“Wait!” Annie looked up, nearly dislodging my chin with the top of her head. “Will this story have dragons?”
Dragons? She’s lucky if the story has a beginning, middle, and end.
“No.”
She frowned, flattening her lips in displeasure. “Could you add a dragon then?”
Add a dragon?I heaved a sigh. “Fine. Where was I?”
“What about a prince? Does the story have a prince?” She blinked, waiting for my answer.
“You want a prince and a dragon now?”
She flashed her teeth. “And a princess. You can’t have a prince without a princess.”
“That would be blasphemous,” I grumbled, repositioning her so my arm wouldn’t fall asleep. The damn thing was already halfway to being numb. “Okay, here we go. Are you ready?”
She gave a curt nod.
“Once upon—”
“I like giants too. And ogres. Elves, but only if they’re friendly.”
“Do you want to tell the story? Stop interrupting!”
Her gaze narrowed, and she thumped the blanket, snuggling deeper. “I was letting you tell it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut at the absurdity of our situation. At this rate, the sun would rise before we’d finished listing characters. Were all children this challenging, or was I just that lucky?
“As I was saying…” I paused, preparing myself for another disruption. When it didn’t come, I breathed in relief and continued. “Once upon a time, there was a prince, princess, a dragon, two giants, four ogres, and a band of friendly elves.”
A gentle snore rumbled against my chest. I looked down in disbelief. Annie was fast asleep, her thumb stuck between her teeth.
“You’re kidding me,” I whispered, carefully removing her thumb and tucking it against her side. “I didn’t even get to the good part.”
“You can tell it to me.”
My attention snapped to the entrance where Liana lounged against the wall. Her arms were crossed over her shoulders, and a beautiful smile played at her lips.
“That depends on whether you have a list of demands too. How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to know you had no story planned beyond the first line.”
“Was it that obvious?”
She stepped away from the wall, moving closer. Her bare feet were soft on the carpet. The firelight played over her features, making her hair shimmer, and there was a look in her eyes—something I’d never seen before but definitely wanted to see again.
“I’m sure you would have come up with something.” She knelt beside the chair and smoothed a lock of hair from Annie’s face. “Did you get any more information from the orphanage?”
“No. It was a dead end. When Ethan found out his sister was no longer there, he got spooked. One of the attendants chased after him, but they lost him in the streets. Gavin and I spent some time searching on foot, but we didn’t get any leads.”
She stifled a yawn. “Then I guess we keep at it until we find them. Eventually, someone will have seen something.”
“You look tired. You should get some rest.” My gaze dropped to Annie. “Save yourself. I’ve lost all feeling in my arm.”
She chuckled, and a mischievous glint flashed in her eyes. “But I want to know more about your story. You mentioned it has a prince, and a princess, giants, ogres, and elves. That’s quite the cast of characters.”
“You forgot dragons,” I murmured.
