“Right, that’s totally understandable,” Tok states and pulls Marn into his side. “We can get all of that arranged for you,” he reassures me, and I give him a small smile.
“Well, it’s getting late, and you must be starving. Let’s go down for some dinner, shall we? We had the cooks prepare Illish which is Grier’s favorite. I’m sure you’re just going to love it,” he tells me as he guides Marn out the door.
I turn to Knox and Bastien and make a face.Illish, I mouth to them, and Bastien pretends to get the shivers.
“You okay?” Knox asks me and opens his arms.
I step into them, and he surrounds me with his strong hold that helps me feel centered.
“Yeah...they seem nice,” I observe. “It’s just weird, I guess,” I admit.
Knox kisses the top of my head as I nuzzle against his chest.
“Go easy on yourself, Bruiser. There’s no rush to build bonds, it will take time,” Bastien tells me, and I nod my head in agreement.
“If you don’t want to stay here…” Knox starts.
“Here, the castle, it doesn’treallymatter to me. I just don’t want to stay in my mother’s old room. That feels kind of wrong in a way,” I tell them. I’m probably not making a ton of sense, but Bastien and Knox nod their understanding, and I breathe out a sigh of relief.
“Grier...I mean...Vinna, are you coming down for dinner?” Tok asks me, and I look up from my hug with Knox.
Tok runs his gaze over our position, and I get the impression that he’s uncomfortable with the display of affection.
“Yeah, coming,” I say, stepping out of Knox’s comforting embrace.
I move to follow Tok out the door. “So what exactly is Illish?”
* * *
“Can you see my ass crack?” I whisper to Knox as he tightens the ties on the new red-grape colored armor he’s been given. I swear these Sentinel clothes are spelled to fit somehow, or these people are hella good at guessing sizes.
Knox looks back at my ass, and I stick it out a little so he can be extra sure. Marn and her people jacked my black armor, my sports bra and my underwear when I was changing into the dress they shoved into my hands and told me Ihadto wear.
“No crack is visible to me,” he reports, and then he slaps my ass. “Your nipples however are going to be an issue,” he adds, running the back of his hand against one of the hardened peaks.
I slap his hand away and look down. Yep, that’s going to be a problem. Nipping out in front of my newly introduced grandparents has to be some kind of major faux pas. I cover my breasts with my hands and glare at Knox and Bastien as they both chortle.
I grumble as I move back toward the large mirror leaning in the corner and try to see if there’s another way to wrap this dress so that I don’t become an utter embarrassment to myself and my newfound family. The dress is a deep plum and has a very Grecian feel to the fabric and style. The material is very thin and very soft, but it shows a lot. It wouldn’t have been my first pick for a night with the relatives, but Marn gave it to me, so I’m stuck.
I’ve officially lived in the house of the First for less than twenty-four hours. It’s been nice getting to know Tok and Marn. I’ve heard all kinds of stories about things my mom got up to and her accomplishments. So far it’s been really nice, all very surface level, but nice. Things are still stiff, but that’s bound to be par for the course as we both figure each other out. I figure as we get more comfortable with each other, the more they’ll tell me about what happened. I haven’t wanted to push for too much information, but I’m dying to get into the deep shit of how Grier ended up where she did.
I haven’t seen Tok and Marn much today. They announced at breakfast that they were throwing a party for me tonight, and since then, they’ve been fluttering around dealing with that. A little down time has been nice. I want to hear about Grier and her life, but I think it’s hard on Tok and Marn too. They call me Grier a lot, and I can tell that theyreallymiss her.
A tentative knock sounds on the door, and I look to make sure Bastien and Knox are both decent.
“Come in,” I shout out as I attempt to flatten my annoying nipples. I don’t think touching them is doing anything other than motivating me to figure out how I can get either Knox or Bastien alone in a bathroom somewhere, so I stop.
The door to the room we’ve been left in swings open, and in walks Marn and two other females. They all have full hands, and I watch as two of them set brushes and other things down at a table, and Marn makes her way over to me. Her eyes light up and fill with emotion.
“You look stunning, Vinna,” she tells me, and her voice cracks as she says my name.
She quickly clears it and offers me a sweet smile. “This dress was your mothers,” she informs me, and my eyes go wide with surprise.
Marn pulls on a long chain around her neck until a locket is revealed. She unclasps the jewelry from around her neck and hands it to me. “Open it,” she encourages, so I do.
The round silver locket clicks open. Both sides separate from one another and reveal an image of a woman that really does look a lot like me. I study her face. Her skin was darker than mine, her hair lighter with a wavy texture mine gets when it dries naturally. Her eyes were the teal of her father’s. Her lips, thinner than mine, are turned up into a breathtaking smile. When I saw Lachlan and was told he was my father’s identical twin, I thought I clearly looked like my father. But as I stare at the picture of my mother, I realize I’m a good mix of both their coloring and features.
Breath whooshes out of me as I stare at her. I stumble back until the back of my legs hit something, and I sit down hard. Bastien barely gets the chair underneath me as I plop down, saving me from ass planting, but all I can do is stare at Grier in the palm of my hands.
