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I took a sip of wine, hoping to quench my parched throat. “Em, what’s your friend’s name?” I tensed, holding my breath.
Everyone had gone so eerily still as Ember squinted up at the ceiling, I could’ve heard a feather drop in the room.
Bile projected into my throat when Ember looked at me. “She says it’s Chara.”
“Our mother?” Blaze blurted.
Nikkos swore, clenching my waist.
Drae jumped to his feet, his wings trembling as he paced the floor. “Ember, this isn’t funny.”
“Drae,” Blaze scolded, holding out his palms, “calm down.”
Drae continued to pace, his wings shaking harder.
I handed Nikkos my wine and slipped off his lap, crawling to my nieces.
“Want to play blocks with me, Auntie?” Aurora asked.
“Not now, sweetheart,” I said to her before taking Ember in my lap. “Em, it’s important that you’re telling us the truth,” I said as I rubbed her arms.
She nodded, then looked up at Drae. “I’m just telling you what my friend tells me. She left you a letter.”
Drae stopped pacing, grabbing his hair by the roots. “Where?”
She squinted at the ceiling again before answering. “In the drawing room.”
“Drawing room?” I asked.
Drae held a hand down to me. “We’ll take you there.” He nodded toward his brothers. “Come on.”
Blaze swooped up Ember. She giggled while wrapping her arms around his neck, her doll pressed between them.
“But I’m not finished with my blocks,” Aurora protested as Nikkos hoisted her into his arms.
“We’ll come back to them later,” I reassured her.
“If you’re good girls,” Nikkos said as he ruffled her hair, “I’ll see if we can find some ginger candies.”
The girls smiled and giggled uncontrollably as we left the sitting room and soared through the atrium, landing on one of the lower levels. Drae set me down, and I recognized the dining chamber’s long table as he pulled me through the double doors into an adjoining room. It was spacious with tall ceilings, elegant chandeliers, brocade sofas, thick rugs, and at the far end of the room above the mantel hung a huge painting of a beautiful woman with a long, graceful neck, thick dark hair, and a regal look in her silver-rimmed eyes. She had a full smile that reminded me too much of my mates’ smiles, and I knew this portrait was of their mother, Lady Chara Inferni.
I turned to Ember when Blaze set her down. “Where, Em?”
She pointed to the painting of Lady Chara.
“Yes, that’s our mother,” Drae said tersely. “Where’s the letter?”
She frowned. “She said she has it.”
Nikkos jumped into the air, flying toward the portrait. “Help me get it down,” he said to his brothers.
“No,” Drae snapped. “You could ruin it.”
The painting was taller than Nikkos. It had to be heavy. There was a chance they could drop it, but we had to know.
Nikkos grasped the top of the frame, frowning down at his brothers. “Drae, we need to see.”
I clutched Drae’s arm. “He’s right.”
