Mona Lisa Blossoming

Chapter Eleven

The delicious smell of cooking food teased my senses awake. I crawled from Amber's bed, leaving him asleep, and made my way down the hallway to shower in my room.

Wondering where the others were, I opened my senses as I walked downstairs. There were heartbeats scattered around the house, but it was the ones beating more quickly, the ones gathered outside that drew my interest. I slipped out the front door, walked past the rounded corner of the east ballroom, and found what I'd suspected. Wiley had come back.

He was down on all fours, prancing around the lawn in a gentle canter. Casio was on his back, the skirts of her dress bunched up, her thin legs sticking out like sticks as she bounced on Wiley's back. She was giggling.

Tersa and Jamie watched them from beneath a hanging canopy of Spanish moss draped over the spreading branches of a giant oak tree, their red hair darkened to shadowy brown under the dim starlight as clouds covered the moon.

Wiley's face and limbs were smudged with dirt, and his hair once again tangled. But the clothes he wore were clean. Another set of Thaddeus's, I saw, the waistband loose, the cuff of the pants rolled up. He pranced to a stop beneath the towering oak and let his passenger disembark. She did so with clumsy grace, her eyes alight, her smile revealing dimples in her cheeks.

Wiley stood. Then with a casual shove, he sent Jamie toppling down to the ground and pounced on him. Pinning the larger boy to the ground, Wiley bared his teeth dangerously close to Jamie's throat and growled softly.

"No, Wiley!" I shouted, rushing toward them as Tersa said in a firm voice, "Wiley, no!"

Wiley looked up at me, gave me a smile—at least that's what I think it was… a lot of teeth but no growl—then lowered his face and snarling teeth back to Jamie.

"It's okay, Mona Lisa," Jamie said, making no attempt to move or fight back. He just lay there calmly, as if this was a routine they'd already gone through several times before.

"He's just establishing the fact that he's dominant," Jamie explained. "Something which I have absolutely no wish to challenge."

Only when little Casio put her hand on the Wolf Boy's shoulder and softly said, "No, Wiley," did he release Jamie.

"Likes you girls well enough," Jamie said as he got to his feet slowly. "Doesn't seem to like guys as much." He grinned, making his freckles dance. "But I think he's getting used to me."

"Jamie," I said, fear still a bitter taste in my throat, "you should have stayed inside. You shouldn't have put yourself at risk."

"It's okay, Mona Lisa," Jamie said, his voice soft, looking at me with that new maturity he'd acquired since his sister's attack. "I knew Wiley wouldn't hurt me as long as I didn't fight back."

You couldn't have known, I wanted to shout at him. His freckles were a cheerful scatter across a face that lifted often and easily into a smile. But there was a budding strength beneath that sweet charm. He was a boy becoming a man. And I had to stand back and let him grow, let him make his own decisions, even though I wanted badly to keep him wrapped in safety.

Wiley came closer, sniffing me. I held out my hands and let him smell me.

"Thank you for rescuing me from that alligator," I told the wild boy, "although it was stupid to jump in and wrestle something three times bigger and heavier than yourself."

I doubted Wiley understood the words, but he certainly caught my scolding tone. He grinned up at me, much as Jamie had, unrepentant, making me sigh and smile. "I'm surrounded by fearless boys, it seems."

"They learn it from you," Tersa said.

"Maybe that's not such a good thing."

"But it is," Tersa returned, her voice a low, gentle, sure sound. "It's a good thing not to fear."

The awareness of a new heartbeat and the sense of a presence had me turning to my left. Wiley loped into the forest, disappearing as Miguel appeared.

"Wiley," Tersa shouted after him.

"Let him go," I said. "We know he'll come back now."

"Casio," Miguel said gently, "your mother sent me to find you. Who was that boy you were playing with?"

"Wiley," Casio said.

"And who is Wiley?" he patiently asked her.

"A friend."

Miguel lifted his head to look askance at me.

"A Mixed Blood," I explained. "He grew up wild and isn't used to men."

"Then he is dangerous," Miguel said quietly.

"No," Casio cried.

"Casio is safe with him. He would not hurt her," I said, and mentally chided myself. I was as bad as Jamie. But I knew with certainty that Wiley would not harm a child. It was just men he had a problem with.

"Come," Miguel said, holding his hand out to Casio, "your mother misses you."

We all trudged back toward the house.

"Who came up with the name Wiley?" I asked.

"Your brother did," Tersa said. "It sounds like what you called him, Wild Boy. Though he said something about a coyote and a cartoon that I did not quite understand."

"Wile E. Coyote," I muttered, smiling. Not quite the same thing as a wolf, but close. And Wild Boy did have a way of dashing off rather quickly like the cartoon character. My brother had a sly sense of humor, it seemed. "Wiley's as good a name as any, I guess."

I made a note to buy some new clothes for Wiley, clothes that fit him better. The way the boy was using them up, my brother was going to run out of clothes soon if I didn't.

Speaking of my brother, I heard a car pull up the long driveway. They had returned, just in time for dinner.

I waited by the front door and watched my men climb out of the Suburban. "Where's Horace?" I asked.

"We sent the good steward on his merry way," Gryphon said.

"We have some of the coolest businesses, Mona Lisa," Thaddeus said, his eyes dancing, his usually calm face alive with excitement.

"Yeah? You'll have to tell me about them later," I said, smiling at his eagerness.

Gryphon scrutinized me carefully with his sharp falcon eyes as he climbed the sweeping steps, the others behind him. "You are well?"

It took me a heartbeat to realize he was asking about my injuries. "Oh, yes," I said, stepping back, letting them all enter through the door. "Janelle healed me up as good as new. It was amazing. And she said she was going to teach me and Casio how to do what she did."

"We will at least begin the process," Janelle said, coming down the front hallway, Prince Halcyon a golden presence beside her. "I have been sent to call you all to dinner." She gazed curiously at Thaddeus, and I realized that they had never met.

"This is my brother, Thaddeus," I said, introducing them. "Thaddeus, this is Healer Janelle and Prince Halcyon, High Council members. We are honored to have them as our guests."

Like the polite boy he had been raised to be, Thaddeus stepped forward and shook Halcyon's hand. Though Thaddeus glanced curiously at the long nails, there was no fear on his face. With the briefest pause, Halcyon carefully shook my brother's hand and released it, a slight smile on his face, and I realized it was the first time I'd seen any of them do that. Shaking hands seemed to be a human tradition, not a Monèrian one. Made sense among a people that had the casual strength to rip one another apart with their bare hands.

"A pleasure to meet you, sir," Thaddeus said.

"Likewise," Halcyon murmured.

"Your brother," Janelle said wonderingly. "You found him."

"Yes," I said. "I found him."

The healer held out a hand to my brother. But when Thaddeus reached out and grasped it, instead of shaking it, Janelle just held his hand in both of hers, a distant inward look in her eyes.

"Ah," she exclaimed softly, her eyes widening with surprise. "You also have the gift for healing. How rare in a male."

"I do?" Thaddeus said. His power flared out briefly as it did whenever he was frightened or threatened, and all present felt it.

And I knew what Thaddeus feared, what he was threatened by, because it was my fear as well. Whether or not Councilwoman Janelle could sense his other even more rarer ability: Basking.

Gently, I pulled Thaddeus away from the healer, and she released his hand.

"How blessed we are," Janelle said, pleasure lighting her eyes. "Three new healing talents discovered in such a short span of time."

"How many do you usually discover a year?" Thaddeus asked curiously.

"One or two with the potential every ten cycles, if we are fortunate."

Ten cycles meaning ten years.

"That rarely!" I exclaimed. "So does that mean it will be hard to find a healer to come to our territory?"

"Healers are few and valued enough that they can pick and choose where they serve," Janelle said, confirming my suspicions. Which explained why my mother, Mona Sera, considered one of the worst Queens among the Monère, had not had a healer.

"I won't be able to get my hands on one, will I?" I said bluntly. Janelle smiled, as if my quaint human phrasing seemed to amuse her. "If that means to lure a healer to your service, then no, not for the next several seasons, in all likelihood."

"Because I'm a Mixed Blood Queen," I said flatly.

"Yes," Janelle agreed gently. "You are an unknown. They will wait to see how you rule. You must prove yourself strong, stable, and prosperous first."

"To everyone, it seems," I muttered.

"In the meanwhile, the best you can do is to develop all your potential talent and you are richly blessed in that. You must allow me to instruct your brother as well."

"It seems we have no other choice," I said wryly. "How long does it take to learn to do what you did to me?"

"It varies greatly, but half a cycle of ten is most common."

"Five years?" I groaned. Which also meant that Janelle wasn't sure I'd be able to get my hands on a healer even a year from now. "How long can you stay?"

"No longer than a fortnight, I'm afraid. But we can continue our lessons thereafter every second new moon when you come to the High Council meetings."

I smiled grimly at Thaddeus. "Well, little brother, I hope one of us learns fast."

"So do I," he said, gazing down at my recently healed calf. "So do I."