“I feel?—”
“Star Lady!”
The shriek came from somewhere up the beach, followed by the thunder of small feet. She barely had time to brace herself before Lilani barreled into her legs, small arms wrapping around her waist in a fierce hug.
“You came back! Papa said you would come back but I wasn’t sure because sometimes people don’t come back and I was worried but you’re here and can we play in the tide pools today? Can we? Please?”
She laughed, her heart swelling at the child’s unbridled enthusiasm. She knelt down to the girl’s level, meeting those big golden eyes—so like her father’s, yet filled with a brightness that Valrek’s often lacked.
“Good morning to you too, little one.”
“I’m not little. I’m almost seven. That’s very big.” Lilani’s nose wrinkled. “Papa says I’m growing like a starfish. What does that mean?”
“It means you’re getting bigger every day.” She smoothed back the wild curls that had escaped from Lilani’s braids. “And it means you’re probably hungry. Are you hungry?”
“Always,” Valrek said dryly from behind her. “She eats like a Vultor warrior twice her size.”
“I do not!” Lilani released Ariella and spun to face her father, hands on her hips in a pose of pure indignation. “I eat like a princess.”
“Princesses don’t usually have berry juice on their chins.”
Lilani’s hand flew to her face, and her outrage melted into a sheepish grin. “I had breakfast already.”
“I noticed.”
She stood, watching the easy affection between father and daughter with a strange ache in her chest. She’d never had this warmth. Her father’s interactions had always been clinical. Observations and data points, measurements and modifications. Nothing like the way Valrek reached down to ruffle Lilani’s hair, or the way Lilani leaned into his touch like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“We’re going on a picnic,” Lilani announced, turning back to Ariella. “Papa said so. He packed food and everything, and he even put in the special dried fish that I like, and he said we could go to the meadow where the flowers grow, and—” She stopped, her expression turning suddenly serious. “You’re coming, right? You have to come. It won’t be a proper picnic without you.”
She glanced at Valrek, who was watching her with an unreadable expression. His arms were crossed over his broad chest, muscles shifting beneath the scarred skin, and she remembered how that skin had felt beneath her fingers.
“I’d love to come,” she said. “If that’s all right.”
The smile that spread across his face was small, almost reluctant—but it reached his eyes, warming the gold to something molten and bright.
“It’s all right.”
The meadow was a pocket of impossible beauty nestled in a fold of the cliffs on the land side of the caves. She hadn’t known it existed—hadn’t known that anything so soft could survive on this harsh coast. But here, protected from the wind by towering walls of stone, a carpet of purple and white flowers spread across the ground like a fallen sky. Tall grass swayed in the gentle breeze, and somewhere nearby, a freshwater spring bubbled up from the rocks, filling the air with the clean scent of minerals and earth.
“How did you find this place?” she asked, helping Valrek spread a worn blanket across the soft ground.
“Lilani found it. She has a talent for discovering hidden things.” He shot a fond look at his daughter, who was already racing through the flowers with her arms outstretched, spinning in circles until she made herself dizzy, then turned to look at her. “In a way, she even found you.”
Her breath caught at the heat in his eyes, but she settled onto the blanket and watched the child play, her heart full of a contentment she couldn’t quite name. He sat beside her—close, but not touching. She was acutely aware of the heat of his body, the way his thigh was only inches from hers, and the way his hand clenched on his knee like he was fighting the urge to reach for her.
“I want to teach you both something,” he said after a moment. “A Vultor skill. If you’re willing.”
“What kind of skill?”
“Tracking.” He lifted his face to the wind, nostrils flaring. “My people hunt by scent. It’s not something humans can usually do, but you’re not fully human. And Lilani…” He shook his head. “She needs to learn. She’s half-Vultor, but she was never taught the old ways. I’ve been… remiss.”
The guilt in his voice was unmistakable. She reached out before she could stop herself, laying her hand over his.
“You’ve been surviving,” she said softly. “That’s not the same as being remiss.”
His hand turned beneath hers, and suddenly their fingers were intertwined, his claws resting gently against her wrist. The contact sent a shiver up her arm.
“You’re generous,” he said.
