Homelands Pt. 03 Ch. 10

"That why you still love Lily?"

I drew a deep breath. "Okay, I suppose I deserved that."

Iva snickered faintly.

I looked up from the dry leaf and studied my aunt's face. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, making her mascara run. If not for her Libido, which she'd left unmasked for a change, I'd have thought it was an act.

For a brief moment, I wondered whether it was possible to make one's Libido display emotions one didn't feel. But that was just me being overly cynical.

Or so I hoped.

"What do you want, Iva?" I asked.

She tucked a stray lock of platinum blonde hair behind her ear. "To help you."

"Help? Is that why you were spying on us?"

"I wasn't...well, I guess I was. I've been doing a lot of that lately, in fact."

My stomach tied itself in knots.

"Pretty much constantly since I created this court," she confessed.

I almost fell down.

"How?" I eventually stammered.

"Frank," she said, rolling her eyes.

"No, I get the invisibility thing. But don't you ever spend any time in your own court?"

"Of course. I'm there now," she said. "Just like you're still in bed. With your arms around both your sister and your mother."

"But," I began, then clamped my fool mouth shut.

It took a great deal of power to manage being in two bodies at once. But it wasn't that difficult, when they were both engaged in mindless physical activities.

But spying on one court while running another? How powerful did you have to be to be able to think separate thoughts, carry on separate conversations, like that?

Suddenly I realized the answer to a question I should have thought to ask long ago. How was it that Daphne was spending as much time in Autumn as it sounded like she must have been? Didn't she have plenty to keep her busy back in Winter?

Of course she did. And she was tending to it.

For all I knew, she had at least one body in Spring and Summer as well.

"Back when you imprisoned us," I said. "After you brought Brianna to me. You were fucking with my memory. Constantly. Why?"

"I didn't want you focusing on anything but Brianna."

"So I wouldn't try to escape?" I asked.

Iva shrugged.

No, not that. Then why?

Her tears started flowing more rapidly.

Had she really meant for the three of us to be together at some point? If so, if she really loved both me and Brianna, what the fuck could have made her cook up a plan to Devour the two of us? It didn't make any damned sense.

Iva wiped her cheeks, making a bigger mess of her running makeup. "Most days, I wish I could just walk away from it all. But I can't. Not now. She'd...it wouldn't work."

"How powerful is she?"

Iva laughed. Hysterically.

"That bad?"

"You can't even imagine," Iva said.

I took a tentative step towards my aunt.

No, not my aunt. She was my sister, really.

It felt strange to think of her that way, but she was.

"What does she want?"

"I don't know," Iva said.

The lie was plain on her face. Nevermind the hollow sound to her voice.

"But you do want to stop her?"

"Yeah." She hesitated. "No." Then she pressed her fingertips against her forehead. "I don't know. Fuck, Frank, I'm just so confused. I don't know what to do about anything anymore. And there's no one I can turn to."

I stopped myself the moment I realized I was about to tell her she could turn to me.

This might not all be a ploy. It seemed sincere enough. But even if it wasn't, I had no idea what I could do. Or whether I was willing to do so.

I wanted revenge on Daphne, for what her son had done. If only by "the enemy of my enemy" logic, then, I probably should have been willing to extend Iva an olive branch. But I just wasn't sure I was ready to do that.

Nor was I sure that the most effective way to go after Daphne would be through Iva. For all I knew, my sister had become so unstable that she was bound to fail at whatever she had planned. Daphne might see anything Iva tried coming from a mile away. Why let her drag me down with her instead of trying to figure out my own way to strike at Lady Winter?

Iva sobbed and looked away.

Fuck me.

Because I cared about her. That's why.

It was really as simple as that. For some time now, every woman in my life took every opportunity they had available to point it out. No matter what she'd done, I still had feelings for Iva. I simply couldn't believe she'd become who everyone else seemed to think she'd become.

"Maybe we can help each other," I said.

"Yeah?" she asked, voice trembling with hope and fear and desperation.

I took a few more steps towards her. She charged me and threw herself against my chest.

When had I slipped out of the version of me that my mother favored and into this form?

If I'd simply let my body return to its natural state, that would have been one thing. But not only had I shed the extra muscle Mom loved, I'd given up some extra besides. My waist was several inches narrower than it should have been. I didn't need to touch my cheek to know that my facial hair was gone, and my jaw was less blocky.

Just the way Iva liked me.

I hugged her against my chest and ran my hands through her hair.

This was wrong. All wrong. I should be pushing her away. Or, hell, tossing her into a prison world, where Natalie could interrogate her at her leisure.

But I just couldn't.

"What can you tell me about Da-"

Iva pressed a finger over her lips. "Don't say her name. Names are dangerous things. At least for the more powerful among us."

It would have been nice to know that before now.

"If you have to refer to her, call her Lady Winter. That's safer. But try not to get in the habit of referring to her as anything too often, if you can help it."

"Okay," I said. "Anyway, what can you tell me about her?"

For a while, my sister didn't respond. Just pressed her face against my chest. Her breath was warm against my bare skin. I hadn't even realized that I was a little chilly.

The night wasn't cold. They never were, in Autumn. But even so.

Eventually, Iva said, "Have you heard of The Unshackled Maiden?"

"No," I admitted.

For a change, Iva didn't make me feel like that was the equivalent of a mortal child who'd never heard of World War II. She just sighed and nodded to herself.

"Care to tell me?"

"Better not," she said.

"Because?"

"It's complicated, Frank. Just do us both a favor and start asking around. Discretely."

"Right," I said with a laugh. "Top priority. Ask no one."

"That's not what I said."

"I know," I said, my smile fading.

"Talk to Mel," Iva said. "They know that tale well in the Shadowed Glade."

"Why can't you just-"

Iva pulled away from me and stood up straight. "I've said too much as it is. Be careful not to say that name too loudly or too often either. But look into it. When you figure out what it is, let me know. We'll go from there."

"Okay," I said. I still didn't get why she couldn't just tell me though.

"Be well, Frank," Iva said. She looked like she was thinking about hugging me, but apparently thought better of it. Instead, she vanished.

Leaving me alone, but for the oak tree that shouldn't have been able to grow there.

I walked back over to it and plucked down another leaf. One that was blood-red. The way all the snows in Winter would be soon, if it came to that.

"You fucked with the wrong family, Lady Winter," I whispered.

A sudden gust of wind picked up, yanking the leaf free from my fingers. I watched with a frown as the wind carried it away. Along with my hollow words.

Who was I kidding? From the sound of it, she was entirely too powerful to be stopped. If there was to be any blood covering the snowdrifts of Winter, it would likely be Orwin blood, if I didn't play things smart for a damn change.

Maybe I'd stop Daphne, and maybe I wouldn't. But I could at least promise myself that, come what may, I'd do everything in my power to see that my family survived it. Including those that weren't in Autumn. And those that weren't even born yet.

And, for that matter, House Farrier as well.

Kaitlin might not have thought so, but the Farriers and the Orwins were still part of the same family. And we'd spent too much time bickering with one another. It was time to come together, as a family, and prepare to face Winter.