Chapter 49 — Return to the Human World

My mom called me over to talk about something important. “Okay so after a lot of convincing from Konain.” All I could think about was how it annoyed Cade when she called Dad that. “I decided I’m going back home.”

I raise my eyebrows. “What? No, you can’t, you love it here—”

“To visit, only to visit our family.” 

I exhaled out of relief. “Oh yeah, they think you’re dead or they did. They saw me ride off on a dragon the last time I saw them, so they probably think that you’re with me or something.”

“Are… are my parents still alive?” Mom asked nervously.

I nodded. “Grandpa and Grandma are still very much alive. They just sleep a lot and don’t like being bothered.”

Mom laughed. “So, they’re the same. So, you were raised by my sister and her husband, but no one ever talked about me? Not even your grandparents?”

I shook my head. “Tay heard about you, but I think that's because she loves looking at old family pictures and she always asked questions. Tay’s their daughter, my sister.” I didn’t feel comfortable calling Tay my cousin, we were raised sisters.

“Konn is going to come with us, do you think Cade will want to come too? I haven’t seen him in a little while. I think I should try to spend as much time with him as I can, then as much time as I can with Gray too. Well, whenever I meet him.” 

“I doubt he’ll want to come.”

Dad opened the front door. “When are we leaving? Is Aqua coming?” He had a packed bag with him. “Kaya and Polly aren’t coming anymore, they’re officially staying with Stewart, him and his fiancée are adopting them.”

“That’s great Konn. Aqua’s coming, I want to invite Cade but Aqua doesn’t think he’ll want to come.” 

Dad didn’t walk into the house. He just stuck his upper body in to talk to us. “Cade should come, he’s never been to the human world on anything other than work before.”

I shook my head. “When you guys came to get me, he said it was insufferable and I quote.” I started to think more, and I wasn’t sure if Cade was all that fond of humanity as a whole.

“I want Cade to come.” I heard a voice that sounded like Gray, then Dad walked in with him. Gray ran to me and hugged me. “Are you coming too Aqua?” I made sure to visit Gray once a week for the last month so he wouldn’t miss me too much. I loved spending time with him.

“I am.” I loved the idea of seeing Tay and my other siblings again. My mom looked really surprised to see Gray.

‘You’re going to the human world?’ Lexus asked.

‘Yeah, a few days I think.’

‘I’m coming with you. This is the perfect time for me to see the human world on vacation instead of briefly.’

“Lexus wants to come too,” I said. “We can leave when he gets here.” I already had a bag of clothes and essentials here since I stayed here often. 

Gray pulled away from me and looked around at all the magical items in the house. “Magic is so cool.”

Dad closed the door. “Gray, I told you not to run in.”

Gray walked to him. “Sorry Dad, I got excited when I saw my sister.” I looked at mom who was smiling. 

Dad put his hands on Gray's shoulders. “Gray, this is Mae, she’s Aqua’s mom and a good friend of mine. Mae this is my son Gray.”

Gray smiled. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too.” Mom said. “I’m glad you can come with us to the outside world.”

Gray nodded. “I had to beg my mom, then she got mad at my dad for mentioning the trip around me.” He chuckled. Dad probably mentioned it on purpose. “She doesn’t like me going places unless she knows everyone.”

Dad patted his head. “Alright, that’s enough.”

Mom walked towards the kitchen. “I made breakfast, so we can eat while we wait.”

Dad took out his phone and made a call. “Hey Cade, we’re all going to the human world for a vacation for a few days. You want to come with us?” “Yeah, Mae and Aqua are coming.” He probably asked because of our fight. “What?” “Give me a second, I’ll call you back.” He hung up. “Aqua can I talk to you?”

I nodded and we stepped outside the house to talk. “What did he tell you?”

“He said that you two aren’t on speaking terms and that you wouldn’t want to see him.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, that’s true, I don’t want to see him.”

Dad frowned. “Did something happen? I finally convinced Lynn to let me introduce Gray to Mae. I want us to be all together as a family Aqua.” 

That’s all I ever wanted so how could I let my fight with Cade get in the way of things? “We disagreed about something.” I didn’t want to tell him that his son didn’t like the woman he loved. “Fine he can come but I’m not speaking to him.”

Dad kissed my forehead. “Great, thanks Aqua.”

We were back in and ate while we waited. When Lexus and Cade got here, they acted really friendly towards each other. Sadia came with Cade, and she was ignoring Lexus but came straight to me. “Hey Aqua.” Even though I hadn’t seen her since the falling out with Cade we still texted. I smiled and introduced her to my mom who was right next to me.

Cade didn’t speak to me, and I didn’t speak to him. He greeted my mother, but he didn’t acknowledge her much after that.

We flew to the human world on Dad and Cade. I was with my mom and Lexus on Dad while Gray and Sadia were on Cade. When we got there, I decided that Lexus and I would stay with Gram while the others stayed in the nearest hotel in the closest city.

“Gram this is Lexus.” I introduced.

Gram nodded. “I met him when he was looking for you, come in.” I guess a lot of people met while looking for me.

We walked in and I was surprised to see Tay on the couch reading magic spell books. “Aqua!” She got up, rushed to me with a hug. “It’s nice to see you again too Lexus.”

Lexus nodded. “Yeah, you too.” He walked to the back room with our stuff. 

That night I went on and on to Lexus about how I didn’t want Cade around my mom. “And she actually wants to be close with him, it’s a mess really.”

Lexus was half asleep. “Why does he need to like your mom?” He mumbled. “I understand that the last comment he made about you defending her. That would have pissed me off too, but he doesn’t need to like her.”

We were cuddling. “He doesn’t even have many good reasons other than the affair, but even with that he forgave Dad. He doesn’t see me and my mom in a good light so why should we have to be around him?”

Lexus brought me closer against him. “You guys love each other. You’re letting the way he feels about your mom get in the way of your relationship with your brother. He cares about you and does see you in a good light. It’s hard for him to adjust to all the changes, but he’s trying.”

“It’s been half a year. how much longer does he need?” Lexus didn’t reply because he fell asleep.

In the morning we got ready. “You still haven’t told me how work’s been.”

Lexus chuckled. “We’re on vacation, I don’t want to talk about work.” I looked at him seriously. “Fine, work is good. I’m practically running Viv’s business myself. We’re considered partners now.”

“What do you even do?” I felt weird that I didn’t know but it’s not like I didn’t try talking about it before.

“She’s a noble. Her business is creating work for the people of her kingdom, selling them land, and giving them protection. She works closely with the king and queen too.” I noticed he was feeling admiration for Viv.

“How do you feel about Viv?”

Lexus sighed. “She’s always been a really good friend, she’s still a really good friend. I enjoy her company and I missed her but not in a sexual or romantic way.” Since we were mates, I could tell when he was lying, and he wasn’t. “I love you Aqua, I only ever blocked my emotions and thoughts from you out of fear. It’s hard to open up this much to someone. I lost my two best friends, and I don’t want you lose you. I’m not going to block you from feeling my emotions or thoughts when we’re away from each other anymore.” He wasn’t lying.

I smiled because I realized Lexus wasn’t hiding himself anymore. Not at all.

We met with the others around noon. Mom sighed. “I’m nervous, we should do something else before we visit them.”

Dad held her hand. “Don’t worry, it’s better that we get this out of the way, okay? Then we can show Lexus, Cade, Sadia and Gray around.”

We all started walking. I noticed Cade staring at my parents’ hands as they held each other’s. He looked at Gray. “Why’d you want to come so bad?”

Gray smiled. “Isn’t this where Aqua lived before? It’s so cool that it’s a whole other world. Didn’t you want to come badly too?”

Cade shrugged. “It’s cool I guess.”

I looked at my phone and noticed Sadia texted me: When are you going to make up with Cade? He won’t admit it, but he missed you. He didn’t mean what he said about the defending your parents’ thing. He’s been having to be there for his mom a lot so it’s weird for him to have to be around his dad who’s so happy with someone else.

I never thought about how it must have been with his mom. Not in that way anyways. When we got to our family home, I didn’t feel good. It was one thing to visit when my adoptive parents were out of town, but I knew they were here. Tay told me they’d be here, and our grandparents would be too.

I walked to Cade. “Before I go in with them can I talk to you?” 

Cade nodded and we walked a distance away from them. “Is this good or bad?”

“Well, I wanted to know how your mom was doing.”

Cade frowned. “What?”

“Is she okay?” I asked.

“Not really, things were the worst a couple months ago.” Around the time we last saw each other. “She had just moved into her own place, and I had to go over a lot when Gray wasn’t there so she wouldn’t be alone. She cried a lot and told me that she regretted rejecting Dad. It was hard to hear.” He sighed. I could tell it was hard for him to talk about. “Things got better… until she found out about Mae and Dad being together a few weeks ago. She kept asking me about her so she could compare herself to her. She can see how happy he is when he comes to pick up and drop off Gray. She knows it’s because of Mae.” He groaned in frustration. “I’m going to tell you something that I don’t want you to tell anyone and don’t let Dad know that you know. Dad doesn’t even know I know. A few days ago, she begged Dad to take her back. I wasn’t there but she told me about it. I think I’m the only person she’s comfortable talking about him with. I feel bad but I wish I weren’t the only one. She told him she still loved him and that she wanted to get back together. She said she forgave him for his affair. He obviously turned her down and… then she tried to kiss him, and he avoided it and left. I think there was a little more to it then she told me. I think she was upset that he wouldn’t cheat on Mae with her, but he cheated on her with Mae.”

“Oh…” It was a lot to take in. “I’m sorry she’s going through all of that. I’m sorry you have to shoulder it.” Maybe he felt the way he did about my mom because how much she was indirectly hurting his.

Cade shrugged. “Yeah, but she’s my mom and I shouldn’t be so hard on your mom. Neither one of them are perfect. That’s clearer to me now.”

“Do you…” I looked away. “Do you like humanity?”

“Huh?” He looked confused. “Uh… I don’t really know much about humanity, not firsthand. I like you and I’m willing to give Mae a chance. I guess with everything I heard about it I wasn’t thrilled with coming here but Gray made a good case for it.” He shrugged. “At first, I didn’t understand why Dad would want to be with a human, they’re fragile and live half the time we do. I get it now because I see how much he loves her.” He paused. “Are we good now? Am I allowed to be around you and Mae?”

I nodded and chuckled a little. “We’re good, you’re definitely allowed to be around us.” We hugged then walked back to the others. “Are we going in?” 

Mom nodded and we walked to the front doorstep and knocked. Cade, Sadia, and Gray walked to the nearby park while the rest of us stayed. My aunt answered the door. She looked at Mom in shock. “Maeve… you’re alive.” She looked at me and tears were in her eye. “Aqua… I didn’t think you’d come back, I thought you hated us.”

I shook my head. “I never hated you Mom…” I didn’t feel comfortable calling her anything else in that moment, she did raise me.

My birth mother hugged my adopted mother. “You were always right… I was just too different for this world.” Mom sniffled. “And I guess my daughter was too. Thank you for raising her.”

After our trip was over in a few days I felt different. Everything felt right. I was on my father’s back on the way back to the hidden world. I jumped off and shifted into my dragon form. I realized then that the dream I always had when I was younger was a holder dream and that I was seeing this moment.

The End