“WHY OF COURSE.” THE Queen glowed with pleasure. Not quite literally, but her energy kicked up a breeze that whirled flower petals up off the ground and into a blizzard of smugness. A squirt of the perfume bottle and one of those breezes tugged the droplets away from the Queen and toward my mother. The cloud misted Aiti’s body, starting at one outstretched hand, passing under her chin, then drifting to the opposite fingertips.
The effect was powerful and instantaneous. Aiti’s arms slid down to her sides. Her posture transitioned subtly yet obviously from bird to human. She blinked twice then addressed me. “Such a darling dress! What’s the occasion?”
My mother wasn’t all there, not yet. The flower petals, the circle of fae, the Queen—none of that made an impact. All she’d noticed was my c
