“You look perfect.” Cas kissed the top of her head, his hand sliding to the small of her back. “And you should never keep royalty waiting.”
“Especially not Mum,” I added. “She’s not big on patience.”
“Just like her son,” Cas muttered, and I flipped him off.
The four of us headed outside, crossing the patio toward the manicured lawn, and Seri skipped beside me, Cas and Ko flanking us like honor guards.
“All I can say is thank the night she didn’t come with full royal fanfare.” I squinted up at the sky. “No guards, no skywhale barque, no roc litter with storm shepherds orchestrating dramatic weather effects. Just two sky wyrms.”
“Is that good?” Seri shielded her eyes, searching the clouds.
“It’s less formal.” I shrugged. “More personal.”
“There,” Ko pointed to where two serpentine shapes had appeared, sinuous and gleaming against the sky.
“Wow,” Seri breathed, her gray eyes wide.
I couldn’t hold back a smile. This was another of the hundreds of reasons why I loved her. That ability to see beauty and wonder and delight in things that terrified most people. If anyone could win over my impossible mother, it would be Seri.
The wyrms descended in lazy spirals, their riders just behind their crested heads, one with a nimbus of copper-red hair I’d know anywhere. The second her wyrm landed, she slid off its back and strode forward like she’d just guillotined someone and expected applause, dressed head to toe in ghost-white linen with pumpkin breeches and a coat so frilly, it looked like it lost a duel with a wedding cake.
“Zane!” she called. “Don’t just stand there gawking! Come greet your mother properly!”
Night’s teeth. Here we go.
14. Lifetime After Lifetime
Seri
I was so excited to meet Zane’s mother that I couldn’t stop fidgeting with the hem of my dress. Queen Doria Starling, actual royalty from the Sky Realm, was coming to meet me.Me! The farm girl who used to devour books about magical creatures, dreaming of a world beyond corn fields and apple orchards. Now those creatures were landing in our backyard, and I was married into their family!
If my childhood self could see me now, she’d probably faint.
“Thank the Goddess I let Koko buy me this dress,” I whispered to myself, smoothing the lavender fabric over my hips. It was the one from our wedding, and the nicest I owned. I’d taken extra time with my hair, too, taming my curls into a half-up, half-down style that made me look more put-together than usual.
The sky wyrms were magnificent, each about thirty feet long with bodies that seemed to be carved from living storm clouds, scales that caught the sunlight like polished metal. One was midnight black with streaks of silver, as if stars had been captured in obsidian. The other was the gray and white of thunderheads with veins of electricity crackling along its spine. They moved like water in zero gravity, twisting and coiling through the air.
I couldn’t give them more than a quick look, however, because there, sliding gracefully from the back of the thundery wyrm, was Zane’s mum.
She moved like an athlete, full of confidence and vigor. Her hair, wild and luminous, looked like a living flame, and her crown seemed made of sapphire frost. Despite her ageless face, her eyes were ancient, like moonlight trapped in ice, and I shuffled my feet nervously.
The man, her consort, towered over her. He looked just as the boys had described. His skin shimmered like dark bronze, his molten silver eyes caught the sun and flung it right back, and his hair, black as deep space, was braided down his back in a thick rope studded with glittering beads.
“Zane!” Queen Doria called, her voice musical and commanding at once. “Don’t just stand there gawking! Come greet your mother properly!”
“Hey, Mum,” Zane called back like this was just a normal Friday as he met her halfway.
I thought she’d go for a hug, but she grabbed his face with both hands, pulled him down, and planted a loudmwah!kiss on his cheek. Zane went pink. I tried not to stare.
“There. Now everyone knows I’m your mother and you’re embarrassed.”
“Mortified, thank you.” He wiped his cheek with exaggerated disgust. “Still dramatic, I see.”
“Still allergic to hair products, I see.” Queen Doria’s eyes flicked to me, then back to Zane. “You might have warned me she’s beautiful. I so hate being underdressed.”
Underdressed?I stared at her in disbelief. She looked like she’d stepped out of the most glamorous fantasy novel ever written, and I was in a nice, but simple, cotton dress!
Her riding outfit was all white, but notplain. It shimmered in the afternoon sun, layers of linen and lace that fluttered behind her like wings. Her coat was long and trailed ruffles to her ankles, and her sleeves belled at the wrists, each one dusted with lace that danced in the breeze. She wore little puffy shorts over tights and tall boots, the kind of outfit I’d only ever seen in old paintings of princes and adventurers.
