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The girls made my heart flutter with unease as they ran up and down the long ledge. Luckily, Nikkos flew after them, staying close by should one of them fall. Nikkos was making it far too easy for me to fall in love with him. After several minutes of running back and forth, Nikkos followed them back while they dragged their feet. I didn’t want to look at their stockings. I knew they were filled with holes by now.
We sat around the crackling fire and ate what they said was wild hare, though it was as big as a boar. We were ravenous, though, and finished off the entire thing. I was keenly aware of Draevyn sneaking looks at me while I ate. What was wrong with him? Hadn’t he scowled at me enough today?
The girls stretched their arms after supper, sucking on their ginger candies while leaning against my sides.
Aurora stumbled to her feet, rubbing her eyes. “I want to go running again,” she said through a yawn.
Nikkos’s wings drooped as he shook his head. “I’m too tired to follow you, Ember, and it’s time for bed.”
Both girls gave him a funny look.
Aurora jutted a thumb in her chest. “I’m Aurora, not Ember.”
“Sorry.” Nikkos shrugged. “You two look so much alike, I can’t tell you apart.
“It’s easy. I have short hair.” Aurora thumbed toward her sister. “Ember has long hair.”
“Aurora is also the more rambunctious one,” I said, smiling down at Ember while squeezing her to my side, “and Ember is always clutching her doll.” My niece leaned on me with heavy-lidded eyes. She sucked her thumb while holding that straw monstrosity in her lap.
Aurora jutted her hands on her hips. “How come you don’t look exactly like your brothers?” she asked Nikkos.
He shared looks with his brothers before answering. “We’re not triplets.”
Aurora scratched her head. “Triplets?”
“Like twins,” I said to her, “plus one more.”
Aurora scrunched her nose. “None of you?”
“No,” Blaze answered. “We were all born three years apart.”
“Yaya told me Ravini Fae babies are rare,” Aurora said.
“They are,” Blaze said with a smile, “but our mother had powerful fertility magic.”
“She blessed my parents once, too,” I said, then cringed, regretting bringing up the people who they believed killed their parents.
Aurora tugged on my sleeve. “Did she bless my parents?”
“No.” I pushed a gritty strand of hair behind her ear. “Your fathers were a different kind of Fae. The shifter Fae produce children more often.”
“Their fathers were shifters?” Blaze asked, his nostrils flaring as if he was scenting them for the first time.
I swallowed back my unease, wondering if maybe it had been a mistake to let my mates know. Many Sidhe and Ravini Fae were prejudiced against shifters. Then again, if they were prejudiced, then I’d know they weren’t the right mates for me.
“Yes.” I gave him a long look, relieved when I saw no judgment in his eyes. Nikkos didn’t look alarmed, either. I didn’t dare look at Draevyn, for if he so much as looked sideways at my nieces, I wouldn’t be able to contain my rage. I pointed to Aurora’s mouth. “Can’t you tell by their canines?”
She smiled wide, showing off her sharp incisors. Then she let out a little howl that made us all laugh. Thank the elements they weren’t old enough to go through their change yet. I knew enough about shifters to know it would be even more challenging raising wolf children. Once they had their first periods, though, they would also inherit the ability to shift into wolves. My mother and father had warned me that adolescent shifters had a hard time controlling their shifts, or their emotions. A dangerous combination. But I was used to danger.
When my nieces were just babies, I’d made a promise to Tari that if anything ever happened to her, I’d take care of the girls as if they were my own. I intended to keep that promise, and not just because I loved Tari. I loved Ember and Aurora with my whole heart. They deserved a better childhood than the one Tari and I were forced to endure—fraught with fear, deprivation, and strife. They deserved to grow up in a safe world free from prejudice, and I had every intention of giving it to them or I’d die trying.
* * *
After Ember and Aurorahad fallen asleep, I laid on the hard feather pallet, blinking up at the textured white ceiling above us, firelight dancing across the rock’s surface while the moon and stars twinkled just outside. Though I was starting to appreciate the beauty of this strange place, I’d be relieved once we reached my mates’ home—if for no other reason than the girls and I needed a bath and a clean change of clothes.
I rolled onto my side, blinking at my mates when I heard them laughing around the campfire.
Blaze caught my eye and waved me forward. “Come sit with us a spell, Shirina.”
