Lorelei squatted down beside us. “Hey, Nellie.”
“Hey.” Nellie hugged Lorelei like she already knew her, which surprised me.
When they separated, Lorelei glanced over at me and laughed. “I might have been visiting her in her dreams to make sure she knew you were okay—and to get to know her.”
I smiled. Now it made sense. “Did you tell her about the puppy?” I asked.
“What puppy?” Nellie said excitedly as Lorelei smacked my arm.
“No. That was supposed to be a surprise.”
“What puppy?” Stryker’s voice came from behind me, and standing, I spun around to find my eldest and most stoic brother staring back at me with something that looked almost close to a smile.
It was good to see him. It was good to see everyone, considering I thought I never would again.
“Still too grumpy for a hug?” I asked.
He grinned, the expression still looking a little foreign on his face as the jagged scar on his cheek puckered. “That depends. Did you get me a puppy?”
I laughed, pulling him in for a hug anyway, which he returned.
“Well done, brother,” he said, patting my back. When he pulled back, there was a suspicious shine in his eyes that I would swear were tears if it was anyone but him. “We thought we’d lost you for a second there,” he said, his voice gruff.
Looking into his gaze, I sobered a little, realizing they’d felt me die. “For a second there, you did,” I said, but then glanced over at Lorelei. “But someone was too stubborn to let me go.”
Lorelei ducked her head, her cheeks turning a pretty shade of pink.
It seemed like Stryker was going to ask something when Zander and Adrien appeared and swallowed me in a hug.
“We’re so glad you’re all right,” Zander said right before he released me. Adrien, looking overcome with emotion, just nodded his agreement.
“Excuse me.” I felt a tug on my jacket and looked down to see Nellie. “What puppy?”
I noticed that Lorelei had left my side to join her mother and sisters.
“Your puppy. And one for Lorelei,” I told her.
Nellie whooped, fist-pumping in the air, while my brothers looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“Who is she?” Zander asked.
“My …” I hesitated.Daughterfelt weird—I’d had to have been ten years old to have her. “Sister,” I said, watching her for a reaction.
She grinned at me, nodding with tears in her eyes.
“Sister?” Zander repeated. I hoped he wasn’t going to make a big deal of it and risk offending Nellie. I hadn’t had any time to explain how I found her and that she had no one to go home to.
“Well, does she know she has three other brothers now, too?” Zander asked.
“Thank you,” I mouthed to him as he took Nellie’s hand and began introducing her to everyone in the room, including her two new “brothers,” Stryker and Adrien.
Seeing my throne room filled to the brim with fae from Faerie and Ethereum alike brought tears to my eyes. An unseelie house-maid handed Aribella’s mother a napkin, and she flinched for only a second before taking it with a smile. It would take time to break down the walls of lies that the previous generations had built, but I knew that together we could do it, making way for a new generation to come.
“Zane,” Lorelei called to me, waving me over to where she stood with her family.
I cleared my throat and walked over to her. We still had work to do, but as long as she was by my side, we could get through anything. Together.
Chapter Thirty-Four
