all she was worth.

  “Mama! Mark!”

  “Ashley, baby!” I dropped down to scoop her up.

  “Eww, you smell like smoke,” she complained, her little nose wrinkled as she pulled away.

  “Sorry.” I shrugged, unsure as to how to explain that one. I was pretty sure telling her we just blew up a whore house would have been a major parenting faux pas. “Are you still glad to see me?”

  “Yes!”

  “Well, it’s about time!”

  “Hi Marta, Bob.” Mark stood behind us, grinning.

  “I take it the night was a success?” Bob eyed us with equal parts concern and hope.

  “Yes,” Mark told the small group that gathered around us.

  “And who’s this?” Marta demanded, stepping forward.

  “We found her at the party.”

  “Son of a—”

  “Will you take her to the kitchen to get something to eat?” Mark quickly spoke over Marta’s outrage.

  “Of course. Give her to me. Come to Marta,” she crooned at the cowering child. “Everything’s okay now. You’re safe.”

  “Is that my new sister?” Ashley wanted to know.

  “Ah…” I glanced up at Mark.

  “Maybe,” he told my daughter with a wink. “Would you like that?”

  “Yep. You’ll be her new daddy too, right?”

  “Maybe,” he answered. “We’ll see. She might already have a family somewhere.”

  “What?” I demanded. “New daddy?”

  “Uh-huh. Mark said he would be my new daddy. Isn’t that great?”

  I spun around to face him. “You told her that?” I gritted through a smile that was for Ashley’s benefit alone.

  “It was supposed to be a secret.”

  “I’m going to kill you.”

  “Hey, Ash, Bob says you have a surprise outside for your mom and Mark,” Aries called out from the dining room.

  “Oh, yeah—come on, guys!” The child bounded from the room, all smiles and exuberant energy.

  “Claire…”

  “This isn’t over, Mark. Not by a long shot,” I warned him. The nerve of the man to tell my child such a thing, I fumed.

  “Are you guys coming or what?” Ashley called from the back door.

  “Yes!” Mark and I answered together.

  “I mean to marry you, you know.”

  “Mark,” I whispered, floored at the announcement, though maybe I shouldn’t have been. What flowed between us was…special. It had been from day one and nothing, not even time and distance, had really diminished that.

  “Come on.” The words were soft spoken. “Let’s go see our big surprise.”

  The backyard was filled with fairies and nymphs, and a picnic table had been set up under a cluster of trees in the middle of the yard. They took a step back and seemed to whisper to the trees, and in the next instant, the entire area was bathed in soft, twinkling light.

  “Look, Mama! They’re real magic fairies! Just like Tinkerbell!”

  “Ah…” I gripped Marks shoulder for support and decided not to tackle that particular comment right then.

  “Ashley, did you plan this special dinner for us?”

  “Yep, and I cooked it too. Steak and taters. Well, Marta helped a little,” she added slyly.

  “Thank you, sweetheart. You’re the best kid in the whole world, you know that?”

  “Ashley, come on inside and give the grown-ups a little privacy. It’s time for a bedtime story,” Marta called out from the back stoop.

  “Coming! Goodnight, Mama! Goodnight, Mark!” she yelled, racing through the grass and up the porch steps with enthusiasm only a child could possess.

  “Come on, ladies, time to get some sleep; let these two have a moment alone,” Aries told her group.

  “Wait.” I stopped them. “Why did you guys go to so much trouble? And when?”

  “We set everything up earlier this afternoon before we left for Oxborough. We wanted the two of you to have a real date tonight,” Aries grinned.

  “Thank you, all of you.”

  “Goodnight.” The others waved before disappearing into the house, leaving Mark and me completely and blessedly alone for the first time all day.

  “Dinner?” He winked, gallantly pulling out a chair for me.

  “Yes, I’m starving,” I admitted. “I’m still mad at you, though.”

  “Are you really?”

  “No,” I sighed after a moment. “You shouldn’t have told Ashley something like that, though. You’ll get her hopes up. And if it doesn’t work out…”

  “But what if it does?”

  “I can’t stay here,” I reminded him. “Ashley and I will have to go back to our own world, eventually.”

  “Then I’ll go with you and Ashley.”

  “You don’t mean that.” I swallowed, not daring to hope.

  “I’ve meant every word I’ve ever said to you. Every promise.”

  “You’d go with us? What about your job here? The whole ‘warrior of the ruins’ gig—it’s kind of important, you know.” Honesty dictated I remind him of that, no matter how badly I wanted to say, “yes, follow us wherever we go.”

  “You’re more important.” His answer was simple.

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Just say you won’t disappear.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, feeling emotions I’d thought were only possibly to feel for my child and immediate family. Protectiveness, pride…love.

  After the steak and two glasses of wine, Mark offered his hand to me for the second time that evening.

  “Will you have a real dance with me, Claire?”

  “Of course.” I followed him to a big maple tree that was lit by a thousand tiny golden lights and we danced underneath its lush canopy.

  “You were amazing tonight.”

  “So were you.”

  And with that, the night melted away.