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“She was a lot smaller back then.” The hitch in her voice is impossible to miss.
“Serena is from this realm, but she isn’t from our kingdom,” Garrett explains, even though he looks like he would rather do anything else.
“We had been at war for years, but that’s a story for another time. Serena washed up on our shores. A fisherman found her and brought her here for care. By all means, she should have been dead, but she wasn’t. Even at three years old, she was stronger than most. I have no doubt whoever she was with that day perished in the waters, but Serena made it to us against all odds. As if it were destiny.”
She looks at Garrett with a smile so full of happiness and pride that I almost feel like I’m intruding on something private.
His cheeks flush under her gaze, and I let out a yip, the closest I can get to a laugh in my current form. Garrett must understand because he glares at me, which earns him a smack in the chest from his mother.
“Be nice,” she scolds, and I bark my agreement.
The sound echoes back in the small room, making everyone cringe, and I make a mental note not to do that again.
“She was unconscious for a long time, at least two weeks, but it felt like forever as a child. I was still young and spent the days following Mother around. Which means I spent a fair deal of time in Serena’s room while Mother tried to figure out how to help her.”
“Nothing I did helped, though, and in the end, we waited. Exactly two weeks after she washed up on shore, she woke. The poor girl was scared to death, and her shadows only seemed to frighten her more. It took a while, but eventually, she started answering yes or no questions, and it didn’t take long after that to realize she had no memory of what happened or how she ended up here.” The queen’s eyes are far away, reliving that day, and I find myself imagining it as well.
I might not have been there, but it’s not hard to picture Rena at three. We met when she was seven, and she was small then.
I can’t imagine what it must feel like to wake up like that. Alone and afraid, without any clue as to why or what happened, and Serena’s lived it twice now.
“It took a while before she spoke. Every day, I came back to check in with her and attempted to help her learn to cope with our life here in the kingdom. In the end, she spoke to Garrett first.”
Garrett looks down at her, and suddenly, I don’t have to imagine what she would look like.
I see it.
Serena sits on a bed much like the one she’s lying in now, her back pressed to the headboard, legs pulled up to her chest as she hugs them, hiding behind them. I peek out from behind golden fabric, watching Mother try to coax her into talking, just like she does every day. It never works, though.
Mother warned me not to overwhelm her and said we need to give her time to get used to us, but seeing her like this, so afraid, makes my chest hurt.
Yesterday was Mother’s birthday, and I managed to sneak a piece of cake today. Before she can stop me, I race around the bed, carefully balancing the plate so as not to drop the cake while I climb onto the bed before proudly presenting her with the sugary goodness I’ve brought just for her.
Her full attention is on me for the first time, and I get lost in her blue eyes. They’re like the color of the sky, and my beast seems to appreciate that too.
Slowly, she unwraps her arms from around her legs, and I see the curiosity in her eyes as she looks from the cake back to me, as if unsure if she can trust me. She sniffs the air, and her eyes widen as she moves toward me before reaching out to dip her finger in the frosting. She doesn’t hesitate to shove her finger into her mouth, and a smile tugs at her lips.
I scoot closer, offering her the plate, and after a second hesitation, she takes it, happily eating the cake without so much as a fork.
“Thank you,” she says once she’s finished eating and licked the plate.
“You always told me sweets were the way to a girl’s heart,” Garrett says, snapping me out of whatever that was. His eyes are still on Serena, and he has a dopey grin on his face.
I look around at the others, unsure if I was the only one who experienced it, but judging by the looks on their faces, I wasn’t.
“What the hell was that?” Lyle demands, looking from Garrett back to Serena as if trying to make sense of what just happened.
“A memory,” Blair says, speaking for the first time since returning from the dungeons.
“Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”
Garrett’s cheeks turn pink again, and as strange as it might sound to share a memory on accident, I feel he’s telling the truth.
“Bonds to mates aren’t the only ones we have in this realm. From what I can see, the six of you are all very strong, both as shifters and with your elements. Between that and your tie to Serena, I wouldn’t be surprised if your beasts also formed some type of connection. It’s nothing so concrete as a mate bond, but it does come with the ability to communicate while shifted and share things such as memories, should you so choose. Or if you should feel strongly enough about it,” the queen explains, and I hear Lyle grumble.
Yeah, I can’t imagine he would love the idea of being tied to Garrett anymore than he already is.
“Of fucking course, it had to be the pigeon.”
