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Arteisma giggled. “Did Seff like your nightgown?”
The chocolate-brown silk teddy I’d slipped into the night before shimmered with gold in the candlelight.
“Honestly, I don’t know.” I had been so distraught I’d blindly reached into the bin and put on the first thing I’d touched.
She stood on the bed and wrapped her little arms around my neck. “I think he likes you.”
Worry tinged her words. She was wondering if Seff would take me away like Tillman had. Nope. I wouldn’t let him. I gave her long braid a light tug.
“I think he likes me, too, but—”
“I’m going to help Seff!” Nereida called out from the other room.
The click of the front door sounded like a gunshot in my ears as it closed.
“No!” I turned and sprinted from my bedroom with Arteisma right behind me.
Panic raced through my veins as I yanked the front door open. Nereida was already twenty feet away, running as fast as she could over the snow-dusted raised wooden walkway that connected the yurts to one another. With her long braid swinging back and forth like a thick rope, she headed straight for Coleman’s yurt.
She’ll see all the dead.
“Nereida, stop!”
She glanced back and smiled. “It’s okay. It’s not the rogues!”
“Wait! Don’t go in there!”
Just as I stepped out into the snow, a piercing cry filled the cold air.
Nereida slid to a stop only a few yards from the yurt. Her dark eyes were wide circles as she looked back at me.
A warm, tiny hand slipped into mine and held me in place.
“Who’s crying?” Arteisma’s voice was barely a whisper.
“My mother.” My breath hitched. I covered my mouth with my free hand and held back the tears burning my eyes.
Stay strong.
My parents needed my strength. Not a fragile female who dissolved into an emotional puddle.
A big bear of a male filled the doorway of Coleman’s yurt. A blindingly bright, tropical print sarong was tied around his hips. His bare feet lurched out into the snow. The icy wind blew his long white hair and beard to the side.
“Dad?” I choked out the word as I tightened my grip on Arteisma’s hand then ran.
He’d reached out and picked up Nereida before I slammed into his barrel chest. He wrapped his arms around all three of us and held on as if he never wanted to let go. His earthy-herbal scent filled my nose as his long white beard tickled my neck and shoulder.
“Desarae.” A small sob came from behind me. “I thought you were...”
My mother stood shaking in the doorway, a blanket around her shoulders. I reached out and pulled her to us. We wrapped her in our warmth and love.
Another small sob slipped from my mother’s lips like a prayer. “Oh, dear ancient gods.”
