It wasn't horribly long before the cab pulled over and they stepped out in a large Sicilian villa.

The woman puttering around the garden squawked in surprise as the half demon stepped into Throne territory carrying a hungry Fey God to be and a very disgruntled Throne.

The woman? Grandmother Lucia.

The old woman dropped to her knees and prayed fervently until the whole sky was alight with Thrones and Cherubim. The very field of the sky was twisted into a spiral that warped space beyond comprehension.

The old woman slowly regained her feet, then went up to her granddaughter's lover and held out her hands for the baby. "You're going to have to throw her up into that knot. They will take care of the rest."

Mark moved as if the world's weight crushed him. In a way it did. Demonic blood was a very heavy burden, especially when facing down their natural enemies when they were pulling in elements of their own land. Still, it took very little time to get under the node and to gently toss the love he had waited for into another's hands. He knew she wouldn't come back the same person, not after having been kept unaware of Lugh's plans the whole time.

It felt like an eternity for Maria, weaving in and out of the many folds of space, learning that there was a gentler way to change forms. It did nothing to mar her rage. If anything, it perfected it because she could have learned this change at their hands instead of at Lugh's-just another thing to add onto the pile of outrage she held against both lovers.

Once human again, she couldn't hold to the warp in the sky and landed hard on the ground.

A cold clarity settled over her as Mark and her grandmother approached with Ethelyn. They had used her from the beginning, these Fey. That Lugh was dead meant she couldn't have a reckoning with him.

Maria wondered if her warm fuzzy feelings had ever been love.

"So now you have two babies." Grandmother Lucia was as abrupt as ever. "And this is the fool I can smell Sulfur off of."

"Figures," Maria spat out. "Mark. I need to talk to her alone. Go fuck yourself."

Mark offered to take Ethelyn but Lucia shook her head. "Go rest child."

Maria walked beside her grandmother in silence for a few minutes, trying to find the words for what had happened.

"Do you love that man back there?"

"I'm not sure. The Fey used me for their own purposes."

"If you would look closer at that one, he wanted nothing to do with his path in life. You can tell by the way he carries himself and the guilt he bears over another man's choices. He reminds me of a lot of men after the war." Grandmother Lucia was referring to WWII, nearly 80 years ago.

"Lugh killed himself while standing over Ethelyn. Mark stopped me from interfering." Maria let out a shaky laugh. "I feel like I've been through hell when he's known this truth from birth, Grandma!"

She stopped herself from pulling on her hair-not a habit she had before this so the sudden urge to cause herself some level of pain just pissed her off. "The Fey can't have kids without love. Obviously I fell for Lugh not once by twice to carry his child all over again."

"Girl, who says this one's his, too? That man-Mark, isn't that his name? He could be the father, just as easily, couldn't he?"

"I don't want to love him-not with lies."

"Unfortunately that child needs her guardian, you're going to have to find a way to reconcile."

"I don't want to."

'Too bad. Thrones know they are in love when the heavens part over their lover. Now, go, take them home and get over yourself. The future is going to be very grim if you can't."

"You didn't say forgive him."

"That's because there are different stages to it, but first you're going to have to remember that Lugh was the one who held the power in their relationship. You're asking him to give up everything he is, to do this your way."

Maria thought about it. She could just join the Thrones, be protected by Grandmother and Cousin alike, learn to be who she was always meant to be...and give up on dreams that had started to wind around one foolish crow.

"You should know that with Lugh gone, I'm going to slowly fall to that death you saved me from, girl." Grandmother Lucia didn't hold back the truth. "Any full-blood Other-being has difficulty finding love for humanity, and you're mostly human, child. As It is, your cousin learned to hate you through her mother's hatred of your father. When I'm gone, family will not protect you. You had the right of it by aiming to become a doctor-you need to be free of us, to forge your own destiny. And that man sacrificed the whole of his life for you, willingly-good or ill."

Maria sighed. "Grandma, how do you know all this?"

Grandmother Lucia shrugged. "Sometimes you're the crazy lady who speaks in tongues and tells everyone of events that don't have to take place. My rejection of your father is as much a cause of your hurt as Lugh's actions, as I knew from the first I held him that we could be here."

"Then why did Lugh do all this?!" It was in this moment that Maria knew her rage was a false front-mostly. She just watched a man she loved more than her own life end his and had no answers.

"Maria, baby, that death had nothing to do with you. He was an enslaved god who wanted to end his life from the first moment he took a breath, and you and this baby gave his life meaning. I thought you'd have longer with him, but the answers as to why he died this soon, you're going to have to ask that Fey demonspawn-or perhaps your daughter, when she takes her father's throne from those who stole his birthright. I hold the possibilities in my hand-not the certainty. Don't blame that creature-he just kept you and Ethelyn from being hurt as he followed his own mad end. I see the path that rejects him. You do not want that life of living hell for both your daughters, I promise you that much."

The thought that worse would happen was enough to push her to go home with Marc-no matter how she felt about it. "I'm going to need a damn sacrifice for that taxi. Mark's having trouble teleporting right now."

Grandmother Lucia pulled up a pile of potatoes after she handed Ethelyn back to Maria. She called the taxi even as Mark gathered himself from his huddled mass against the wall. Lucia shoved the potatoes into his hand before pushing them to all get in the cab.

"Why did it have to be potatoes?!" Crasboeth called out as soon as they opened the door.

"I just pulled what was there, bonehead! That was prime gnocchi I wasted on you!" Lucia Vitale showed herself to be in fighting form for the headless gnome.

Mark stepped in and scooted far across the cab from Maria, too tired to deal with the fight looming over them. Maria loathed him for that...and felt pity. So many emotions welled up, most strangled in grief. It wasn't the time to have a reckoning, so she left him to sleep his first mourning away.

A 12ish hour ride became awfully long as they hit every node that tore through local space, exposing a golden light to shine against Mark's sleeping face. There were 7 nodes, each with a reminder that her poor attitude was as much a lie as the betrayal she felt she had from Lugh and Mark. It was like a parting gift of a scolding from that God to intertwine with Lucia's-both masterminds in their own ways.

On the 7th, nursing her daughter for the thousandth time, was when she relented, conceding that she loved and hated the crow, and the taxi finally took them home.