I’m silent for a beat as I try to figure out what to say, but then I just shake my head. “It’s nothing, Ella,” I respond, not wanting to add to her plate. I can see by the darkness under her eyes that she’s exhausted too. “Just…the fallout.” She nods, accepting my incomplete explanation, and focus
Ella It takes days to finish healing all of the men – long days with Cora and Hank by my side, explaining the intricate details of the wounds. We’ve found that it helps me concentrate the gift more completely when I know what is wrong – that it helps me to stitch all of the flesh together neatly i
“Are you all finished, Ella?” Henry asks. Roger stands up straight and tucks his hands into his pockets, listening curiously. “Yes!” I say with a cheerful sigh, bouncing my happy baby a little in my arms. “Everyone is finally all patched up.” “Incredible,” Henry says with a marvelous smile that
Ella “What?” Cora asks, laughing a little as if it’s a ridiculous notion. “What on earth could I have to pick and choose from?” “Let’s back up a little,” Roger says, tugging her into the room and gesturing towards one of the chairs around the table. As she settles herself into a seat Sinclair pu
“We could,” Sinclair replies, looking seriously down at me. “If I was King. Which, currently, I am not.” I blink up at him for a second, confused, and then put all of the pieces together. “Ohhhh,” I say, my eyes going wide. Because while all of the other claims to the throne within our country hav
Ella I watch Cora struggle with her choice, biting her lip and trying to figure out how she feels. My heart goes out to her now, because I know that she thinks it is an impossible ask to tell us that she wants to put a coronation on hold so that she can visit a temple. But suddenly, quite sudde
Cora sits up straight at the idea. “You should have started with that,” she says, her eyebrows going up almost to her hairline. “I was sold at ‘real bed.’ Let’s do it.” And then a little smile creeps onto her face. I let out a little cry of joy, throwing up the hand that’s not holding my baby to m
I gasp a few hours later when I see the gigantic RV that rolls up out front of the clinic. “Seriously?” Hanks says, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at it, somewhere between impressed and revolted by the extravagance. “The gas mileage on that thing must be horrible –“ “Ohhh,” I say,
He shakes his head at me as tears fill his own eyes and he leans forward, pulling me against him while somehow miraculously managing not to crush our children between us as he holds me tight in his arms. “So, I guess it wouldn’t matter,” he murmurs against my hair as I sniff back my tears and nod.
“Even more than the kids!?” I gasp, my mouth falling open a bit. “I mean, the kids,” he says, shrugging as if they’re not much, which makes me laugh. But then he goes a little rigid as he realizes something, raising his eyes to glare at me a bit. “Wait, are you saying you like the kids more than m
Ella “Nope,” Sinclair says, heaving himself out of bed and grabbing his phone off the bedside table as he does. “I can’t live like this, Ella – I’m calling Roger, I’ve got to know –“ “Dominic!” I say, laughing and grabbing for him, trying to catch the edge of his pajamas and failing because I’v
She laughs and I look first at Sinclair, who shrugs, and then back at my sister. “Come on,” Roger says, nodding at the crowds of people waiting to congratulate us and at the small table of refreshments. “Let’s decide this over some champagne.” Sinclair nods at me and I sigh, moving with my famil
The last image, though, lingers. Ariel, with Rafe and Jesse on either side – as they always are – and her two mates behind her. All standing together on a battlefield with Ariel at the center, magic welling between her hands and passing to her brother, to her cousin. Their faces are serious as t
Cora The images of Ariel’s future come in quick flashes, and somehow I get the impression that the Goddess is eager to share these glimpses of her life. The ones that come first are what I sort of expected, especially after seeing some images of Rafe’s childhood and hearing about the ones that
“We are not,” Cora scoffs, gently taking Ariel into her arms as Sinclair and I laugh. Roger grins, leaning forward to kiss me on the cheek before passing Jesse to me. “You know I’m kidding, right, Ells?” he whispers. I smile at my brother-in-law and gently pat his cheek. “When in doubt, Roger,”
Ella Three weeks later – Ariel was born under a waning quarter moon, not a new moon like her brother and her cousin – I stand anxiously in the woods, my little girl held tight in my arms. “I’m sensing some anxiety,” Cora says, grinning at me with a little too much glee as she comes up to my sid
“Oh my god,” I say, the words spilling out of my mouth. “Oh my god,” I sit up straight, staring at Henry, my eyes flicking to his legs – because honestly, I don’t even notice his chair anymore, or think of him at all as someone whose abilities are hindered. Or of me as someone who is able to do an