Avery found Simon outside by the road, staring at the passing cars.

  “Where’s Casey?” Simon asked when he heard Avery’s feet crunching on the crumbling asphalt of the driveway and turned around to look.

  “He sent me to make sure you were okay.” Avery stopped a few feet away. It was his first time talking to Simon without Casey next to him, and he couldn’t help but remember their initial meeting. Simon had come out of that portal ready to kill, face twisted with rage, battered sword in one hand. He’d been filthy, powerfully smelly, and covered in bruises and old wounds.

  Almost two weeks had changed the elf very much for the better. Simon was clean, dressed in a stylish cable-knit sweater, a pair of skinny jeans that hung loose on his scrawny legs, and nice leather loafers. The bruises were fading to yellow. His face was no longer quite so gaunt.

  Avery had paid good money a few times to have long, straight hair as thick and silky as Simon’s natural locks; clearly, the elf had found the good conditioner.

  The biggest change was his expression. Instead of fury and terror, Simon just looked lost. He said, “... why isn’t Casey here?”

  “He’s talking to Nadria.”

  “Oh. I figured we were finished. I should go back and help him...” Simon turned back towards the basement, steps quick.

  “Casey’s a big boy; he can handle your mom.” Avery stepped into Simon’s path, blocking him from a speedy return to the shop. “It’s okay. He doesn’t need you.”

  “I see.” Simon’s shoulders slumped. Avery wondered what he had said to upset the man.

  “Hey. Would it be helpful to talk about it?” Avery said. “I’d be completely pissed if that were mom. Yours is, like, a complete bitch. I cannot she did that to you.”

  Simon’s expression hardened for reasons Avery didn’t fully understand. He was trying to be empathetic! Casey had taught him to use the ‘would it be helpful’ question rather than just demanding answers. It wasn’t supposed to make the person look angry!

  Avery desperately added, “My mom’s kinda a witch, too. She’s always trying to run my life, but her idea of what’s right for me usually misses the mark. She loves me, but I get so upset at her sometimes!”

  The elf folded both arms across his chest. His jaw was tight, his eyes were distant, and he was staring at the cars again.

  “Hey, uh, you’re not thinking of, you know...” Avery gestured at the highway. Simon’s expression was a little scary. “A messy end?”

  “What?” Simon gave him a startled look. “No.”

  “Uh. What you thinking?”

  Simon ground out, “I wish I could just . I want nothing to do with her or her plans for me.”

  “Oh.” Avery blinked. It hadn’t even occurred to him that Simon might want to run away.

  “But I can’t. Because I’m geasbound to Casey. Even if I had transportation, the geas would compel me to return to him unless sent me away.” Simon glanced up at Avery. “Orders from Casey are inviolate, including the implied order of a question. From you... It is easier to resist, especially since Casey has explicitly made clear he does not me to blindly follow the orders of his friends and family. However, at least a mild compulsion remains. I’m learning to choose my battles against that damn spell.”

  “You had to answer my question.”

  Simon swallowed, then answered in a low voice, “Yes.”

  “And you didn’t want to.”

  “I don’t enjoy sharing my innermost feelings, Avery.” It seemed like a mild rebuke, and Avery wondered if he’d done something wrong. Simon was looking at him with brows drawn together and lips in a tight, thin line. It had cost him to say that.

  “Sorry.” Avery had no idea how to navigate this situation. Maybe a distraction? “Uh. Hey. We have a satellite internet dish and a solar setup we use with the box van for buying trips. Sometimes, we gotta camp out along the way with a truckload of stuff or, just, you know, we go go camping for fun if we’re somewhere cool too. I’m going to loan the kit to Tara until I can get a new dish for the Riley house. Want to tag along? At least it’ll get you away from here.”

  Avery thought it had to be awful for Tara to be all alone. He’d have gone insane without human interaction for three years. He wasn’t sure he could have made it three hours without dying of boredom and loneliness! At least he could get her a connection to the outside world.

  Simon’s expression lightened. He nodded. “Yes. Please.”

  “Have you ever been anywhere without being Casey’s adorable little shadow?” Avery said, trying to lighten the mood with a bit of teasing.

  “I,” Simon said, looking mildly offended but no longer like he wanted to play a losing game of Frogger with traffic, “am not adorable.”

  “Oh, but you are.” Avery gestured toward the van parked around the side of the building.

  Simon stared at Avery, feet rooted in place. “Are you trying to with me?”

  “Is it working?” Avery asked, mock-serious. Could Simon be lured into the flirting game? He wanted to see the man laugh. It would do him good.

  “No.” Simon’s eyes crinkled, as if he were trying not to smile. “I’m not interested.”

  For a fraction of a second, Avery felt terribly rejected, but then Simon said in a slow, smooth voice, “You’re too tall. I’d need a ladder.”

  Avery looked down at the elf, all five feet of him. He stood on his toes to emphasize his height. The motion made his ribs protest, but the pain was less stabbing than it had been, just a pinch now. “Nah. Just a step stool.”

  The moment of levity disappeared from Simon’s expression as quickly as it had come. Avery realized it was the first time that he’d seen him initiate a joke. “Hey,” Avery said, “if you don’t wanna talk, fine. We can just hang out, too.”

  There was there, Avery thought, for flirting game shenanigans, but it would be best to wait. Simon didn’t seem entirely comfortable with it, and then a terrible thought struck Avery. What if the spell forced the guy to play along with Avery when he didn’t actually want to?

  Simon shoved his hands in his pockets and headed for the box truck. His next words made Avery grin widely, despite gnawing misgivings. As he walked away, Simon said, “I’d need a stepstool for Casey. I’d need a ladder for you.”

  “So, are all elves short?” Avery asked. Several innuendos had occurred to him, but he was reluctant to continue the banter, at least for now. A change of subject seemed best. “Like, Earth’s version is either knee-high or tall and elegant.”

  Simon shook his head. “I presumably inherited my father’s height, and it seems he’s human. He’s not much taller than I am. Many elves are tall. I’d observe Libby has several inches on me.”

  “You didn’t know you were half-human?”

  “Key elven traits are strongly heritable, and there is also considerable variation in elven appearance — I don’t know a lot about my people, but I’d guess they’ve interbred with humans for a very long time. It was implied by the man who seems to be my father that both my parents were elves. I never questioned it, especially since the only person I had to compare myself to was Libeza, and she is also of mixed blood.” He gestured at his face, where his high, broad cheekbones and narrow chin gave him an exotic kind of beauty. “I read a little about your world’s knowledge of genetics last night. These must be dominant traits. Most pure elves I’ve met have blue eyes, not green, but I assumed there was some variation, and never questioned what Yienry told me of my parentage.”

  After a moment, Simon added, “Yienry’s eyes are green.”

  They reached the van. After they climbed in, Avery asked, “Are you okay with me asking questions?”

  “It depends on the question.” Simon stared out the window as Avery guided the big, lumbering vehicle towards the road.

  “Do you want to tell me what subjects are off-limits?” Conversations were always easier if he knew the boundaries.

  “Anything about my mother.” Simon growled, after a second’s pause, “Or my father.”

  “Okay.” That was disappointing. Avery thought Simon needed to vent at somebody. “If you ever do want to talk, I’m here. Shana’s another good choice. parents are truly terrible. Unfortunately, being a shit gibbon to your kid isn’t precisely illegal, or they’d be doing life.”

  “What are Casey’s parents like?” Simon asked.

  “You’ll meet Stacy sooner or later; that’s his mom. She’s been like a third parent to me my whole life, and unlike mom, she listens when I tell her shit. I spent more time at her house than I did at my own growing up, including living there sometimes when my folks fucked off to exotic places on vacation. I even had my own bedroom across the hall from Casey’s ... Unfortunately, Quinn, his dad, died with mine. They hit an elk on the runway at the airport.”

  Avery stared into space for a moment. “I was supposed to be with them. But, I was of my mom making me fly down to the Valley three times a week for dance and singing lessons, plus acting classes every Saturday in LA, and equestrian stuff locally on Sundays, and extracurriculars for school wherever we could fit them in.”

  Simon nodded as if he actually understood. “Putting that kind of pressure on a child never works out.”

  He added, “By the time I was sixteen, I was just done with it. That particular day was Daxi’s birthday party, and my mom wouldn’t let me go because I had lessons in the valley, so I refused to get on the plane. My folks got into a huge fight, then my dad told me I wasn’t wrong to stand up for myself. He told me to go have fun at Daxi’s and that he’d make sure I had fewer lessons from now on. He still had some sort of meeting to go to in LA, so he left then, and he and Quinn hit the elk while taking off.”

  “If you’d been with them,” Simon noted, “you might have died too.”

  “No.” Avery tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “If I’d gone with them without an argument, we’d have taken off earlier. There would have been no accident that day.”

  Simon made a small noise. Was that an objection to Avery’s logic, or sympathy? Both? Neither? He didn’t know.

  “My dad was . He encouraged me in everything I am, and he stood up for me. He also insisted I grow up here. He said he wanted me to have a normal life with normal kids. My mom thought I was missing opportunities and that commuting for lessons was too hard. She was always trying to move us to LA or New York.”

  After a moment, when Simon said nothing, Avery added softly, “I cost Casey his dad, too. Quinn was awesome. He should still be around, y’know?”

  He glanced over at Simon, who was looking at him with big green eyes and lips pinched tight together. He had no idea what Simon’s expression meant. But, he was realizing Simon wasn’t the sort to quickly interrupt if Avery was taking his time to form feelings into words. The man was a good listener.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “I’ve made mistakes in my life, too,” Simon said. “I’ve many regrets. But... that was an unfortunate happenstance. I’m not sure that you are in any way culpable for random chance.”

  Avery shrugged. “Doesn’t mean it doesn’t keep me awake at night.” He wasn’t sure why he was sharing this with Simon. It was something he usually only talked about with Casey, and only when he was severely drunk. He didn’t even discuss it with his therapist.

  “I, too, find it difficult to sleep some nights.”

  “Anything you want to talk about?”

  “Mmm.” Simon watched the forest whip by for a moment, until they turned off onto Sanctuary Road, and then the elf said, “I saw Yienry reaching between my mother and me with a blade in his hand. There was a roast piglet on the table directly before us; I thought he meant to cut a piece of meat off for himself. I didn’t understand what he was going to do until he slit her throat. I sometimes think, if only I had understood and shouted a warning. But I was four years old, and Yienry was my mother’s friend. He carried me around on his shoulders, gave me sweets, let me play with the cat that lived in his study, and I liked him. I trusted him.”

  More empty countryside rolled past, trees replaced by scruffy junipers scattered amid winter-brown grass. The dirt road was drying after the recent storms, and they left a trail of dust behind. The junipers were turning orange. In a few weeks, they would start releasing smoke-like clouds of pollen, and Avery’s allergies meant he would be stuck in glasses rather than contacts when that happened.

  Avery had questions for Simon, but with some effort, he managed not to ask. Simon had made his conversational boundaries about his parents clear enough.

  Without being able to ask questions, he just didn’t know what to say. He had no similar stories to share. His folks had argued often, viciously, and with Avery’s personal life and his mother’s dreams of stardom for him, versus his father’s stubborn insistence that Avery be allowed to live a ‘normal’ life, as their most common flashpoint. Those fights had generally amounted to loud shouting and threats of divorce, with Avery and their very different beliefs about how to raise him as the central point to be fought over in court.

  However, in his entire life, the worst actual had been an occasional fistfight. He decided even trying to draw a parallel to his own life would be wholly inappropriate. Finally, he simply said, “I’m sorry. That’s horrific.”

  “It was.”

  Silence fell between them. Simon stared out the window, then just before they reached the driveway for the Riley house, he finally said, “Thank you. For caring enough to come after me.”

  Simon’s expression was most notable for its utter lack of emotion. Avery reached out and patted the other man on the shoulder. Under his sweater, he was scrawny. “No problem.”

  Nothing stirred as they parked behind the house. “Tara may be asleep,” Avery said, his voice low. “She said she’s nocturnal.” He stepped out and padded around to the back of the box truck. Simon joined him from the other side of the vehicle.

  Despite his best efforts, however, the box truck’s rear roll-up door rattled when he lifted it. Therefore, he was unsurprised by Tara’s arrival. He turned around, and she was simply , a few feet away.

  “You’re back,” she said. Her hair hung around her shoulders in messy tangles rather than being twisted up in a bun, and she had missed a shirt button. They’d probably woken her, and Avery suddenly felt guilty for not waiting until evening.

  “Sorry, I was trying to be quiet. I was just going to leave this stuff for you on the steps with a note.”

  She shook her head. “I was awake. Mark came by earlier and shouted for me. I ignored . You two, I’m happy to talk to.”

  “Mark...?”

  “Third time. He wants to talk. I don’t. He’s an ass.”

  Her voice was a rumble that he could have listened to every day. He’d always been a sucker for a deep, warm bass. He shook his head. “I don’t blame you. Every time I talk to that man, it’s all I can do not to punch him in the nose. Anyway. I got the things you asked for, plus I figured you could use a solar setup and a satellite dish.”

  “I wasn’t expecting....” She blinked at him, trailing off, eyes shocked.

  He reached into the back of the truck and pulled out the dish and the bag of feminine supplies. “If anything goes wrong out here, you don’t have any way to get help. There’s an old cell phone in the truck, too. We’ll set it up for wi-fi calling.”

  “I have a cell phone,” she said, tone very wary. She glanced into the bag when he handed it to her, turned lightly pink, and then quickly closed it with a sharp glance in Simon’s direction.

  He ignored that. He’d girlfriends before. It wasn’t the first time somebody had given him a shopping list that included tampons.

  “Yeah, but you shouldn’t use yours; the cops will be watching for it. And stay off your social media, out of your bank accounts, all that shit. If you turn up while Todd’s still missing, there’s gonna be a lot of questions.”

  Her lips quirked up into a smile, baring a couple of pointed canines. Oh, those teeth were and her next words just cemented the attraction he felt for her. He was a sucker for anybody with a sense of humor. She said, “I could always tell them the truth.”

  Avery looked up at her. Damnit, she was . “Yeah, they might believe it, too, coming from you. But — maybe let’s not test that.”

  “Why are you being so nice?” Tara asked, posture suddenly suspicious.

  “Because you’ve been dealt an absolutely shitty hand. We’ve got the power to make it right. Casey’ll help you, too.” Avery smiled at her.

  “Casey.” Her voice was flat. He wondered if she had an issue with Casey? But then she nodded. “... thank you, Avery.”

  “Uh-huh.” He gestured at the truck's contents. “You want to get the power bank? My ribs are still sore.”

  “What happened to you?”

  “Stabby here happened.” Avery slung an arm around Simon’s shoulders. “He’s forgiven.”

  She gave them an uncertain look.

  “Old news.” Avery released Simon, who’d been a bit tense about being side-hugged, and said, “Where do you want the panels?”

  “On the sunroom roof, I guess. Nobody can see them from below.” Tara reached an arm out and picked up the power bank one-handed. It had to weigh at least ninety pounds, and it made the muscles of her arm and shoulder bunch in fascinating ways. Avery quickly looked away because he didn’t want to stare like a creep, handed the satellite dish to Simon, and grabbed a solar panel.

  His ribs protested mildly as he hefted the awkward weight, but not nearly as badly as they would have even a day ago. He followed her across to the house, where the large concrete planter served as a step for her to clamber up onto the roof. was not that tall. The roof's gutter was nose height when he clambered atop and stood on his toes; it was at the level of her biceps. “I’ll, err, show you how to set it up, but you’ll need to give me a boost.”

  She hesitated.

  “I trust you.”

  She nodded and cupped her hands together. Her strength was astonishing; she effortlessly tossed him up when he put his foot in her hands.

  He told his brain to keep it clean and tried hard not to complete a range of thoughts that generally involved her pinning him down for a sweet moment of surrender or boosting him up against a wall in a display of formidable, power before—

  . He wasn’t going to let his mind go down those paths.

  , a little treacherous part of his brain whispered. Her catlike form was gorgeous, but it wasn’t just about that. She could have been the most beautiful person to ever walk the face of the earth, and he wouldn’t have been the slightest bit interested if they didn’t sync on a personality level.

  Once, he’d crushed on a particular social media celebrity, Danse Dude, for months. He’d shamelessly stalked ‘Dude’ on all his channels, purchased his merchandise, subscribed to his Patreon, drawn fanart, and composed a very well-received parody song about one of Danse’s characters. He had sung the last while cosplaying as the other man — and Dude had responded by dressing up as Avery right back, complete with a ridiculous purple wig and a pair of towering sequined heels. Instantly, the war had been . For weeks, they’d playfully mocked each other’s channels, and their viewers had eaten it right up.

  Eventually, he’d scored an invite to an event Dude was hosting, and, to his immense pleasure, a proper dinner date later... whereupon, Dude had proven to be a complete narcissistic ass. The other man had spent the entire dinner talking about himself, his social media stats, the famous people he knew, and dropping juicy gossip about competing influencers.

  Within five minutes, Avery had been bored. When Avery tried to turn the discussion to their many shared interests, Dude remained hyper-focused on . Never once had he asked about Avery or even brought up Avery’s work, except to suggest some shared content he thought their followers would like.

  It turned out that a personality that was charismatic in thirty-second sound bites could be utterly in person. By the end of the first date, he’d found Dude annoying and unattractive, so he had feigned a sore throat to provide a plausible excuse to avoid ending the night with a kiss. Despite multiple, increasingly persistent demands from Dude, there was no second date.

  Eventually, Avery had lost patience entirely and blocked him. Shana reported that Dude now mocked him regularly, with much more malicious intent, on his channels.

  Avery turned his attention to getting the solar components up onto the roof. Now was not the time to muse about his adventures in dating while queer.

  Tara easily passed the solar panels and the heavy battery bank to him. He, not-so-easily, wrestled everything into place while she scrambled up.

  Once on the roof, Tara reached a long arm down, clenched Simon’s hand in hers, and hoisted him up as if he weighed nothing at all — though, to be fair, he probably weighed less than the battery bank.

  It took a few minutes to connect the satellite dish to the solar kit and a bit more to configure Tara’s new cell phone to take Wi-Fi calls. They all sat cross-legged on the roof while he tweaked her phone’s settings, downloaded an app for Wi-Fi calling since there was no cell signal here, then handed it over.

  She was looking at him with wide blue eyes. “Avery,” she said, voice low, “thank you.”

  He shrugged. “Eh. Most people would help out like this.”

  Her lips twisted into a scowl. “Not most of the people I’ve known in my life. Shit — After Granny died, my father sold my school laptop a day before an English paper was due, plus my nebulizer for my asthma, because he owed a dealer.”

  “He ? Wait, you’re asthmatic?” Avery said, alarmed. The state of the Riley house wouldn’t be good for somebody with lung problems. Now that she mentioned it, he did remember her getting so upset when harassed by the bullies as a kid that she’d wheezed and coughed and needed a rescue inhaler. “Shit.”

  “Not in this form.” She gestured at her face with a clawed hand. “One of the many benefits of being a hideous beast.”

  “You’re not ugly!” he objected.

  She looked at him as if he’d grown a second head, and the second head had started barking. “Have you me?”

  “I mean, yeah, you’re scary but also .” He waved his hands, then realized he was flailing about and perilously close to a limp-wristed hand-flip, and sat on his fingers. Had she never looked in a mirror?

  After a wary glance at Tara, who had an almost sullen look on her face, Simon said slowly, “In my world, grimalkin are considered akin to beasts. She is not wrong to feel monstrous.”

  “She’s not an animal!”

  “I didn’t say she was, but I saying that her feelings are valid.” Simon met Tara’s eyes. To his surprise, Tara smiled at Simon. Simon’s response was a hesitant nod.

  Avery scowled. “I mean, I get wanting to change back, but, well, this is America. I can admire the pretty humanoid lady if I want. I’m sure there’s been weirder on Star Trek.”

  She stared at her clawed hands. “I’m not used to anyone thinking I’m pretty.”

  “You were never ,” he protested.

  “You’re very kind,” she said. “In many ways. Thank you, Avery.”

  He met her eyes and smiled his brightest smile, the one that got him the best reactions from anyone even remotely attracted to men wearing makeup. “You’re very welcome.”

  She ducked her head. And blushed. . She liked what she saw.

  Simon said, “If you two are done flirting—”

  “I’m not flirting!” Tara said hastily, as if she had done something wrong. Avery wasn’t sure how to interpret that because he’d been turning on the charm. Somehow, his efforts had gone sideways, and he wasn’t even sure why. She just didn't react in the ways other people did, and he just didn't know how to handle it.

  Simon made a skeptical noise, then said, “Tara, we should fill you in on what Nadria and Libeza told us. It was a rather unpleasant meeting, but some things said directly concern you.”

  Avery watched as Simon explained everything that had happened in the basement. His words were crisp and very composed, even as he added a couple of asides explaining that he had been unaware of his relationship to Libby or that his mother haunted the book.

  When he was done, Simon concluded, “Respectfully, Tara, Casey could use your help. He has a potent gift.”

  Tara raked a hand through her tousled blond hair. Her ears were pinned back. He found it fascinating that they moved. “And why should I help someone like Casey?”

  “What do you mean?” Avery said, startled by the irritation in her voice. liked Casey.

  She looked away. The wind ruffled her hair. She stared out over the small valley that the house nestled in. “Never mind. Whatever. Yeah. I’ll teach him what he needs to know — for the public good.”

  There was a distinct note of in her voice. He didn’t have to be an empath to guess she felt obligated to help. He blurted out, “Casey’s my brother. He’s a good dude. He needs you!”

  “I’m not saying no, pretty boy,” she growled. “And, thank you for everything. I’ll help you and Casey as long as I’m treated with respect.” She turned a sharp gaze to Simon.

  He wasn’t sure how offended he should be. Being called ‘ would normally have pissed him off, but on the other hand, her tone implied he’d annoyed her. Had he been socially inept without realizing it?

  “We are six generations apart,” Simon observed while Avery mentally backtracked and reviewed everything he’d said. “Or perhaps seven. The relationship is not at all close.”

  “You two could technically get married,” Avery pointed out somewhat absently, still replaying his prior words. Everything had seemed fine-ish until she called him a ‘pretty boy.’ Had she been playfully teasing, perhaps? He wasn’t sure!

  His comment about marriage earned him a frown from Simon and a roll of the eyes from Tara. Whoops. Now he being awkward.

  Tara said, “But, Simon, there’s a tie there. Even attenuated by so much time, that bond can be useful for certain kinds of magic. It's something to keep in mind.”

  Avery yawned involuntarily, despite his interest in the discussion and his sudden anxiety over what he might have said to irritate her or Tara’s other potential motives for possibly insulting him.

  Tara yawned back. He’d probably woken her up. Her yawn had a lot more teeth, and perhaps realizing that, she suddenly covered her mouth with both hands.

  Avery sighed. “Aaand, on that note, I need to crash. I think I slept three hours last night. Tara, do you need anything else?”

  She shook her head.

  “I’ll text you before I come by next time. I don’t want to wake you up. Please let me or Casey know if you need anything. Our numbers are already programmed into that phone.” He flashed her another smile. This time, at least, she returned it, though she did so while staring at his feet.

  At least she was smiling.