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“First things first.” Arden took her hand back, leaving my fingers to curl as they chased her warmth. She twisted the inside of her wrist up for me to see then tapped an old scar. “We’re going to talk about this.”
The courtship mark I left on her the last time I saw her ignited heat under my skin, but she hadn’t agreed to bear it. I shouldn’t have done it, gifted her with one of my scales, but it had kept me sane knowing she carried some piece of me with her.
“When a girl says that to you, it means you’re in trouble,” Daniel informed me. “Big trouble.”
“You’rereallyin fascination with Arden?” Allie bounced on her toes. “Can shereallybe our sister?”
“I can’t believe she waited for you.” Caressa thinned her lips. “Fortenyears.”
The sharpness of her tone told me the waiting hadn’t been easy for her either. As the oldest, she carried the most memories of me.
“She could have gotten married and had babies like Auntie Camber.” Talia blinked wide eyes. “Then you would have cried and cried and cried, like that time my toenail fell off after I stubbed my toe on coral.”
The idea of Arden marrying someone else carved me hollow, and I caught myself checking her fingers for a wedding band even though Talia saidcould have. Notdid. But Arden’s hands were bare.
“Back to the kitchen, brats.” Arden clapped her hands loudly. “Finish icing the cupcakes.”
They ducked in, formed a huddle, and hugged me close before scampering back to the house.
Once we were alone, I found the courage to search her—Arden’s—face for signs I was truly welcome.
“You sound different.” She hesitated. “Not in a bad way. Just more formal.”
“I grew up with this accent.” I envied her honeyed drawl. “It was worse when I first met Rue.”
Life on the fringes of the Haelian Seas court as a child had left me with a crisp accent, a nasal tone, and a more rigid thought and speech pattern. I had sanded down the haughtiness until Hael brought it rushing back, snapping it in place like muscle memory.
“I set up Camp Aedan for you, in case you missed the creek, but I have a spare bedroom now.”
“Rue told me about Camber. The wedding. The kids. The move to Birmingham.”
About every notable moment in Arden’s life too, leaving me equal parts contented and tormented.
“Hollis Apothecary Too opened last week.” She rocked back on her heels. “We’re officially a chain.”
“Congratulations.” A curve found my lips without me forcing the smile for once. “I’m glad she’s happy.”
“Me too.” She blew out a sigh. “I miss having her as a roommate, but I visit once a month. We video chat every day and text. It’s nice. Not the same, but good.” She hadn’t looked me in the eye once, and she didn’t now. “You’re wondering about yoursibs.” She quit fidgeting. “Rue began locating them after…” She cleared her throat. “She brought them to the farm as she found them. They’ve been living with Clay and Moran. They were already raising Peleg together, so what’s five more daemon kids, right?”
A fist of emotion squeezed my throat. “Rue didn’t tell me.”
Shutting my eyes, my lashes matted with tears, I imagined Clay as the father to this brood. Chaotic, loud, andhappyas they appeared to be, it wasn’t hard to picture him raising the rough-and-tumble children as his own.
“She didn’t want to say anything until we had collected the full set.” Arden twisted her toe into the dirt. “We only found Caressa ten months ago. She was the last one. By that time, Rue felt it was safer not to tell you anything that might encourage you to rebel against Calixta so close to your contract ending.”
By that point, I would have chewed glass at every meal and smiled as blood stained my teeth if it meant I got to walk out the doors the second my time expired. But I could see why Rue would worry. I had seen her, Asa, and Saint once a month, every month, after the ink on their bargain with the queen had dried.
Those visits saved my sanity. Maybe even my soul. Not only did they tether me to the person I had been, but they altered how Calixta treated me. I was elevated from nuisance or plaything to potential ally in an understated war she waged against Rue to convince her to take my place as heir to the Haelian throne.
Rue passed, of course, but by then it had been too late for Calixta to take back her, if not kindness, then tolerance of me. Calixta and I parted on amicable terms, and she bestowed the title on her infant son. The unexpected child had been born after a dalliance with a visiting Haelian Seas noble.
From time to time, I wondered if Saint had laced the queen’s drink with a fertility spell to spare his child, but he only smiled the one time Rue hinted at the same suspicions. Perhaps hethought Calixta deserved a second chance to be a parent, the same opportunity he got with Rue. Or maybe the gods had given me a gift in ensuring my replacement, guaranteeing I could leave without further negotiation or bloodshed.
“I figured you would visit the farm first.” She popped her knuckles. “Everyone is waiting for you there.”
That was where Rue told me to go, but my feet led me here. “I had to come.”
“She told you the kids were here,” Arden guessed, nodding in understanding.
