Lily, who was sitting on the near right of the four-person table, spotted me approaching and rose from her seat to give me a hug. She was still wearing the shirt and skirt from earlier, but she’d added a cropped fuchsia jacket. “Hi, Lex. Meet my sisters, Morgan and Sybil.”
Morgan stood up to shake my hand. Lily stepped aside so Sybil could reach me, but the other woman gave me a cool nod instead, making no move to rise. Lily shrugged imperceptibly and motioned for me to sit in the empty chair next to Morgan.
“Nice to meet you guys,” I said. “Sorry I’m late.”
“It’s nothing,” Morgan said.
“Nice dress,” Sybil observed, her first words to me. “Is it vintage?”
“I—No, I don’t think so,” I said, taken off guard. Was that a dig at how old the dress was, or a sincere compliment that I was overthinking?
Before I could decide, Morgan said, “I’m so glad we could do this, Lex. I saw you at the party, of course, but we didn’t get a chance to visit. Have you come here for tea before?”
“Yes, my mother is a fan,” I replied, trying to force myself to relax. “She’s probably here every other week.”
“I brought my eldest daughter here for the first time last week,” Morgan began.
We continued to make small talk through our tea order and the first wave of food: tiny sandwiches. Morgan was almost artificially warm and chatty, like she’d been trained on interpersonal relationships by a Southern debutante. Sybil was cool and unyielding, but she did ask a few questions about my niece that seemed genuine. I responded to as many as I felt comfortable answering. There was no point in trying to hide that Charlie was a null, and I couldn’t really blame Sybil for her curiosity. Nulls were very rare in the Old World.
By the time the waiter served a second round of tea, I was more or less relaxed, and Lily seemed satisfied with how it was going. Then Morgan said in her warm, pleasant voice, “So, Lex. It sounds like you’ve been spending a lot of time with Simon and Lily these days.”
I glanced at Lily, who shrugged. “Yes, they’ve been training me,” I replied. “I believe that’s what Maven wanted.”
Sybil’s face hardened at the mention of Maven’s name, but Morgan just smiled. “Of course. But I swear, every time I talk to one of them, they’ve either just finished visiting you or are on their way to see you. It’s putting a serious cramp in my free babysitting options.” She said the last part with exaggerated good humor, but I could feel Lily tense beside me. Where was this going?
“I suppose that’s true. It’s really great to have friends in the new”—I glanced up at the waiter, who was setting out tiny pastries—“community,” I finished. “I don’t know how I would have handled everything without them.”
“Well,” Sybil said, in a cool, knowing tone, like a teacher calling on a habitually poor student, “you didn’t entirely handle things, did you? Or we wouldn’t have needed to bail you out last month.”
“Sybil,” Lily said under her breath. The waiter seemed relieved to scurry away.
“You were there?” I asked both of them. “When I was . . . um . . . when Lily tattooed me?” I subconsciously pulled my arms into my lap, hiding the griffins.
“We were.” Morgan blew across the surface of her tea, though if the temperature of my own cup was any indication, it hadn’t been hot in a while. “I’m not surprised that you don’t remember. You were pretty out of it.”
Lily was looking back and forth between her sisters, apparently as confused about the subtext as I was. But she was also a lot more tolerant. “Is there something you two would like to say to me?” I said, keeping my tone level but firm. “Because I feel like there’s maybe some air that needs clearing.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Morgan said innocently, but Sybil broke in before she could finish.
“You used to have a sister, right?” she said. “Wouldn’t you be a little anxious if she started hanging out with a boundary witch? The same person, in fact, who nearly got her killed?”
I sat back as though she’d slapped me. You used to have a sister, right?
Next to me, Lily was obviously about ready to snap at the two of them, but I reached out and touched her wrist to let her know I was fine. I’d spent ten years serving Uncle Sam with a bunch of clumsy teenage horndogs who’d eventually become a second family to me. I could handle this. “I understand you may be feeling anxious,” I said, keeping my voice level, “but I’d prefer that we keep my sister out of this conversation. She died before I knew anything about boundary magic.”
Sybil raised her eyebrows a little smugly, as if I’d only proven her point. “Is that why you’ve glommed onto our siblings?” she asked.
“Sybil!” Lily broke in, but Morgan spoke up before she could continue.
“We’re just not sure you understand the impact you’ve caused,” the eldest sister said in her warm, cordial voice. “Mom’s been on edge since the day she met you, Lily’s attention span has gotten even shorter, and Simon, well. He and Tracy are having problems for the first time ever.”
“Which began shortly after he started training you,” Sybil added. “Spending all that time alone together.”
Whoa. Before I could even process the fact that I’d been accused of being a home wrecker, Lily lost her temper. “What the hell is wrong with you two?” she hissed. “I invited my friend here so you could get to know her. I thought both of you were open-minded enough to have a civil goddamned conversation with her before you wrote her off because of some label. Was I wrong?”