Full of Briars by Seanan McGuire

Author:Seanan McGuire
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2016-06-29T14:34:40+00:00

Four

Everything was not going to be okay.

My parents had wanted to meet Toby on neutral ground to discuss their decision, which had seemed like a good idea at the time. Summoning Toby back to Muir Woods would just make her tense. Going to the house would look like we were there to pick up my things. And it wasn’t like meeting her at Shadowed Hills would have been any better, since it would have blown my cover further without actually making things any better. Dad had been the one to suggest a mortal restaurant, one where we’d all be wearing human disguises and hence be unlikely to be recognized by anyone who didn’t already know us.

I’d been the one to suggest Cat in the Rafters, since I knew it was owned by a member of Tybalt’s Court, and Cait Sidhe don’t care who is or isn’t an heir to the Divided Courts. As far as most of them are concerned, we’re all useless, and exist only to get in the way of good, honest felines. Getting a reservation there is supposed to be really difficult—it’s one of the best steakhouses in San Francisco—but it helps to have connections. I’d texted Raj, and Raj had pointed out that humans don’t usually go to steakhouses for breakfast. Then he’d spoken to his uncle, and now, two hours later, we were seated in the private dining room, waiting for the rest of our party to arrive.

“This is . . . rustic,” said Dad.

“Be nice,” chided Mom.

“What? All I said was that it was rustic.”

“Which everyone with any sense knows means ‘barbaric,’ at least when spoken by someone of your social status,” said a mild, faintly irritated voice from the shadows. A patch of shade peeled off and became a teenage boy about an inch shorter than me, thin, brown-skinned, and lanky, with black-tipped russet hair. Raj didn’t walk across the room: he slunk, moving fluidly and without seeming to use any actual bones. He paused when he reached the table, long enough to give my parents a lingering, utterly shameless look. Then he fell into the seat beside me, slinging his legs over mine before reaching across me to snatch the roll off my plate and begin munching. Between my body and my food, he was claiming me as his property in every feline way he knew.

Dad frowned. “Quentin?”

Right. “Mother, Father, meet Prince Raj of the Court of Dreaming Cats.”

“And his best friend,” said Raj, not bothering to swallow his mouthful of roll first. His voice was muffled by the doughy mass, but not enough to take the edge off his words. “I know your son in all ways better than you do. Remember that, as you consider taking him from me.”

“Oak and ash, Raj, don’t talk to my parents like that! Actually, don’t talk to anyone like that. You know modern grammar. Use it.” I didn’t have another roll, so I couldn’t throw it at him. I settled for wadding up my napkin and bouncing it off his head.

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