What a grand adventure this shall be.
5
When Viri finally made it back to her apartment after a full day of sorting, she felt as if three hundred years had passed.
Fortunately, there had been only a handful more reports of missing children during her last few hours, all cases older than six months, making her wonder if she’d invented the threat just to occupy her mind. Her lingering concern had faded upon leaving the ellixen-warded office, with only the smallest niggle of unease remaining—just enough for her to keep monitoring things in the coming days.
For now, however, Viri didn’t even want tothinkabout the archives, not when there were much more pleasant things on the agenda for tonight. Because it was Friday, and that meant—
“Family night!” Wynter screeched, already dressed in fluffy purple pajamas and pouncing on Viri as soon as she walked in the door. “You’re nearly late!”
“ ‘Nearly’ being the key word,” Viri returned, removing her scarlet cloak and working the kinks out of her neck and shoulders.
“Hurry up and get changed.” Wynter prodded Viri in thedirection of her bedroom. “Soren and Jessy are already here. Mom’s getting the games out. I’m on snacks.”
Viri halted mid-step and turned to give her friend a warning look. “Nothing weird, Wyn.”
“Weird?” Wynter’s face was a mask of innocence. “Me?”
“I mean it,” Viri said. “No experimenting. Not like you do with”—Wynter’s eyes rounded in alarm, until Viri rolled her own and finished—“coffee.”
It wasn’t the first time they’d used the word “coffee” in place of “alchemy,” especially when Sarielle was nearby. She was rarely in hearing range, though, with her Magistratus duties often keeping her away from home. Friday nights were the exception, something she carved out time for despite her busy schedule, making sure they knew family came first, always.
“I’ve had a rough day,” Viri went on, “and I need comfort food, not indigestion. Promise me.”
“No indigestion, promise,” Wynter agreed quickly.
“Noexperimenting,” Viri corrected, her voice firm. “Fruit. Nuts. Cheese. Crackers. The basics, that’s it.”
Wynter sighed at Viri’s serious expression. “Fine. Whatever.” She stepped closer to whisper, “But only because I have something new for you to test later. Deal?”
“Deal,” Viri said, trusting Wynter’s risky alchemy experiments considerably more than her food experiments.
Satisfied, Wynter skipped off in the direction of the kitchen, leaving Viri to continue to her bedroom and change into her favorite blue pajamas. Comfort was a requirement of their weekly family nights and had been since they’d begun the tradition, back when Sarielle had opened her home to Viri after the deaths of her parents. Originally, Viri had been meant to stay for only a fewdays while the High Council investigated the tragedy, but Sarielle’s heart had bled for the grieving Viri—a child barely a year older than her own daughter—and when the inquisition finally ended, Sarielle had refused to send Viri off to the orphanage and instead arranged to become her legal guardian.
Viri had been so numb that she’d hardly spoken for weeks, not even to Wynter, who she’d never met until moving into the bedroom next to hers. But neither Sarielle nor Wynter gave up on Viri, their relentless love slowly mending the gaping wound inside her. While Sarielle would never take the place of Viri’s parents, and Wynter was more often a sisterly pest than best friend, the two of them—and Soren, after Viri met him months later—were the reason she’d survived the darkest time of her life. For that, she would forever be in their debt.
It was with those nostalgic thoughts swirling in her mind that Viri left her bedroom and sought out the family she’d been gifted after losing her own, finding them waiting in the spacious lounge area, seated around a circular table piled high with food. An everbeacon chandelier lit the cream-colored room, its brightness increasing as the sky purpled into dusk beyond the sealed windows, the moon steadily rising over the lake resting far beneath them.
“Finally,”Wynter said as Viri approached the table.
“It’s been five minutes,” Viri said.
“Wars have been won in less time.”
“Name two.”
Wynter opened her mouth and then closed it again just as fast.
A soft giggle had Viri turning to take in the rest of the table, the sound having come from Jessalyn, though Soren and Sarielle weren’t hiding their mirth.
It was obvious where the blood relations were among themall. With hair as dark as Wynter’s and eyes just as blue, Sarielle was undeniably Wynter’s mother. Viri had never met Wynter’s father—nor had Wyn, for that matter—but whoever he was, there was little of him in his daughter. Her lawbreaking tendencies, though…Viri did sometimes wonder if they might have come from him, since they certainly didn’t come from her mom.
As for Jessalyn, she looked like a younger, female version of Soren, with long, sandy-blond hair that was slightly curly and brown eyes a shade lighter than his. Her yellow pajamas suited her sunshine personality perfectly, but it was Soren’s bright pink set that brought a smile to Viri’s face—a punishment his sister had gleefully doled out when he’d lost last week’s game.
“Nice jammies, Sor,” Viri teased, bumping his shoulder as she moved past. “The color really brings out your eyes.”
The rude gesture he sent her—hidden from Sarielle’s sight—only made her smile grow.
