Chapter 492
“Come back here,” Neumann calls, pointing at the ground in front of him. Midnight appears again in the corner, dismissing her shadows, and dashes back over, smiling her delight.
“Are you seriously encouraging this?” the Captain murmurs, shaking his head and heaving a big sigh.
Neuman doesn’t reply, instead narrowing his eyes at Midnight. “Are you smart?”
“Plenty smart,” she says, giving a sharp nod.
“Where were you educated?”
“My yurt.”
Neumann pauses for a moment and then moves on. “Do you have advanced chemistry and mathematics?”
“Nope!” Midnight says, tucking her hands behind her back and giving her head a firm shake. “But Ariel says she will tutor me all summer and I’ll be ready for the fall.”
“All right,” Neumann murmurs, his voice dropping low, his mouth drawing to a thin line. “Let’s quiz you, then, to see if you have the mental capacity to enroll in this school. If there are eighteen bananas and six coconuts that you need to split between a pack of baboons and another of monkeys who are at war, how do you split them up to effect piece?”
“What on earth does that have to do with her capacity for espionage?” the Captain blurts out, exasperated.
“I want to see how the girl’s mind works,” Neumann murmurs, keeping his eyes on Mids.
Midnight cocks her head to the side, her eyes squinting in thought. “I’m afraid that I need more information to solve this puzzle.”
“Such as?” Neumann asks.
“Such as…what is a coconut?” Midnight says, fastening her eyes seriously on his face. “And I need to know whether or not in can be used as a weapon.”
Neuman’s face spreads into a wide smile. “It can.”
“Then I take all the coconuts for myself, to enforce control,” she says, her mouth spreading into a wicked smile. “And all the monkeys and the baboons recognize me as their King. And I give bananas to my favorites to ensure their loyalty.”
Neumann laughs a little, clearly delighted with the girl, and then turns his head to the Captain. “I mean, if she can pass through the Candidate stage, I definitely want her.”
The Captain rolls his eyes as Midnight eagerly bites her lip. “I’ll pass!” she says, nodding, eager. “I’m sure I will! I’ll kick all their butts!”
“I look forward to watching your progress,” Neumann says, leaning forward to her with a friendly smile.
“All of this is out of order,” the Captain growls, glaring around at all of us. “We cannot have children and unenrolled girls living in the Castle – it’s an impossibility –“
“Well, I’m actually not sure that that’s a huge problem,” Jesse calls from the window. Curious, I turn to see him with a huge smile spreading across his face.
“What?” the Captain asks, his face falling at the evidence of a new undesired surprise.
“Come here,” Jesse says with a laugh, waving us over.
Marigold, leaning towards the window, gives an excited little shout. Baffled, I glance up at Jackson, who just shrugs at me, and then together – followed by Midnight, Neumann, and the Captain – we head over to the window, all peering out together.
“Oh my god!” I gasp, my hands immediately flying to my mouth.
A moment later tears start to spring to my eyes and I spin away from the window, dashing for the door.
“Mom!” I call, running across the lawn at the base of the castle. “Mom, are you kidding me!?”
She turns, a huge smile spreading across her face, a laugh breaking from her as she sees me coming with my entourage of family and professors following behind.
“Hi baby!” she calls, waving to me.
But I barely have time to look at her, distracted instead by the four houses that are being removed from their spots on a train with the aid of several trucks and complicated machines.
“Oh my – oh my god,” I whisper, fascinated and thrilled as I stumble to her side, watching the most adorable little cottage being lowered to the flat grass. “Did you – are you…” I bite my lip, desperately wanting one of the little houses to be for me but hesitating even to ask.
“Oh, of course it’s for you, darling,” Mom says on a laugh, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she wraps me up in a hug. I shriek with joy, hugging her back as I feel Jackson and the rest catching up with us.
“But why are there four!?” I whisper.
“Well, you didn’t think I was going to let you move to the Academy and not let me have daily access to my grand-daughters for the first year of their life,” she says, pulling back to look at me like I’m insane. “Plus, my little Goldie-girl needs her grandma too!” she says, stepping close to Jacks to press a kiss first to Marigold’s cheek and then his.
I gasp, delighted, my eyes flooded with tears. “Mom, that’s too much!”
“It’s just enough, baby,” Mom says, turning back to me and cupping my cheek in her palm as Jesse and Mids come to joins us.
“We won’t be here all the time.” A new voice surprises me and I turn, starting to cry in earnest when I see my dad come around one of the houses, Rafe at his side. “We have a country to run, after all.” He grins at me, opening an arm.
“Dad,” I croak, shaking my head and tucking myself against his side when he comes close. “Are you – are you serious with all of this?”
“It was all Rafe’s idea,” dad says, grinning over at my brother, who gives me a wink.
“Me and Jesse came up with it,” Rafe says with a laugh, tucking his hands into his pockets. I gasp again and whip my head to the side to stare at Jesse, who just laughs. “I just drew the short straw of having to convince mom and dad about it and arrange the spur-of-the-moment purchase of four ready-made homes while the rest of you got to have a fun train adventure.”
“So,” I whisper, looking back up at my dad. “This is…this is all happening? I can stay? I can enroll?”
“You clearly already decided, baby trouble,” dad says, stroking a hand over my hair. “And you were right. We never wanted to restrict you from your education, Ariel, we just…wanted to make sure you were safe while you did it. And the Captain is correct,” he says, nodding to the man in question, who walks over with Neumann. “It isn’t practical to have Midnight and Marigold or the infants living in the Castle with all of the Cadets. We should be grateful to Rafe for this clever compromise.”
“So, me and Jacks,” I say, my eyes catching on a little blue cottage that I desperately want to be for me. “And one for Midnight, and you, and…” Confused, I look up at my father. “Wait, who’s the fourth one for?”
“Cora got jealous,” mom says, rolling her eyes. “She said she wanted one too.”
I burst out laughing, shaking my head and hugging my dad again. “Thank you all. So, so much.”
“We love you, baby,” mom says, coming close and pressing a kiss to my hair. Dad wraps his arm around her instead of me, smushing me between them in a very loving sandwich. “Although your kids had better be cute, because this was expensive.”
I laugh, shaking my head and rolling my eyes. “Of course they’re going to be cute,” I sigh, happiness ringing through me like the peal of a bell.
We all spend the next few hours ironing out the details of what my continued education will look like, watching as the houses are carefully placed in a little line next to each other, engineers moving expertly around them to ensure that they’re all perfectly level and safe. Jesse and Rafe voyage into the Castle and return with breakfast supplies and a surprisingly lovely and calm morning passes with most of us seated on blankets, watching our little village come together.
“They might not have septic and plumbing until tomorrow,” mom says, grimacing over at me as I lean against Jackson’s side with Marigold in my lap, all of us watching with interest. “Will you survive?”
“We’ll make it,” Jackson says, nodding to mom even as he keeps his eyes on the work. “I just got plumbing eight months ago. Marigold still probably thinks it’s magic. We’ll make do for as long as we need to.”
I turn my head and privately stick my tongue out at mom, letting her silently know that…I’m going to need that septic tank and water system installed as fast as possible. She wrinkles her nose at me and nods, letting me know she’s on it.
“Which one is mine?” Midnight asks, walking over with Jesse, her hands on her hips. She looks quite happily at the houses, well pleased with them.
“Oh, we’re just setting you up in a tent outside,” Jesse says, slinging a casual arm around her shoulders.
She gasps, appalled, but then snarls when she looks up at his face and sees that he’s kidding.
“We thought the little cabin would suit you, Midnight,” mom says, nodding to the tiny rustic cabin that’s situated next to the blue house that I’ve mentally claimed as my own.
“Good,” Midnight says, nodding once. “I like that one best. Very defensible.”
I grin at her even as the head engineer, standing at dad’s side outside the blue house, turns to us with a wave and a nod.
“You ready?” mom says, turning to me, Jackson, and Marigold with a smile.
“Yes!” I say, getting eagerly to my feet. “Are you?” I ask, watching Jackson get up, a big smile on my face.
“Sure,” Jackson says with a shrug, looking over at the house as he hoists Marigold up on his hip and runs a hand through his hair. “I mean, I’ve never been in a house before. Kind of crazy that the first one I’ll go into will be…my house.”
My mouth falls open as I stare at my mate, shocked.
