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  “What is it?” I prompted, wishing he would come out with it already. The last time he had been so reluctant to share the news, I had learned that my friend across the hall was to be executed the next day.

  “I heard some strange whisperings,” he murmured, keeping his voice low to avoid unwanted eavesdroppers. “About you.”

  Confusion settled in. “What about me? I have been stuck in a cell for sixty-five years, Ephraim. I am hardly a socialite.”

  “It has more to do with your time before prison,” he replied hesitantly. “When you were… you know…”

  He widened his eyes and dipped his head forward, as if that alone was meant to give me enough of a clue to go on.

  “No, Ephraim, I do not know,” I shook my head at him. “What I was what?”

  “Cavorting.”

  My confusion clouded over me more heavily for a brief moment. “It’s not like I was doing very much of it. There was only one woman.”

  “Yes,” Ephraim nodded nervously, and I could tell that whatever information he’d overheard had really bothered him. “But what did you know about how you, um, left the situation?”

  “I can imagine,” I sighed, feeling guilt wash over me once more. I was sure Adora must have been so angry with me. She probably believed I’d abandoned her, maybe chalking it up to the fact that she was a witch, when that could not have been farther from the truth.

  “So you know about the baby?”

  Thankfully, I had finished my precious truffle, or it would have come spewing out of my mouth at that moment.

  No one was supposed to know about the child. In fact, I had never even factored him or her into my musings and daydreams where Adora was concerned. It might have been awful and vile of me, but I had to hope and pray that Adora had given our baby up. For both of our sakes.

  I had assumed she would have, once she’d found out what I was. Witches knew as well as fae that halflings were not natural creatures. They were dangerous things that could wreak havoc without ever even realizing it.

  I glanced back up at Ephraim, who was staring at me with a nearly dark sort of intensity.

  “Yes,” I finally murmured. “I knew. Has something happened to the child?”

  “Not the child,” Ephraim shook his head. “The grandchild. She made quite a scene with the Hunter’s Council today.”

  My heart sank for a number of reasons. Not only was my child half fae, but my grandchild had been cursed with it as well. I had inflicted far more damage sixty-five years ago than I could have ever imagined. I truly did not think that Adora would keep the baby and set herself up for a life of pain and heartbreak.

  “What happened?” I finally asked Ephraim. “Was she captured by the Council? I pray they made her death a quick one.”

  “She did not die, though,” Ephraim replied wondrously. “She was not there because they had captured her. She was there to rescue a friend, another halfling. The rumor is that she also rescued Bodin of the Far Guard.”

  “Bodin is alive!” I gasped. That news was nearly as joyous as news of my Adora would have been. Bodin was my first mentor, and he had become like a second father when my own passed away in battle. The day that he had been taken by the Hunter’s Council was a day I would rue forever.

  “Yes,” Ephraim nodded vigorously. “And your granddaughter saved him. Laslow, what if we’ve been wrong this entire time? What if the halflings are not evil?”

  I mulled over his suggestion for a moment. It was nearly blasphemous to suggest that our two worlds could blend without dire consequences, but then again, I had a thing for blasphemous behavior.

  Clearly. Or I would not have fallen in love with Adora McCarthy.

  “EPHRAIM!” The bellowing voice of Ephraim’s commanding officer rattled through the prison like a fire arrow from a wood nymph’s bow, and Ephraim leaped back in terrified surprise.

  “I should go,” he squeaked.

  “Thank you for the information,” I murmured gratefully.

  “Anytime.”

  “And Ephraim, if you happen to hear anything about my granddaughter…” I waved my hands in the air instead of finishing my sentence, because I could already hear the heavy booted footsteps of his boss traipsing down the hallway.

  “You’ll be the first to know,” he whispered before he scurried off.

  I turned back to my straw mattress and sat on the edge so I could continue to watch the moon as it cycled across the lavender sky.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. If there was one woman to do the precise opposite of what I expected, it was Adora McCarthy. Somehow, she’d managed to raise a halfling all by herself, and then was the grandmother to another halfling.

  A granddaughter.

  The same warm, fuzzy feeling I’d had when Adora had told me about her pregnancy bubbled up within me. Before, I hadn’t wanted to allow myself to feel happy. I had assumed I would be with Adora when she had the baby, and I had known it was highly likely we would not be able to keep it.

  But this was different. My child and my grandchild were already grown. They existed, and there was not a thing anyone could do about that. It was wonderful.

  Not for the first time, I ached for freedom. I could see the night pixies zipping across the fields, completely free thanks to their tiny little wings. I could also see the cottage at the edge of town, where the Boshidens lived. I watched as their eldest daughter pushed open her second floor bedroom window, glancing down to where her current male partner waited below.

  That girl was always sneaking out. She’d been playing the same tricks for the last fifteen years, and it always surprised me how she never seemed to get caught.

  I wondered if my child had snuck out at night. Or my grandchild.

  I wondered how I would have reacted. Would I have laughed it off and allowed them to continue with their life? Or would I have grown angry, and locked them away in their room as punishment?

  I did not know for certain, but I truly hoped it would be the former. I did not want to imagine myself as the overly strict parent. I knew Adora would have been. In fact, she had probably given her kid the rulebook on sneaking out, ensuring they and all of their friends were never caught.

  I’d missed so much. I wasn’t normally one for emotions any longer, having gotten that out of my system in the early years of my sentence. Now, it was all I could do to force a smile when I saw Ephraim.

  But tonight was an exception. Foreign emotion bubbled up, and I actually felt a tear form in my right eye, slipping over the rim and down my cheek, leaving a hot trail of salty water behind.

  I had a family.

  For the first time in sixty-five years, I turned away from the window and into my cell.

  I needed to figure out just how to break out of here.

  Thank You for Reading!

  It’s always terrifying to release a book into the world. You don’t know whether people will love it or hate it, but either way, you at least hope they read it.

  Thank you so much for taking a chance on this author and grabbing book three in my Midlife Mayhem Series.

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  - Mel

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  About the Author

  Melinda Chase is an emerging author of Paranormal Women’s Fiction.

  Over forty years young, Melinda loves writing tales that prove life—romance—and ‘happily-ever-afters’—do exist beyond your twenties!

  Her debut Series, Midlife Mayhem is a snarky, hilarious, romantic adventure, sure to please fans of traditional paranormal romance and cozy paranormal mysteries!

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  Spandex, Spells and Shadows