“Who was that?” Gray asked. 

“Nobody important.” Raven brushed off the question. 

“Sure.” Gray frowned. “Whatever you say.” 

“Are you okay?” Selkie interjected. “You look distracted.” 

“I’m fine.” 

“Just weird as usual, then?”

“Yep.” 

Selkie rolled their eyes. 

“Can we go somewhere else? It’s too crowded here,” Gray asked. 

“Yeah. Good idea. Let’s go outside,” Raven suggested. 

“On the balcony?” 

“Sure.” 

The balcony was an ironwood extension from a second-story window, with climbing ivy and pothos growing out of numerous planter baskets. They were somewhat overgrown, taking over most of the wall space. It was big enough to fit all three of them comfortably but not much more. Faint echoes of music from the ballroom could be heard drifting out of open windows. The sky was still barely lit. It was a place they were used to, but this time it felt strange. 

Raven held out his arm and Gray settled in against his side. The silence was unbearably awkward. 

“So, Raven.” Selkie crossed his arms. “Got something to share with the class?” 

“Right now?” He asked.

“When do you propose instead? Because you’re being weird and I’m not letting it go.”

“It’s fine, Selkie,” Gray interjected. 

“It’s not fine. Grow a pair and tell your boyfriend secrets aren’t okay.” 

“I-” Gray stuttered, “I kind of.. have an idea of what happened already.” 

Selkie’s eyes narrowed. 

“Oh, I see. You’re just keeping secrets from me, then,” They said flatly.

“Come on, Selkie. When could I have talked to you?” Raven pleaded. 

“You clearly found a way to talk to Gray. I feel like you could have made it happen,” They snapped. 

“That’s not fair, of course I would go to Gray first-”

“Of course you would. You go to Gray and forget I exist, as usual,” Selkie huffed. “Fine. You don’t have to tell me, I’ll go find my own handsome stranger to dance with, and you can stay out here all by yourselves. Enjoy the company.” 

“I didn’t…” but Selkie was already gone. 

“He’ll be okay,” Gray said. “Just give him a bit to come around. It’s been a rough week at home.” 

“I guess.” Raven sighed. “It bothers me that he keeps doing this, though, even though he never tells me anything either.” 

Gray let the sentence hang, and after a moment, he changed the subject.

“So, that stranger was the shapeshifter, right?” 

“Eden, yeah. How’d you guess?” 

Gray shrugged. “I just don’t think anyone else would ask you to dance out of nowhere like that. And I hope you wouldn’t take a dance like that right in front of me without a good reason.” He looked at Raven pointedly, and Raven’s face got warm.

“Of course not.” 

“Of course.” Gray grinned. The music shifted, going from upbeat to a slow partner dance in a smooth set of cadences. 

“May I?” Raven asked, reaching out a hand. 

Gray took it, and the two of them danced out on the balcony, not-so-alone among the ivy and the stars. As they did, an idea began taking shape in Raven’s mind- one that had been more or less fragmented in his thoughts for a while now. 

He just needed more information. He needed to talk it out with someone who understood, and right now, however badly he wanted it to be, that person wasn’t Gray, or Selkie, or Alice. 

“I need to go,” He said gently once the music faded away. 

“You’ll be back, right?” 

“Yes.”

“Promise?”

“I’ll be back soon.” 

“You have to promise.”

“I promise. Just tell my mother I died or something.” Raven joked. 

“Hell no,” Gray replied seriously. “I would not survive that.” 

“Just get Alice to make something up. I need to go.” 

“When you get back, you owe all of us.” 

Raven smiled.

“I know. I’ll make it up to you, promise.” 

Gray squeezed him in a hug. 

“Just figure out whatever this is and come back.” 

-

It was already late, but Raven soon found himself following a familiar woody path. He knew it was the right way, but at the same time, he had no idea what he was doing. 

The familiar overgrown house was soon visible between the trees, windows lit with a warm light. Raven could not bring himself to go inside. Instead, he walked around the old wood base through the surprisingly well-organized flower beds. 

Gift Holder. Gray’s face kept coming to the front of Raven’s mind, no matter how many times he tried to think about something else. 

Are you going to leave? 

He could. He never got to know his sister, but they were family. He could disappear, pretend he didn’t care about anything happening here. He could work in the palace and live comfortably. 

Except that he really couldn’t, not without more sacrifices than were really his to make. 

“You like the gardens?”  

Raven was jolted out of his trance by Chrissy, who had again seemed to materialize unnoticed. 

“Um. Yeah, they’re really nice,” He stuttered. 

“Eden keeps them. I think you’d be surprised how gentle they can be.” 

“Probably.”

“I know they aren’t very likable, but give them a chance.” 

“I already am.”

Chrissy grinned.

“To be honest, with what they just told me, I wasn’t expecting to see you today.” 

“They’re back here already?” Raven asked, surprised.

“Mhm,” Chrissy nodded, pointing up to a window above them. “They’re upstairs with Apollo if you were-”

“No, actually, I was looking for you.” Raven cut her off. 

“Oh,” She replied. 

“I just need answers. So far every new piece of information has just raised more questions, and I can’t do anything if I don’t know what’s happening.” 

“Okay,” Chrissy said with measured evenness.  “So, you’ve considered your options? I heard you know someone on the queen’s… court.” 

“My sister’s a Dane, yeah. She’s been there for as long as I can remember.”

“Do you want to join her?”

“I don’t know her at all.” 

She nodded.

“But you wish you did?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I understand.”

Raven took a deep breath. 

“Is it too much to ask you about Apollo?” He asked. 

Chrissy shrugged.

“He’s a great kid. Obviously, I didn’t mean to get into this situation, but…” 

“I don’t need to know.” 

“No, no worries. It’s not really a secret around here, anyway.” She forced a laugh. “It’s kind of a long story, though.” 

“I have time.”

“Okay, if you’re sure. So, you have to understand first that my gift is what protects this house. The only reason you could find it again was because I wanted you to, if anyone else tried they would walk in circles until they gave up. The building simply can’t be found unless I want it to be.”

“Seems useful.”

“Useful now, yeah. I was about nine when it kicked in. I had a little playhouse in the gardens, like a treehouse kind of thing, and it got late and my parents came looking for me one day. You can fill in the rest.” 

“That’s awful.”

“Not the point. I had to learn how to survive living off of favors, and there was a certain period when most of them came from men, if you know what I mean. So an accident happened. I was seventeen.” 

Raven had no response. 

Chrissy brushed the petals of the nearest flower with her fingers. A sunflower. With a soft expression, she said, “These were always my favorites. For some reason, whenever I used to get flowers they were always roses. Which made sense from boys, I guess, but I would leave them in my window until I forgot to water them and they dried up.” 

“Do you like them because they follow the sun?” Raven asked, grateful for the shift.

“I guess so. They just seem like such happy flowers.” 

They were silent for a moment. The faintest sound of laughter could be heard from the house. 

“I’m so sorry.” 

“You don’t need to be. I’m happy here. I’ve got my own little sun to look towards.”

With a little grin, Chrissy gently tilted the head of the sunflower so it faced the lit window on the second story. 

There was suddenly a dull throbbing pain in the back of Raven’s throat. 

“I…” He paused to gather himself. “I don’t want to be a Dane.”

“Good.” Chrissy dropped the flower head. “You would have been miserable.”

“But I can’t just leave my life behind.”

“You don’t have to. Do whatever you think is best.”

“I mean… I’d love to stay and help you guys, don’t get me wrong. But I kind of have someone who means a lot to me back there.” 

Chrissy looked delighted.

“A lover! How sweet, you should introduce us! You’re family now, after all. House rules are if she can keep a secret, you can keep her.”

Raven couldn’t help but laugh. 

“First of all, he’s supposed to be engaged to Selkie Greenwood.” 

Chrissy froze with an unreadable expression on her face. 

“I don’t think I’m quite caught up with the nobles and their drama,” Chrissy said. “Could you catch me up?”

“Gray isn’t nobility. But Selkie is transgender and doesn’t want a partner. So, the two of them tried to call off the arrangement but their parents are still carrying on like it’s something,” Raven recited.

“Oh, my. That’s complicated, yes.” 

“Very. Plus, Gray is working at the bakery downtown against his father’s wishes, so they aren’t speaking.” 

“Well, if you’re in love, you’re in love,” she said slowly. “You could always, you know, run off into the sunset or something.”

“Chrissy! No, he wants to stay in the bakery.” 

“Just open a new one somewhere else.” 

“Then I have to help, and I am shit at baking,” he grumbled. 

“You can be emotional support.” She squinted suggestively. 

“Oh, my gods. I’m done, I’m going home.” 

“You’ll figure it out. Love finds a way.”

“You’re so cheesy.” Raven grimaced. 

“I have the right to be cheesy if I want to be. Gods know no one else is going to.” 

Raven made to walk away, but Chrissy’s voice stopped him.

“It’s late,” she remarked. “You should stay here. Just for the night. We have room.” 

“Are you sure?” He asked. 

“Positive. There’s only one condition.” She smiled mischievously. 

“What is it?” Raven asked warily. 

“It’s game night, and since you’re technically the reason it got postponed, you have to play with us.”