“Melissa?”

Mel winced and turned her back to Austin. “I’m sorry for following you. Please, just ignore me.”

“Why are you following me?” Austin asked.

Mel turned back to him. He clearly didn’t want her to be let off the hook that easily.

“I don't know. You were acting strange at the history test and I thought you were hiding something. So I followed you, to see where you went after. What kind of plans you had. I know it was wrong and I’m sorry. It’s really none of my business that you have two women cooking for you.”

“You mean my moms?” Austin asked.

“Your moms? As in two mothers?”

“Yeah,” he said, dragging a hand over the back of his neck. “They’re my family. They’re my moms. But I don’t have to explain that to you. You really shouldn't have come here.”

Mel saw the scowl descending on Austin’s face and at once she felt entirely unwelcome. She didn’t know what she had expected if he saw her, but in this moment she realized she had expected him to be happier to see her. It really made no sense at all, and Mel immediately pushed down her feelings of disappointment. She had done something wrong and Austin was right to be mad at her.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Mel said. “Can we please just forget about this? I won’t tell anyone and we can just go back to being classmates. Okay?”

Austin let out a deep sigh and took a step back from Mel.

“Sure, that’s fine. Let’s forget about it.”

Behind Austin, a long slender figure appeared in an apron and put a hand on his shoulder. Austin met her eyes and a wary expression covered his face. Austin’s mom turned to Mel and gave her a warm smile.

“Why don’t you come inside?” she asked.

“Oh, no. I’m sorry,” Mel said. “I don’t want to intrude. I was just… in the neighborhood.”

She took a step forward and put a hand on Mel’s arm, guiding her toward the house.

“Let’s have some dinner, shall we?” she said.

Mel glanced back at Austin, who stood in the darkness of the street outside. His shoulder slumped, and he dragged a hand over his face. He turned and met Mel’s eyes for a second and then averted his gaze. A moment later, he followed them inside.

Austin's mother grabbed Mel’s cloak and threw it over a chair in the hallway. She led Mel into the kitchen where the blond-haired woman stood stirring a pot on the stove. She turned and a wide smile spread over her lips.

“Hi, I’m Belle, one of Austin’s moms. Who are you?”

“I’m Melissa Temper, Austin’s classmate. I’m so sorry for intruding on your family time. I can leave.”

Belle waved a hand in the air in front of her. “Nonsense, we’re so glad to have you here. Austin never brings home anyone.”

“That’s true, especially a girlfriend,” his other mom said.

She guided Mel to sit at the table and Austin joined her, taking the seat next to Mel.

“Mom, she’s not my girlfriend,” Austin said. “You heard her. She’s my classmate who followed me here.”

Austin gave Mel a sideways glance, and Mel felt like she wanted to slip under the table and hide from his gaze. She was someone who had followed Austin. What would his mothers think of her now?

“Well, we’re just so glad he finally brought someone home,” his mom said. “You can call me Olivia, and we’re so glad to meet you, Melissa.”

Belle snaked her arm around Olivia’s waist and they looked at Mel and Austin with love in their eyes. Mel felt a strange sensation washing over her, like her skin felt all tingly and her heart felt too big to fit inside her chest. These people were so nice to her, and Mel didn’t really know what to do.

She averted her gaze and stared at the vase of mountain daisies on the table right in front of her. The pink center of the flowers lit up from the candle next to the vase and the few buds that hadn’t bloomed yet were just petals of darkness hiding the truth of beauty inside.

Olivia served them bowls of stew from the pot on the stove and when all four of them were seated at the table, she started telling stories about Austin. The kind of stories Mel had never imagined existed. It was strange to hear about a life Austin had lived where he didn’t scowl every single day.

“He came home one day when he was just a kid with a whole bouquet of mountain daisies,” Olivia said. “First, I thought he must have gotten some money from his father or maybe Belle had snuck him something and bought them at the market stalls. It wasn’t until I unpacked the paper wrapping around them that I noticed the stems still had roots sticking out. When I asked him about where he got the flowers, he just shrugged and gave me a wide grin.”

“Mom, please, stop,” Austin said, leaning his head on the table.

Olivia’s smile only grew wider from this, and her black eyes sparkled in the candlelight.

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“He said, ‘You deserve flowers, mom’, and that was it. I later found out that he had snuck into Falden, climbed the stone stairway up to the dragon forge, and managed to pick the flowers from the edge of the waterfall. I mean, what kid does that? It was so cute. But of course, I had to tell Falden about this and they did increase their security after that.”

“He could have fallen into the waterfall, or off the stairs leading up to the forge,” Belle said. “Or even accidentally activated the dragon stones. The mother only knows what could have happened to him. You were such a little rascal, Austin. We really had to keep both eyes on you at all times. Every single time you looked away, you were off on a new adventure.”

Austin gave Mel a glance. “Please pretend you didn’t hear any of this.”

Mel’s smile widened, and she turned her gaze to Olivia and Belle. “It’s so strange to think that Austin hadn’t always been a sourpuss. Who would have known he used to be sweet?”

Belle cleaned off the bowls after they were finished with dinner and Mel had to admit she had had one of the best nights of her life here. Austin’s moms were nothing like his dad. They were generally nice and seemed to not judge Mel for her misguided decision to spy on Austin, which she was immensely grateful for.

“Why don’t you stay the night, Melissa?” Olivia said. “Austin has his own room and I bet you can both fit on his bed.”

Mel’s jaw dropped, and she stared at Olivia, feeling like this must be a joke. Her eyes widened as she looked over at Austin and saw his face falling. This was not a joke, apparently.

“No, no, definitely not,” Austin said, shaking his head.

“Austin, that’s not nice,” Olivia said. “Mel is a guest here and darkness fell hours ago. It’s not safe to walk alone out there. Aldrion was recently attacked and we can’t let her leave tonight. It will be better to go home in the morning, when the sun is up.”

“Thanks for the offer,” Mel said, feeling her throat dry as sand. “But I would prefer to return home to Falden.”

From the sink, sounds of water rushing and porcelain clinking came and Belle looked up, glancing over her shoulder at them.

“Olivia is right,” she said. “Melissa will stay the night. We have to be responsible for our guest’s well-being.”

Mel could practically hear Austin’s jaw grinding. He stared at Belle and then back at Olivia.

“Fine, Melissa can stay,” he said. “But we’re not sharing a bed. I was serious when I said that Melissa and I are just classmates, nothing more. Please try to not make her uncomfortable again. I’ll take the couch and Mel can have my bedroom.”

Olivia shrugged and threw a strand of black hair over her shoulder.

“Well, Austin, why don’t you show her to your room then while we finish cleaning up here? You two must be exhausted after the test today and probably want to be well rested to receive your results tomorrow.”

“Sure,” Austin said, and stood up from his seat by the table.

He walked away, expecting Mel to follow him, and Mel did. They walked up a staircase to the top floor of the small house and only two doors stood closed in a narrow corridor upstairs. He walked to the one furthest from the staircase and opened the door.

Austin walked inside, and Mel followed him. He was carrying a white candle mounted on a copper tray. He placed it on the bedside table next to a single bed. Mel and Austin would never have fitted in this bed together. They would have had to lie on top of each other to sleep here.

This place was nothing like the Taveck mansion and Mel felt like so many more questions had emerged since she’d followed Austin tonight. He seemed like an advanced jigsaw puzzle, one that she felt she was still missing pieces from, to complete.

“Well, this is it,” Austin said. “It’s not much, but it will work for tonight. If you need to borrow any clothes or such, they are in the drawers.”

Austin pointed to a small dresser at the other end of the room. He stared down at the wooden floor, refusing to meet Mel’s eyes. He seemed to hate this more than she did and Mel winced, feeling like she should never have come here.

“I’m sorry for following you tonight,” Mel said. “This wasn’t how I thought it would go, and I’m so sorry for putting you in this awkward position. I can sleep on the couch downstairs tonight. Okay?”

Austin shook his head. “No, it’s okay. My moms wouldn’t like that and it really doesn’t matter to me. This isn’t a very nice bed, so I will probably be more comfortable than you tonight, anyway.”

“Okay, I guess that makes me feel a bit better about all this.”

Mel shifted her weight from one foot to the other, wishing this moment would end.

“Look, I don’t care that you followed me,” Austin said. “Sure, it was shitty of you and not something I appreciate. But it’s not the end of the world. I just want you to know that there is a reason why I keep this all secret. I really don’t want you to go around telling people about this.”

Mel met his gaze for the first time since they stepped inside his room. He looked anxious and like he really wanted to trust her. She felt like she had been trapped for a long while in trying to not follow her own instincts and put her trust in the people she met here in Aldrion. She had been following Marcus’ advice, trying to make him happy. But the truth was that she needed to trust Austin. She needed to follow her own intuition.

“I won’t tell anyone about this,” Mel said. “I get that it's not the kind of news you want people talking about. You hanging around with some girls from the cult.”

Austin shook his head. “No, that’s not the part I’m asking you to keep secret. I’m asking you to not tell anyone about my moms and that they live here.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s supposed to be a secret,” Austin said. “My dad isn’t exactly thrilled that my mom left him and this all is an agreement between them.”

“So, Olivia is your biological mom?” Mel asked. “But how did Belle come into the picture?”

Austin dragged a hand over his face. “It all went down when I was still a baby. I barely remember a time before this. Basically, Belle was hired to be my nanny. But my mom and she spent so much time together with me and they fell in love. They wanted to run away together or something, but instead they made a deal with my dad.”

“So my mom and he are still officially married, but she gets to live here with Belle and my father gets to pretend he didn’t lose his wife to another woman. It’s all a huge mess, but the thing is that as long as not that many people know about it, my father is content with supporting them and me. If it got out, well, then he might change his mind.”

“Okay…” Mel said. “But what about your brother, the older Taveck?”

“Derek doesn't really care about any of this. He lives in the mansion, but is most often out on dangerous missions, anyway.”

Austin moved toward her and snuck past to the door. He walked outside the room and glanced back one last time.

“If you need anything, just let me know. I’ll be downstairs.”

“Thank you,” Mel said. “For letting me stay and for trusting me. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

Austin gave her a weak smile and then walked downstairs, leaving her alone in his room. Mel closed the door after him and then looked down at her clothes. She shrugged and peeled away the cover from the bed. She snuck beneath the soft fabric and put her head on the pillow.

Mel dragged her hair over the pillow and splayed it out like a fan around her, letting her neck rest on the soft cotton. Her body felt heavy, and she let herself sink into the smell of Austin surrounding her. It lulled her to sleep, and she wished she was nowhere else in the world than here.