“Listen, Ber, I really don’t want you to come in for the ceremony, but I can’t tell you what to do. So, if you’re coming let me know, alright? Especially, if you’re bringing Sermon and Gaia. Look, I love them, but I don’t want that woman in the line of fire, okay? I know, I know. She can take care of herself, but she’s lived a sheltered life, even with her adventures.”
“Were you eavesdropping on us?” I blinked at the phone.
“No, I just know you. I’m surprised I’ve been able to keep you away this long,” she sighed.
“That’s because you had enough to do with ---” I stopped myself from talking about how one of the ghosts nearly sliced through Bree’s belly not long after they discovered she was with egg. “Your matingmoon and stuff,” I decided on instead. “I don’t want to rehash everything because I don’t know when Sermon and Gaia will be back up from the beach, but I think I gotta be there. I think --- For the sake of honor, I’ve got to be there. Without Pras none of us would be here at all. I can feel it in my fire and scales that I need to be there.”
“Look, I can’t stop you, but if something goes wrong, don’t try to play hero. Get Gaia and Sermon out of there. Grab a couple other people on your way out too,” she laughed, but the sound didn’t reach her eyes. “I don’t think it’s dishonorable to stay safe, just so you know.”
“I could say the same to you,” I said.
“Touche.”
Chapter 2
Jade
Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
I almost made plans to go to the lake for the day of Pras’s leaving. Only, I wouldn’t leave Eran and Vatten alone with their five newborns when all hell just might break loose on the farm. Eran would never leave me in a situation like that. Never. Still, we weren’t attending the party or the ceremony. I was staying at home with my door locked and my baby safely inside the house. A few days before I had Daryl Moonscale himself come out and check the magical security system. Jondi was only starting to relax into life and enjoy himself on a daily basis and I wasn’t about to let a couple of dead dudes fuck that up.
“Eat the dead,”my lion yawned into my thoughts, his big wings stretched out inside his inner sanctum.
Oh, I would if I could. Instead, I spent the day doing all the legwork in case we had to lock down for a few days while considering if it would be better just to go down to the Burrow. If Medwin hadn’t been down there in his nest, I might have suggested it to Vatten and Eran. Their little ones all had their eyes open now. The puppies hadn’t shifted at all but one of the kittens, Amanzio, had shifted into human baby form twice now. He didn’t stay that way long once he realized the rest of his siblings weren’t following his lead.
While Eran and Vatten spent the last part of his pregnancy preparing the house for their kids, I set up an area in mine for them. I didn’t know why at the time, but since I’m half dragon, I figured perhaps Vatten’s pregnancy might’ve set off some nesting instinct in me. Not that I’d ever speak the words aloud to anyone, but I sort of always figured that eventually Eran and I would give up on trying to find our true-mates and settle for each other because it was better to turn a friend into a lover than to be alone.
“DAD!” Jondi called from his bedroom, followed by a splash of water.
Not that I ever had long to sit around and dwell on being single. Plus, I liked Vatten. He and Eran just sort of fit together.
“Jondi?” I called back, sprinting through the house.
“My rock bit the pool again,” he stood akimbo, frowning at the hard plastic kiddy pool currently leaking water all over his bedroom. His little hands were fists against his hips. I smiled, because I knew what he had tried to do again. In one hand he hid a clam. In his other, was his newest favorite rock. This one had little divots in its surface that made the rock appear to have two eyes and a tiny little smile.
“Were you trying to open a clam again?” I asked, trying my best not to smile. He was a good kid, but there was only so much water a tarp could stop from soaking into the carpet.
“Maybe,” he said, “but the rock bit the pool.”
“Hmmmm…. Didn’t we bring a cutting board in here for that?”
“Yeah…” he toed at the ground. “But it’s too big when I’m me.”
“You’re always you, kiddo,” I said, shoving one of the many towels we kept in his room into the crack in the tub as a temporary solution.
“I meant when I’m the real me,” he said.
Not so long ago, Jondi wouldn’t play in his room by himself. He was a wildborn otter shifter who washed up on the shore and was passed around a few foster homes before he ended up with me. I might not have been a water dwelling shifter, but I had worked as a lifeguard for a few summers and knew enough to fill in my knowledge gaps when I needed to.
“You’re always the real you,” I said again.
Dealing with a leaking pool really was the last thing we needed today. I thought about calling Vius or Claw to bring another one from storage, but they were working security for Pras’s whole thing today. Under normal circumstances, I’d have asked Eran, but…. Five babies. ‘Nuff said.
“We’ll have to do some draconic engineering,” I said, lifting the pool and tilting it so that the water all rushed to the uninjured side.
“DON’T EAT IT!” Jondi screamed and grabbed my leg, smacking me with the clam and his rock as his little hands wrapped around me. “I NEED IT!”
“I know. That’s why I’m going to fix it, but first we need to dump the water,” I said, stepping over him.
