“Thanks.” I patted her shoulder awkwardly. “I appreciate that.”
With a tight smile, she leapt into the sky. The others followed suit, allowing the wind to dry their tears.
“Princess Rue.” Clay toyed with the ends of my hair. “I should start braiding your hair into a crown.”
“I’m not a princess,” I grumped. “I’m not wearing a crown made out of hair.”
“I bet you would if your spit muffin donated for it.”
“This again?” I rubbed the bracelet on my wrist that was so much a part of me these days. “I wouldn’t wear a crown made out of his hair either.” I squinted at him, noticed his grin, and decided, “However, I would love to see you braid his hair into a crown. He’s the prince, after all.”
“That’s not happening,” Asa assured us.
“You have to sleep sometime,” Clay said cheerfully. “When you do, I’ll be there.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Rue will be there,” he amended. “She’s Team Hair Crown.”
A laugh I desperately needed loosened the tightness in my throat.
Though Valentine’s was still days away, I could no longer see that far into our uncertain futures.
That ambiguousness convinced me we should celebrate even the Hallmark holidays before the next disaster struck. Plus, it gave me an excuse to give a long overdue gift to someone who truly deserved it.
“Come on.” I hit the front steps. “We have a holiday to further commercialize.”
* * *
“Rue got me present?” The daemon sat on the couch. Bounced, really. “Give me.”
“Here you go.” I handed him the pink and red box. “Go on.” I nudged him. “Open it.”
Paper ripped, the ribbon snapped, and the box tore as he dug in. He pulled out a simple sterling bracelet with a name etched into the front and a message stamped on the inside of the band. It opened and closed with magic, and it was designed for shifters who lived in cities and wanted to wear a collar with identifying information when they changed forms. But that was getting ahead of things.
“Blayton Skinflayer Montenegro,” he read, his forehead creasing. “Who Blayton?”
“You are,” I told him. “If you want to be.”
“That my name?” He rubbed his thumb across the engraving. “What inside?”
“You’ll have to look.” I turned it in his hand. “It’s a message from Asa, since he couldn’t be here.”
“You will always be my brother,” he read in a stilted voice. “Asa say that?”
“He chose the bracelet, the quote, all of it.”
And Aedan made it happen while we were out of town.
“Except the name,” Colby piped up. “We all pitched in to choose one.”
“Blayton is a family name on your mother’s side, and Skinflayer was Colby’s pick.”
“Blayton Skinflayer Montenegro,” he said again. “I have name.” He checked with me. “Mine?”
“All yours,” I agreed. “Unless you don’t like it.”
“I like.” His smile lit up the room. “I go by Skinflayer?”