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I watch her teeth as she smiles big at me. “Come on, I’ve got the table all set. Abaddon’s getting the baby settled. Have you met baby Raven yet? She’s an absolute doll! I was so scared when I came back from getting her up from her nap, and Romulus told me they’d just sent you out into that cold. Are you a hugger? I’m a hugger.”
She comes towards me with open arms, and I back into the bathroom door, a noise like a squawk coming out of my throat.
Immediately she drops her arms. “Shit. Not a hugger. My bad. I’m so sorry. I haven’t been around other humans in awhile, I forget about personal space. It’s so not a thing with these guys.”
I stare at her, my shoulder hunched defensively and remember something I don’t usually have to think about: I’m not good with. . . people.
The grinning one bursts out laughing, a high, manic laugh that makes me want to reach for my knives again.
“Remus,” barks the woman. “Don’t be an ass. Look, I’m sorry I’m being too much. I’m embarrassed. I’ll tone it down, I swear. Why don’t we all go over to the table? I cooked a really delicious meal, and it’ll be totally calm. We’ll all behave.”
“Speak for yourself,” says Remus, and Hannah smacks him on the arm.
“Is it literally possible for you not to be an ass?”
Then the six-armed one steps between me and them, blocking my sight. I’m grateful. I look up at his chin. “What is,” I start hesitantly, “your name?”
“That’s Thing,” says Remus. “He came out of the forge, and our Father said, ‘What is this Thing?’ And it stuck.”
I frown, not knowing if the mean one’s being sarcastic. I’m bad at telling when people are joking. So again, I look at the six-armed one’s chin. “Is he joking?”
There is silence and then a gruff, “He is not.”
I feel a rush of anger on his behalf. “Your dad seems like an ass.”
Remus begins to cackle anew at my assessment. “My consort is smart and beautiful.”
Thing holds out his arms but stays several feet away as if he’s being careful not to touch me and show me that he doesn’t intend to. “The dining table is this way.”
I blink, not expecting the soft words after the barrage from the others. But it makes it easier to follow where he directs me.
The calm moment doesn’t last, though. When I walk across the large, empty room to where the table is set up near the fireplace, the one with horns is there, along with—
“Ba ba ba ba ba ba!”
I pause, a bit taken aback by the cute little baby with a puff of black curls, two little horns protruding from her head, and tiny silken black wings sitting in a wooden hook-on high chair attached to the table beside her much more intimidating father. Hannah hurries over to sit in a chair beside her daughter.
In the center of the table is a large roast of steaming meat. There are a lot of other unfamiliar dishes, the intense smells wafting my way and immediately making my shoulders tense.
I blink, feeling a bit overwhelmed.
“Where would you like to sit?” Thing asks.
“Beside me, obviously,” Remus answers, walking to one side of the table and sitting on a bench. He pats the space beside him, and I narrow my eyes. Yeah, he’s definitely shit at personal space.
Thing stomps ahead of me and sits beside Remus, pointing to an open chair at the opposite end of the table. “Don’t be an ass,” he grumbles at his brother.
Remus makes an injured noise. “I’m just trying to get to know my consort.”
“She is not your consort,” Thing growls as I start to feel stabby again. “Stop saying that, or I’ll rearrange your face. And I don’t mean just sending you to sleep.”
“Please,” Remus scoffs. “As if you have any control over when I wake and sleep.”
Thing turns to Hannah. “Give me the baby.”
Hannah makes an outraged noise. “You can’t use my baby as an on-off switch for your brother! It’ll give her a complex!”
“Ba ba ba ba ba ba!”
I slowly approach, about to take a seat where Thing pointed.
Thing jerks one of his many thumbs in my direction. “Our guest won’t be comfortable during dinner with him here.”
I pause before I sit. “I could just eat my dinner somewhere else. Maybe in my room, if there’s somewhere I can sleep for the night. I’m actually really tired anyway—”
“Nonsense!” Hannah cries, then swings the baby out of her high seat and hands her to Thing. He stretches out his uppermost pair of arms and takes the baby.
“Hi, sweet Raven,” he says, making his voice sweet and gentle, which seems especially incongruous with how big and intimidating he is the rest of the time.
