Homelands Pt. 05 Ch. 04

Fuck.

Who was she kidding? She wasn't going to marry Nick. They weren't going to settle down and have kids of their own. That just wasn't how things worked. However much their kind might scoff at certain taboos when it came to pleasuring one another, they shared the mortal world's views regarding inbreeding.

"I know it can't work," she said, voice heavy with resignation. "But yes, god help me, I'm hopelessly in love with him. The jackass."

That last part elicited a chuckle from her grandfather.

"Pretty obvious, wasn't it?" she said.

"Even before your grandmother told me she'd seen it in your Libido, yeah," he confirmed. "Didn't need any supernatural assistance to suss that out." He kissed her on the tip of her nose, the way he had when she was a child. "Your brother's lucky to have you."

"Going to get us in trouble, isn't it?"

Her grandfather frowned. "Being love is always dangerous."

Veronica rolled her eyes.

He was right, of course, but she wasn't looking for droll witticisms. She was worried about a lot more than mere heartache.

"Probably, yeah," he said, in a less breezy tone. "Can't lie to you, kiddo. There's rules you can bend, rules you can break, and rules you've got to follow to the letter. Everyone, and I mean everyone, bends this one at least a little. But sounds like you've got it bad. And that usually leads to breaking rules that can't even be bent."

"Like sticking to one partner at a time, and changing partners every year?"

"That's a bender," he said. "I think you know which one I mean."

Veronica shuddered.

It felt like he was reading her mind. But of course he wasn't. It was just really easy to guess what she was thinking. What she was feeling.

"Were you ever in love?" she asked. Only that was a stupid question, because he clearly was, right now, with her grandmother. "With someone you shouldn't have been, that is?"

At first he didn't respond. Then he shook his head. "Guess I haven't really lived, huh?"

"Didn't mean that," Veronica said, rubbing his upper arm.

"I know you didn't," her grandfather said. "But I realize I've had something of a charmed life. At least, since the day I met your mother, some ten years ago."

"You've only been together that long?" Veronica's brow furrowed.

"Ten years ago, by Summer's reckoning," he said. "But in that time, we've spent nearly fifty years together. Most of them in the Playground."

"Right," Veronica said.

It sort of made sense. The whole differential time flow thing seemed perfectly reasonable, at first. Different worlds, different rules. That idea had first been introduced to her back before puberty, when she'd read the Chronicles of Narnia. But when it came down to actually keeping track of time, Veronica realized just how deeply ingrained the mortal conception of time was in her mind. She thought she was comfortable with letting go of it, but she never could quite manage to remember to make the appropriate adjustments.

A soft kiss graced her forehead. "Anyway, it may not seem like it, but a good number of our kind fall in love, and do so by the rules. With someone from another family, that is. They get married, and, every now and then, even live happily ever after together." He paused and looked her in the eye, as if to make sure she was listening. "Might not true for the majority of us, but it does happen."

"And the rest?" Veronica asked.

He hesitated. "Marriages of convenience, for the most part." He frowned. "Those don't always work out as poorly as your mother's did, though. A lot of the time, they last until the kids come of age, then everyone goes their separate ways, with no hard feelings."

"And they spend the rest of their years taking a new lover, chosen at random, every year," Veronica said. "All the while wishing they could be with that one special person."

"Suppose that does happen a lot, yeah," he said.

Veronica frowned.

Her grandfather ran a hand through her hair. "It's not so bad."

"It's horrible!"

He shrugged. "Maybe someone will change the rules someday."

"Someone should."

To that, her grandfather offered no reply.

The idea had never occurred to her before. She'd simply taken for granted that this world was beyond her control. That she had no choice but to follow its rules. Even after the king kidnapped Patty and Kurt, she'd assumed that they would find a way to make him give them back and then make their peace with the throne.

What if there was a new king though?

Or queen?

But that was a thought for another day. Bad enough she was already allowing herself to flirt with one unthinkable thought. If she filled her head with still more dangerous ideas, things would only get harder on her.

"You never developed stronger feelings for one of your family members than the others?" she asked her grandfather, her tone sounding more skeptical than she'd intended.

It wasn't her fault though. It was just so implausible. Kind and caring as her grandfather was, he had to have been a mamma's boy. Guys that sweet always, always, had close relationships with their mothers. And, in the Homelands, that closeness would have to have had a romantic component as well. Wouldn't it?

Yet his response was not at all what she expected.

"I never really got along with my family," he said. "Besides my brother."

The only other one who'd survived the feud with House Fisher. The one who'd married Grandma Flori's sister. The one he'd only just mentioned when he decided that he didn't want to talk about the past anymore. Not a topic he wanted to explore further, then.

"Tell me about this sister of yours," he said after a fashion. "The one your brother very nearly gave his life for."

"Patty?" Veronica asked. As if he could've meant someone else. "You've met her."

"That was a long time ago. I was a different man then. And she was just a child."

Veronica considered asking what he meant when he said he'd been a different man. Was that just a reference to the fact that he'd worn a mortal disguise at the time?

She thought not.

But she chose not to press the issue.

"She's...adorable," Veronica said. "Not that she'd want to hear me say that. Everyone says she's cute, and she kinda hates it."

"People tend to mean it in the best way," her grandfather said, "but it's still a little demeaning. Especially for a grown woman."

"Guess so," Veronica said. "Anyway, she's really sweet. Wouldn't harm a fly. And has this infectious idealism. Almost makes me forget all the cynical stuff I've learned in school. She's the kind of student my poli sci professors love to have in class, so they can watch her entire view of the world fall apart over the course of a single semester."

"Hmm."

"This is coming out wrong," Veronica said.

"Well, if Phil took a liking to her, there's probably a lot of truth to what you're saying," he said, cautiously. "But have you considered that she might just project that image to the world because it's what everyone expects of her?"

Veronica fell silent.

"One way or another, I suspect you'll find her a changed woman when you get her back."

"You think we will?" Veronica asked "Get her back, I mean?"

Now it was her grandfather's turn to go quiet.

But if he really didn't think they had any chance of doing so, he would have spoken of how different they'd find Patty to be "if" they got her back, not "when." So he couldn't really think it was hopeless.

Why then did it feel like it was?

"What's taking Annie so long?" she said, suddenly remembering her other sister.

"Don't know," her grandfather said.

"Maybe you should go check on her?"

"Good idea," he said.

He climbed out of the pull-out bed and padded across the living room, stark naked. Veronica felt entranced as she watched him walk away. The muscles in his back and legs rippled beautifully, and his tight ass was a work of art. Thick as his chest hair was, there was hardly any hair on his back.

Veronica didn't envy her sister. What she had with Nick was better than she had any right to ask for. But a girl could do a lot worse than a man like their grandfather.

"Annie? You okay?" her grandfather asked, rapping lightly against the bathroom door.

No answer came.

He looked at Veronica, a question plain on his face. She'd been gone a while, but what if she was on the toilet? Would she want her grandfather barging in on her?

If she was in there, though, she'd have responded to his knock. Veronica shrugged.

Her grandfather frowned before trying the handle.

The door eased open. Still, no response from Annie. He leaned his head into the bathroom, then disappeared inside. A moment later, he came back, wearing drawstring pants and a plain white T-shirt.

"Must've gone out the window. I'm gonna go look for her," he said.

"What?" Veronica asked, stunned.

"She probably just wanted to be alone," her grandfather said, in a calm voice. "But best go find her, just to make sure."

A horrible thought ran through her mind.

She was glad her sister had disappeared. Glad to have a few minutes go by without anyone hinting that it would be great if Veronica would find somewhere else to be. Glad to have her grandfather all to herself. Why couldn't he just assume that Annie was throwing a high-school girl fit in a desperate bid for attention and come back to bed?

But she felt disgusted with herself the moment the thought occurred to her.

Veronica conjured up some clothes herself and scrambled to join her grandfather.

#

From the moment they arrived, it was clear they'd made a mistake. The island itself was prepared for them. Or, more accurately, the king had prepared a trap for them that sprang as soon as they set foot on the island.

Gabriela could only assume that setting up such a trap had required a ton of energy. More than she imagined any one person could wield.

The white sand stretched out and out, and the interior of the island receded further and further from view. Suddenly, there was an ocean behind them, a desert before them, and nary a sign of life anywhere.

"Maybe we should go back," Gabriela said.

Zoey stared at her with equal parts disbelief and disgust.

"Can't," Wes said.

"Yeah, too late for that," Eric said.

"No, I mean we can't," her brother said.

Everyone looked at him, waiting for the explanation his statement called out for.

"Didn't you feel it?" he asked.

"Oh, shit," Zoey said.

But she didn't bother to explain what she meant by that. Just grabbed Olivia and hugged her to her chest in what was presumably intended to be a comforting gesture.

Unsurprisingly, that only seemed to freak the poor girl out.

Wes looked at his daughter, but he spoke loudly enough that it was clear that his words were intended for all of them. "We're not in Summer," he said. "We're in a prison world."

"A what?" Eric asked. "How?"

Gabriela felt like she was on a rollercoaster that had just reached the peak of its ascent and had begun to plummet downward at breakneck speed.

Someone should have answered her son's questions. She herself would have, but she found that she couldn't speak. Perhaps the others were just as stunned, because everyone just stood there, speechless.

Naturally, it was Eric who broke the silence. "So what do we-"

The rest of his words turned into a yelp as the sand rose up, took a roughly humanoid shape, and swung a fist at him. Eric dove off to the side, dodging the clumsy blow.

All around them, more and more of the things appeared. They might not be nimble, but there were suddenly a great many of whatever they were.

"To me," Gabriela shouted.

Zoey gave her a skeptical look, but everyone else rushed to form a circle around her. And once they did, her sister-in-law followed suit.

A dozen bolts of lightning rained down from the clear sky, shattering the pillars of sand and scattering hot glass everywhere. Everywhere, that was, but within the protective circle Gabriela had hastily formed around them.

"Quick thinking," Wes said, smiling proudly at her.

Eric stared at her in awe. And, like her brother, pride.

Gabriela tried not to blush as she said, "Something tells me this place has got much worse in store for us."

"The first step, then," Zoey said, "is a real safe zone."

What did the golden cunt expect? Gabriela had been acting instinctively. Not to mention simultaneously orchestrating a dozen different attacks!

Zoey thrust both arms up into the sky and threw her head back. Her lips, which never could seem to decide what color they wanted to be, went from red to their natural deep golden-brown. Her electric blue eyes changed color, too, which Gabriela had never seen before. Suddenly, gold light was radiating from them. The woman's hair began to float upward, and her feet left the ground. The blue summer dress she wore turned purest white, and a cloth-of-gold belt appeared just below her bust.

The protest Gabriela had been about to offer died in her throat.

There was a reason the sunlit folk were often said to be the basis for mortal beliefs in angels. Even without wings or a halo, that was exactly what Zoey looked like.

She rose higher and higher in the air, until her feet dangled well above Eric's head. Then she pointed at the ground a little ways off, and it began to rumble. Once more, the white sand slowly rose up. Only this time, it didn't take the shape of a man. Rather, it changed before their eyes from sand into marble as Zoey created a miniature tower.

"We'll be safe in there," she said.

No one spoke.

The angelic figure slowly settled back to the ground. Her eyes turned a breathtaking blue once more, and her lips red. Her skin remained golden, and she kept the outfit, but she looked just a little more human now.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Eric asked.

So they made a break for it, abandoning Gabriela's protective circle to dash over to the tower. Though they had but a short distance to cover, in the brief time it took them to get there, they fended off or dodged past another dozen or so sandman attacks.

Heavy steel doors closed behind them once they were all inside the tower.

"Now what?" Gabriela asked.

No one replied.

Gabriela looked around the antechamber, which comprised the entire ground level. It was tiled with gold, of course. A spiral staircase ran along the inside of the cylinder, leading up to the next floor. Other than that, the chamber was empty.

"Can we go out onto the rooftop?" Olivia asked.

Zoey nodded.

So the girl grabbed Eric's hand and pulled him along behind her as she rushed towards the stairs. He turned back and looked a question at his mother.

Gabriela waved him on.

Though she didn't like seeing her niece behave as if Eric was hers, it was best that neither of them hear what was about to be said.

"You're not powerful enough to break us out of here, are you?" Gabriela asked Zoey.

It felt good to pay the woman back for ruining her moment of triumph earlier.

Though Gabriela was tall herself, her statuesque sister-in-law still had a couple of inches on her. And she managed to make that seem like still more as she crossed her arms under her breasts and looked down her nose at Gabriela. "No. I'm not."

After they'd pinched out the curt response, Zoey's lips formed a thin, flat line.

"Are you sure?" Wes asked.

His wife glowered at him. But then her gaze softened, and, in a polite tone, she said, "It took almost everything I had to get the world to obey me enough to raise this tower. Whoever built this world, they did it with a lot of help." She hesitated a moment before adding, "At least, I'm hoping they did, because I've never met anyone in your court who was powerful enough for this. There are few enough back in the Eternal Garden who are, for that matter. Besides, of course, the Ancients."

Suddenly, Gabriela didn't feel like rejoicing in Zoey's inability to free them.

There were only so many explanations then. And all involved Hank.

The bastard.

He'd made it clear that he couldn't assist them, but he'd hardly left her with the impression that he was going to help the king imprison them for the rest of time.

Granted, he hadn't exactly encouraged them to attempt to attack the king directly either. Had that been his way of trying to tip them off? Had he known, even then, what the king would ask him to do?

Or perhaps the king was so paranoid that this trap had been in place to begin with? Gabriela didn't know if such was possible, but if it was, it would be exactly like Phil to set something like this up, even without having any specific reason to anticipate an attack on the island in the near future.

She sighed. There was no use trying to figure it out. For all she knew, when Hank suggested that they kidnap one of the king's kids, he'd been hoping that they'd instead do exactly as they'd done.

"What if we all worked together?" Wes asked.

"Don't take this the wrong way, honey," Zoey said, "but there ain't much difference between what I can achieve alone and what I can do with the help of you all."

Obnoxious as that sounded, Gabriela knew it to be true. Olivia had inherited a fair amount of her mother's power. She was clearly stronger than either Eric or Patty. But even Olivia was nowhere near as powerful as her mother. And though Gabriela didn't like admitting it, she was no more powerful than her niece either, despite having much more experience. Eric had a lot of potential that was as yet unfulfilled. One day, he'd be even stronger than his mother.

But not as strong as Zoey, in all likelihood.

And who knew when that day would come.

Wes shook his head. "No way. Come on. Phil's not weak, and neither is Hank, but even put together, the two of them aren't so strong that the five of us, working together, couldn't undo anything they've done." He turned to Gabriela. "I'm sorry, Gabs, but I think we need to admit that Hank was in on this."

She snorted at that. "Tell me something I don't know."

"Must have been more than just the two of them, then," Zoey said with a shrug.

But what other major players were there?

"So. Do we have any options?"

Zoey shrugged. "Our best bet is probably to hope that the king is too proud to simply leave us here for all eternity. If he ever comes to gloat, we'll have a shot at breaking free."

"If we can force him to help us, that is," Gabriela said.

"Naturally," Zoey said. "Don't imagine he's very likely to volunteer to do so. It's really great, then, that we let Eric talk-"

"Shut up, dear," Wes said, eyes closed and fingers pressed against his forehead. Then, in a flat tone, he added, "Don't take that the wrong way."

Gabriela could have kissed her brother.

But it might not be wise to add to the sense that they were ganging up on Zoey. Irritating as her sister-in-law could be, she was the best shot they had at getting out of there.

For her part, the sunlit woman stared at Wes so intensely, it was a wonder her eyes didn't bore a hole right through him. When he didn't so much as flinch, though, she let out an exasperated sigh and said, "You're right. Pointing out whose fault it is that we're in this situation isn't helping us get out of it."

The bitch just had to try and sneak a little jab in, even as she pretended to back down. But Gabriela let her have her petty little victory. For her, it was enough to see her brother stand up to his wife on behalf of her son. Not only was her son twice the man Zoey's was, but the woman's own husband was abandoning her.

And she knew it.

Zoey's willowy arms fell away from her modest breasts and she went over to Wes, planting a kiss on his cheek. "I'm sorry, dear. I'm just freaking out. You understand, don't you?"

Wes sighed and kissed her forehead while smoothing back her hair. "Looks like we're going to be spending a lot of time together. Best we all stay in a forgiving mood."