Dream Five, Chapter Twenty-Seven

(Anything in asterisks is meant to be italicized.)

I was in the shower when Barrons got back. His presence electrifies me. I often feel him before I see him and this was no exception. He leaned against the wall next to the shower.

"Did you find anything?" I asked when he didn't speak.

"Nothing any of us are going to like," he growled, "but I'll debrief you later. Mac, we need to discuss—"

"I know," I cut him off, my hand automatically going to my stomach while I turned off the water. "Does it have to be now?"

"Forestalling to avoid the inevitable is a pointless act of futility," he said as he handed me a towel.

"It might make me feel better. Wouldn't say that's entirely without a point," I muttered. "Who even uses words like 'forestalling,' anyway?"

"Fine. When would you prefer to have this conversation?"

He crossed his arms and looked down at me impatiently as I got out. My towel was also a bit of an act of futility due to the size of my stomach. The rooms on this level were all made of glass and the glass was adjustable. They were usually see-through from the outside and opaque on the inside. At least they were the first time my parents had had to stay here. I had requested my room not be see-through in any way and Ryodan said it wouldn't be, but better to be safe than sorry.

"Preferably never, okay?" I snapped as I summoned some clothes. "This is not a conversation I ever want to have."

"Neither do I," he said softly.

I looked at him and saw the truth of his statement. Once I had finished dressing, I lowered myself into a chair and put my face in my hands for a couple of minutes before finally lifting it and looking at him again. He hadn't moved.

I smiled sadly and asked quietly, "What are we going to do?"

"Figure this out."

His voice was steady. He moved in that way he does where he doesn't displace any air until he was standing in front of me. My chair was the only one in the small bedroom so I invited the elements to make one for him. Barrons didn't speak again until he had sat down. "We've got options."

I took a deep breath and nodded, accepting that we were having this conversation now. "Is there any kind of meeting either of us are supposed to be at soon that I need to be aware of?"

He knew what I was really asking. I didn't want to have this conversation any more times than necessary and didn't want it to be interrupted. Ryodan should really have "do not disturb" signs.

Barrons's eyes glittered amusement as he picked up my thoughts before he said, "Not until after nightfall."

I nodded again and summoned my journal and a pen, opening it and starting a new entry. Lists help me think. I wrote down "Options" and underlined it before I looked back up at him. "How bleak would you say our options are?"

He shrugged and uncrossed his arms, pleased that I wasn't digging my heels in and resisting like I once would have. "All of them have drawbacks. Some have benefits."

I smiled a little and said, "Never could get a straight answer out of you."

The glitter of amusement briefly returned to his eyes. "Start with what's most ideal: raising it in Dublin and not hiding from however many worlds that we have a child."

I swallowed a sigh before I began writing below that and said, "Then there's raising it in Dublin and hiding from all of the worlds that we have a child."

"That would mean sequestering it to the lair and finding someone we trust enough to bring down there to babysit whenever we're in Faery." I was willing to share the lair with the baby, but not entirely willing to share it with anyone else.

He was looking at me intently, like there was something I was missing. An image of the concubine's residue crying in a garden of the White Mansion floated to the top of my mind. It had been a beautiful cage, but a cage all the same. It'd never be allowed to go outside and play in the sun. Then I thought of Dani being raised in a cage by her mother and Rowena, of Barrons being forced to keep his son in one for thousands of years to protect the world from him, and of Lyryka and her bottle.

"We are not putting our child in a cage," I assured him quietly as I crossed it out.

"I can ward the bookstore against humans and you can relocate the cafe."

My eyes narrowed. That would mean closing my bookstore. And it would be complex, as he'd have to mix in the blood of those who would be allowed past the ward. Some of us aren't also entirely human.

*Sacrifices are going to have to be made*, he floated along our connection. I didn't like it but I wrote it down, noting the drawbacks.

"You can put the bookstore and the garage back to how they were when you were learning to be queen."

I started writing and frowned. "I thought you said all of the Silvers in our Silver room behind the bookstore had been shattered."

"I'd stack them to lead somewhere else. Possibly here. They'd have to get past my men just to get to the bookstore."

"Not the worst idea," I admitted as I noted the drawbacks, which included not being able to use his fabulous car collection and my beloved Viper. I could sift us pretty much anywhere but I love using his collection of muscle cars.

"I have other properties around the world." His voice got a little softer with that one. I knew this; I'd seen bills for them when I'd first found the photos in his desk but had never mentioned them. A lot had happened since then—especially immediately after I'd found them—but I hoped he'd someday take me to see them.

"We could leave Dublin," I finished softly.

Neither of us had any desire to do that. We'd both fallen in love with her. A part of me was afraid Ryodan would pack up and follow his brother like he'd always done. Then Dani would feel she'd have to split her time between the man she loved and her city.

The city was also at a precarious state in its rebirthing process and I feared it would fall apart again without us and the Nine. My bookstore was here. My parents were here. The abbey was here. Nearly everything and everyone I loved was here. People were flocking to Dublin once they learned we had electricity, cell service (albeit spotty unless on the Nine's mysteriously magical and fail-proof network), food, and jobs.

But this was my child. We hadn't even met yet and there already wasn't much I wouldn't do for it. The only person I knew I would ever love more than this child was the man sitting across from me.

"If he thought we were permanently moving, he'd follow," Barrons said, intuiting my thoughts about the Nine and Ryodan who kept them together. "I could always move you and the baby somewhere else and keep the bookstore as my permanent residence if you really want me to keep them in Dublin."

"Absolutely not," I immediately said. "I'm not doing this without you, I am not living without you. The two of us separating is not an option." He inclined his head, his lips turning up slightly at the corners.

"If we decide not to move and we don't want it to feel like it's in a cage of any kind but we want to keep it as safe as possible in those circumstance, then we need to consider separating it from us."

"Are you suggesting we give it up?" I asked in alarm.

I myself had been adopted. I never knew my birth mother Isla O'Connor because she had died shortly after I was born and Alina and I were sent away. I didn't even know who my birth father was.

"Not entirely," he said calmly, waiting for me to calm down and remember that he always had a plan. Once I had, he leaned forward and took my hands. His touch always sends a spark of electricity through me. "Mac, we're going to need help. The more and more the Fae get ahold of themselves and get settled, the more and more you're going to have to be in Faery and you're not going there without me. We can't bring the baby with every time, especially as it gets older. Both of us come and go from the bookstore frequently. If we could even find someone we trust to also live in the bookstore and help raise our child, that person could be targeted and could learn far too much."

"So a nanny isn't an option then," I said tightly. This just kept getting worse. I figured my parents could watch it when we had to be in Faery or we could drop it off at the daycare at the abbey. If it was a girl and a *sidhe*-seer, I knew Kat would take and teach her when she was old enough in a heartbeat. They hadn't had much success breeding my bloodline and I was the last. But if human resentment towards the Fae was building, I couldn't be sure my child would be safe with my parents or even at the abbey. And if it was a boy, I'm sure the daycare would watch him but he couldn't stay at the abbey. "You always have a plan, Jericho. What is it?"

"Moving your parents to Scotland and leaving it with them," he said softly.

"Scotland?" I echoed. I'd deal with the rest of what he said in a minute.

"Build them a house near Dageus and Chloe's cottages at the edge of Christian's estate. There's a village nearby. It's fairly provincial. I'd set up a Silver in the castle and we could sift there as often as we wanted."

Barrons quietly waited as I sat there and thought. Dageus had told me to let him know if I ever needed anything from him and Chloe. If I asked, I was fairly certain they would readily agree to keep an eye on my parents and child. Christian considered the Nine a part of his tribe, although Ryodan and Barrons disagreed with him on that.

"If protecting our child means letting Christian think we're a part of his tribe," Barrons said tightly and softly, "I'll do it." I looked at him in surprise and almost laughed before another thought sobered me.

My parents weren't getting any younger. This was a lot to ask of them. What made it worse was that they'd probably do it. This was their only grandchild and they'd want it to be just as safe as we did. Barrons and I were targets. It was in my DNA to protect humans. I may be a sheepdog, but I'm a sheepdog who fights with the lawlessness and the the ferocity of a wolf. Not to mention that the wolf sitting across from me would always follow me into battle.

Then something else occurred to me. Alina and I weren't terribly rebellious kids. We weren't the easiest, but we were fairly good and stayed out of trouble for the most part. But this child was going to be the son or daughter of MacKayla Lane-O'Connor *and* Jericho Barrons. He was the night and I was a sunshine girl. Immensely powerful in our own rights, unstoppable together.

"This child is going to be a handful," he agreed. "Both in personality and power. That's why we'll be there whenever we can be."

"It wouldn't be permanent, right?" I said after another minute of thought. "I don't want to miss our child's entire life. Or their entire childhood."

"No," he said with a swipe of his head to the left. "Once the child is old enough, we'll bring it home to live with us."

"How old is old enough?"

"When it can proficiently defend itself."

"It'll be quite the fighter if it's our kid, huh?" I said with a weak smile.

"It certainly will."