Rian pouted.
At times like these, I remembered that my boys looked a lot older than they were, thanks to the Dragon-Sidhe maturity that had rocketed them through infancy. Normally, they behaved the age they looked, currently around twelve, but once in a while, we got something like this, more appropriate to their actual age, which was seven. Honestly, I think it was the human in them coming out.
“That's enough arguing,” I said. “We're welcoming your sister into the world, and I don't want her first experience of her family to be an argument.
“Sorry, Mother,” Brevyn said instantly.
“Sorry,” Rian said shortly after. Then he realized that I'd taken his sister away. “Can I have her back now?”
“My turn!” Brevyn smirked at Rian as he held his arms out to me.
I set Samara in Brevyn's arms, not bothering to support her or even instruct him. I suspected that he already knew how to hold a baby, and I was right. Brev slid Samara's head over his arm, supporting her neck as if he'd held her a thousand times. Ull never had children, but he must have been around several over the years, and once you hold a baby, you never forget the technique. Granted, Brevyn didn't remember everything about Ull yet, but it looked as if he remembered that.
“Welcome, Sister,” Brevyn said. “You and I will be great friends.”
Samara had that unfocused baby stare, but when Brevyn spoke to her, I swear her dark eyes met his blue ones, and something passed between them. I suppose it wasn't so hard to believe; he and I had communicated when he was still in my belly. Back before he and Rian had split into two bodies.
Brevyn smiled and nodded at Samara as if she'd spoken, then bent to kiss her forehead. Rian moved to sit beside his twin and peer over Brevyn's shoulder at their sister, everything calm again. That was something I could always count on with my boys—family came first. Arach and I didn't even have to teach them that; they'd been born that way.
Arach slid over and put his arm around my shoulders. “Two sons and a daughter. I never thought I could be so happy, A Thaisce. Thank you.”
“Just wait until she starts dating, then we'll see how happy you are.”
“She's a Dragon-Sidhe; she'll have a voracious sexual appetite once she matures, and I will encourage her to explore it. Just as long as she eventually marries Baidhen.”
I gaped at him.
“Don't look at me like that, A Thaisce. I know you don't approve of the idea of an arranged marriage, and I will not insist upon the union, but I will still do all in my power to get those two together and nudge them toward romance. It's the only way that we'll have more full-blooded Dragon-Sidhes.”
“First of all, I was more shocked by your cavalier attitude toward our daughter having sex than her arranged marriage,” I whispered, angling my body to block the children. “And second, she's not the sole hope of the Dragon-Sidhe race.”
“I know, there's also Sinnea.”
Baidhen and Sinnea were the children of King Rowan and Queen Liatris of Darkness, who, thanks to my serving as Faerie's avatar when she created them, were the first Dark Dragon-Sidhe in existence. Arach and Rowan had been plotting to get our children together for a while now, but before Samara, they only had Sinnea and Rian to focus on. Now they had a new target with Samara, which put Baidhen in their crosshairs as well.
“I was talking about Violet, the human baby who was transformed by the Wild Magic.” I leaned closer to add, “And have you forgotten the whole reason Samara went back in time to fetch me?”
Arach went still, the kind of stillness that presages bad things. He didn't have any memories of my death because this him had never experienced it, but it was horrible enough for him to know that I had died in another timeline. “Yes. You let Odin go and everything went wrong.”
“Arach,” I growled. “You betrothed Samara to Baidhen against her wishes and it led to—”
“I know what it led to,” he cut me off. “And we know better now, Vervain. We won't make the same mistakes.”
“You and Rowan united our kingdoms against the others and tried to take over Faerie!” I hissed. “Darkfire, Arach! Dark-freaking-Fire!”
“And now, I know better. There will be no uniting of our kingdoms.”
“Arach, Rian and I died in that war.”
“That was another future when Rian didn't have Brevyn.”
“Mom, what are you talking about?” Rian asked, his voice unsteady.
“Something that's not going to happen anymore, honey,” I said gently. Then I glared at Arach. “Right, Arach?”
“I will never let anything bad happen to any of you children or your mother,” Arach declared.
Not exactly the answer I was looking for. So I asked him a question that I knew would throw him. “And what if one or more of the children end up attracted to the same sex?”
