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Maya’s eyebrows rose high on her forehead.
Piper narrowed her eyes in visible displeasure. “Sienna, how could you be so irresponsible—”
“Is it her power?” Fenn asked, cutting off whatever Piper was building to. “Or yours?” Even Sienna shifted a startled stare to him, but he kept his focus on Piper. His expression was calm, almost neutral, yet Sienna had the distinct impression it was a façade. “She’s an adult. By all other standards she seems to have been deemed capable of living on her own and caring for herself. Why should someone who resides so many hours away, and does not bear the burden of these physically incapacitating visions, have any say in when or to whom she reveals the truth of her gift?”
Sienna’s eyes bulged, but at the same time, she wanted to grab him to her and kiss him senseless for that. She loved her sisters dearly. That didn’t mean they never overstepped. No one had ever snapped back like that for her when it came to them.
Maya slowly set her mug on the table beside her chair.
“How dare you,” Piper said, anger flaring in her eyes. “How dare you come into our family home, on a holiday weekend, and criticizemefor how I treat my baby sister. You don’t know her, or us, you have no right to judge.”
“Exactly,” Sienna said quickly. She leaned into Fenn’s side and deliberately pressed her hand to his chest. “You don’t knowhim, either. No one should be judging. Fenn and I have done a lot of talking and getting to know each other, and if he’d stood up for me against anyone else trying to control me you’d be impressed, whether you’ll ever admit it or not. Now it’s your turn. Take a breath and stop picturing bloody hands for gods’ sakes.”
This time it was Maya who spoke, her tone guarded. “Fenn. Why should we trust you to protect our sister’s secret?”
Fenn turned his focus to her. “What do I have to gain from telling anyone?”
Maya didn’t flinch. “You could sell the story just to make a few bucks. Throw our lives into chaos from reporters or conspiracy theorists all trying to figure out if there’s any truth to it, and walk away. We’re the ones who would suffer. Sienna would suffer. Sienna is our baby sister. Both Piper and I would die for her. Can you possibly understand how we feel?”
Sienna rolled her eyes with a deliberately audible groan. “Give me a break, Maya. I’m twenty-nine, notten.”
“I don’t personally believe that anyone can perfectly understand the feelings of another,” Fenn replied. “Even if I replied to each detail of your argument, would it assuage your fears? Would you feel better if I told you I have three older brothers of my own? Or that Sienna had to ask me repeatedly to join her for this weekend because I’ve yet to find any reason to enjoy Christmas, and I generally prefer to be alone?”
“The two of you are doing afantasticjob of creating that happy holiday atmosphere, by the way,” Sienna added when Fenn paused. Not that she hadn’t fully expected push-back. It still irritated her.
Piper spoke up again, a note of more genuine curiosity in her voice. “You have brothers? Why aren’t you spending the holiday with them?”
Sienna opened her mouth to lecture her sister’s choice of invasive question, but she wasn’t fast enough.
“They’re in other time-zones right now. Two of them are on other continents, I believe.”
She knew, logically, he had to be referring to the remaining three Horsemen. Which she needed to remind herself to stop calling them, because apparently they didn’t like that term. He’d told her they preferred to call themselves The Four. Still, terminology aside, it was a bit strange to think she had some even abstract concept of where the freakingFour Horsemenwere in real time. Her gaze dropped down to the hand she’d lowered to his forearm, just above the edge of his sleeve. Realistically, the most surreal and ridiculous of all would have to be that she was semi-clinging to Death. In a very literal, non-threatening way.
“Everything else aside,” Maya said after a moment, “Sienna told you about her vision of you. Surely you can comprehend why we would be concerned. Her visions are never wrong.”
“Maya!” Sienna snapped, straightening.
Fenn caught her hand before it could fully retreat from him and pulled into his gloved one, lacing their fingers. “You’re worried the bloodstained hands in her recurring vision mean something ominous for her.” He said it as a statement as he looked briefly between her sisters. “That’s a non-issue. Sienna has proven to be somehow immune to my unfortunate ability.”
Both her sisters reacted at once to those words, resulting in clamor of competing noise, accentuated by one swinging arm. It would have been comical in any other situation.
Sienna sighed heavily and turned her attention to Fenn instead. She didn’t want to say the wrong thing, after all. “You don’t owe them that explanation. Seriously.”
He glanced over at her and his lips twitched up, as if to let her know not to worry. The expression made her breathing falter.
“I’m sorry—” Maya started.
“—did you say youalsohave an ability?” Piper asked.
Fenn inclined his head. “I do, though I prefer not to discuss it. It’s the reason I keep myself covered at all times—because those who make contact with my flesh become terribly ill. Sometimes even to the point of death.”
Both her sisters fell silent for a long moment. Giving Sienna a few seconds to contemplate how surprised she also was, at the realization that he’d told them even that bit of truth. She wanted to ask him about that choice, but she knew this wasn’t the time.
Piper drew an audible breath, her lips a thin line. “What you’ve described is terrible, Fenn. If that’s true, then I’m sorry for the suffering I can only imagine you’ve endured up to now.” Her eyes narrowed again. “I am alsohorrendouslycurious how you discovered Sienna’s so-calledimmunityto such a curse.”
Sienna lifted her free hand, belatedly remembering she still held her cup of cider, and waved it for emphasis. “That’d be my fault. I saw him on Thursday night and basically chased after him, and I grabbed him by the arm. Because I have no sense of manners. I think I gave him a minor heart attack.”
Piper gave her a horrified look. “Sienna!”
