“Nothing,” he agreed. “You die, I die, Twilight.”
And then my glorious husband sped up, his hips bringing us into beautiful release. Together this time. As Kill's head arched back, the sun turning his hair into fire, I clung to him and pushed away the guilt I'd been feeling. Dagur's interest in our daughter wasn't the only thing I'd been keeping from him.
I would have to tell my husbands about the new threat the King of Hell had become. But not yet. Soon.
Chapter Four
After Kill and I had our little rendezvous, he left me to have a mother-daughter talk with our girl. I found her in the garden by Eibhleann's tree, seated at the picnic table before a group of Pixies who were gorging on the honey she had brought them, dipping little spoons into the bowl to fish out tiny droplets. Since Eibhleann was still inside, we went into the tree's hollow interior for our talk.
Rowan had been shockingly comfortable during my speech about her blossoming into a woman. Her eyes had gleamed, and her lips kept twitching. I knew that look. I had once worn it when my mother had given me “the talk.” Rowan was as eager to become a woman as I had been. But where I looked forward to proving myself as an Extinguisher and making my parents proud with my psychic gifts, Rowan was looking forward to the other things that came with adulthood. For me, I had thought I'd marry another Extinguisher. That's what Extinguishers do. They marry each other and have Extinguisher babies who are, hopefully, stronger than they are. I had my daydreams, of course, and even a few crushes, but my father—my human father, Ewan—had been so strict that I never had the chance to speak with boys, much less waste fantasies on them. My future had been planned. It wasn't until I startedmy Extinguisher training that I really learned how exciting the opposite sex could be. And then I met Tiernan.
Love has a tendency to change everything.
As I spoke to her, I tried to see things from Rowan's perspective. She was probably thrilled to be the focus of a grown man's attention. As much as it skeeved me out, I liked that for her. I wanted her to feel special. I just didn't want her to embarrass herself by chasing after Dagur or getting her heart crushed when he explained why he couldn't be with her for several more years. To a girl on the cusp of womanhood, Dagur's behavior could be either uplifting or damaging.
“I know, Mom,” Rowan had said, her beautiful face alight with happiness. “I'm not ready to do what you do with Daddy. But I'll be ready someday soon, and I don't want Dagur to forget me before I'm grown.”
That had shocked me nearly as much as Dagur's impassioned speech. I told her that Dagur came to see her because he didn't want her to forget him. She had nothing to worry about. Rowan's smile had gotten even brighter.
“I love Dagur,” she said with the open honesty of a child. “I want to marry him someday.”
When kids spoke like that, it was usually adorable. But then the people they said they wanted to marry were impossibilities, like their fathers or Santa Claus. Or Optimus Prime. It was innocent. Not with my daughter. She knew. I saw it on her face. Of course, she knew. She had been raised in a family with one mother, one father, and four uncles who were like second fathers to her. She knew what love was. She just didn't know what the physical part of it entailed.
So, I told her. The specifics. Maybe it was a little early for the talk, but under the circumstances, I decided it was necessary. I got graphic, and her eyes got big. By the end of my description, there were Pixie giggles coming from the rose bushes, and Rowan's steady stare had gone wide. My daughter may have begun to feel adult urges, but hearing about what those urges led to had her reconsidering.
“In time, you'll want to do those things,” I had told her. “When you meet the right man and are mature enough to experience that side of love. Until then, don't rush it, sweetheart. These are wonderful years. Have fun. Make more friends. Dagur will be there when you're ready, and only then will you have to decide if he's who you want to be with.”
Rowan's expression had shifted from shocked to relieved. And it hadn't returned to that eager gleam that was too old for her sweet face. She had run off to play with the Pixies, who, although they were technically grown men and women, enjoyed their time with Rowan in a pure, nonthreatening way.
Walking away from her and the still-giggling Pixies, I smiled to myself. There would be more talks with Rowan as she got older but, for now, I could rest easy knowing that she wasn't going to be sitting on Dagur's lap again anytime soon.
As I entered the castle, I nearly plowed into Sever.
“Sever!” I pulled up short. Then I sighed. He had probably come to apologize.
“Seren!” He grabbed my hand and pulled me down the corridor until he found an empty room. Once we were inside, he shut the door behind us.
“Look, about the—”
“Gabriel is on the phone.” Sever shoved his scry phone at me.
As it was with Demons, Angels had communication devices that could connect to crystal balls or scry phones. Their version was called a luut, and instead of a wristband, it was worn as a pendant or on the ear. Also like the Demon letaq, luuts didn't show images, so the scry phone Sever held out to me was full of golden mist instead of Gabriel's face.
“Gabriel?” I asked.
“Hello, Your Majesty,” the Archangel Gabriel's voice came from the phone.
“He wants to send a Virtue to observe Miri!” Sever growled.
I took a breath and let it out slowly. “To observe her for what purpose?”
“It's only to determine her soul's resonance, Queen Seren,” Gabriel explained.
“I don't know what that means.”
“They want to see how powerful she is.” Sever shook his head. “I knew they wouldn't leave us alone. Your father should have consulted me before letting them into Fairy to see Miri.”
I laid a hand on his thick arm. “What would it hurt to have them observe her?”
