Chapter 1
The ER waiting room was surprisingly quiet in the predawn hours as Charlotte ran through it to the front desk. The woman sitting there had the unerring calm of someone used to every variety of crazy.
“Hi. I’m looking for Jane Magauran’s room.”
“Are you family?”
Charlotte fumbled with her phone before pulling up a document. “Here’s my power of attorney.” She fumbled with another file. “I have guardianship of Juliette, her daughter, in the event anything happens to her and her husband. When she called, it sounded like Juliette hadn’t left.”
She checked her computer. “She hasn’t. Mrs. Magauran is still in the ICU. I’ll page an attending at the desk.”
The receptionist gave her directions, then buzzed her through the double doors.
An ICU is a large round room with patient rooms along the perimeter. The walls were all glass so the nurses could look into every room from the desk at the center of the ward. There wasn’t any privacy, and it felt like being in a fishbowl.
The doctor waiting for her was young. She didn’t know if she wanted Jane to have a young doctor.
“Hello,” he greeted with a warm smile and an offered hand. “My name is Dr. Valtoris.”
The name niggled at something in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t place what. She took his hand and relaxed slightly when she felt the energy she recognized as belonging to a wolf shifter.
“We’re keeping her unconscious. The next twenty-four hours are going to be key. I asked the staff to let her daughter remain with her.”
“Cyril?”
The doctor shook his head. “He was gone when paramedics arrived.”
Charlotte nodded. Shifters rarely survived their mate’s death. It was usually only the need to protect their child that saved them. If they thought their child would be fine without them, they’d pass on to be with their mate.
He was trying to tell her they were keeping Juliette, but for her not to enter.
“The incident was also public.”
Charlotte nodded. If there was one rule all fae agreed on, it was that their existence’s secrecy was paramount. Whatever happened, it had been a big enough spectacle that they couldn’t attempt magical healing.
“I won’t stay, but can I look in on them?”
He nodded and walked her over. Monitors filled the room. Their beeping was like a gnat. The chair Juliette was curled up in looked even more uncomfortable than the standard-issue hospital ones.
Jane was unrecognizable. Tubes covered her face, but Charlotte could see bruises as well. Her left eye looked as if it might be swollen shut.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The bear had been one of her mother’s shifters since before she was born.
“What happened to them?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know.”
“I’ll come back to get her later,” she said.
The doctor nodded.
“She’s a total mama bear. She’ll come back.” Charlotte wasn’t sure if she said that for him or herself.
He didn’t say anything but squeezed her shoulder before leaving her to look in.
Charlotte texted Juliette, knowing she’d see it when she woke.
Charlotte: You were sleeping when I got in. Staying with my cousin an hour outside of town. I’ll be back later today.
She waited until she was sure the text hadn’t woken her, then left.
* * *
Hollis’s cottage was exactly what she’d expect from her cousin. The house was white clapboard with sage-green trim. It even had a white picket fence with roses growing up and through the pickets. More flower bushes filled the front garden, and a yard chair stood underneath the large oak tree.
The cottagecore vibes continued into the house. The decor was all soft florals and pastel colors. Vases filled with flowers were placed around the living room. It was two bedroom, though Charlotte knew her father had offered to loan her more.
The second room was her office. Hollis wrote children’s picture books full time and worked at a day care part time.
The couch was comfortable for a couch. Her cousin hadn’t said anything when she opened the door. She just pointed at the couch she’d already made up and trudged back to her room.
Charlotte woke to Hollis standing at the foot of the couch.
“There’s eggs and coffee in the kitchen.” She wandered back over to the kitchen and the small table there.
“What are you planning on doing?”
“They don’t know how long she’ll be in the hospital. The attack was too public.”
Hollis nodded and looked around in that absentminded way she did before she’d had enough coffee. “I don’t have room for her here.”
“I know.”
“Or you really.”
“I know.”
“And I don’t want to get dragged into the politics of Innisfree.” That one Charlotte didn’t understand.
“I got a job offer a couple of weeks ago, but it was in Innisfree so I turned it down.”
The Sylvafairs had been tasked with helping the shifters for generations. Someone had built the estate with its guest houses so that there was plenty of room for the shifters.
Charlotte was looking for work, but wanted to stay closer to the estate. Except that most of the businesses in her field near the estate were owned by her father.
“You’ll need a place. And you know Nolan is going to show up here as soon as he finds out.”
Nolan was one of the shifters that she’d grown up with. He was a wolf, though he was territorial of her like a lynx.
They continued to talk about the logistics of her stay in Innisfree.
“Where’s Ulla?”
“Shit.”
