Isla
“Do you think we have enough?” I ask my mate as I brace my hands on the kitchen island in our sprawling, but cozy, beachside home. We rebuilt the one Ella destroyed and added four extra bedrooms, which are needed at a time like this.
The whole family is here for the Winter Solstice next week.
Maddox turns from the stove wearing an apron with little flowers all over it–a gift from our grandchildren. Four messy little names are scrawled on its pale blue fabric. Sydney, Ryan, Kenna, and Misty.
Had anyone told me that one day I’d witness Maddox with a spatula in hand, wearing an apron while making pancakes shaped like animals, I wouldn’t have believed them.
But look at us now.
Maddox opens his mouth to answer my question but is interrupted by a shriek coming from beyond the double doors leading off the kitchen, which are open to the perfect day outside.
I glance over my shoulder at the three children chasing each other in the backyard.
“They’re going to wake up Misty,” Maddox sighs, shaking his head, but his lips curve in a smile he couldn’t hide if he tried. “Poor thing hasn’t had a real nap since she arrived.”
“Well, I’m sure she’s used to it, Maddox. Do you think the twins give her any peace back home?”
Another smile that melts my heart. Poor Misty indeed. She’s the newest addition to our family. A year old, big blue eyes like me, and her father, Isaac. Unlike her brothers, she has blonde hair instead of Maddy’s wine-red tresses. She’s beautiful, and Maddy and Isaac dote on her.
Everyone does, in fact. She was the best kind of surprise.
Well, that’s what Maddy and Isaac told us, anyway. Maddy had no intentions of ever getting pregnant again, but I doubt they were taking many precautions to prevent it.
I smirk to myself, and Maddox chuckles before turning back to the stove. “To answer your question, yes. We have enough food to feed a small army.”
I look down at the platters of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, muffins, fruit, and several jars of jam and honey. Since he’s retired, he enjoys cooking for our family, something else I never thought I’d see. “I should get the juice out.”
“Will anyone want more coffee, do you think?” he asks.
“Ryatt, for sure. But he likes your fancy espresso machine. I heard him talking to Isaac about having one shipped to Eastonia.”
Maddox grunts with laughter. “I won’t make a new pot then. He needs to figure out how to use it if he's going to buy one for himself. I’ve been his personal barista for the past week.”
“Gramma!” Kenna’s voice drifts through the double doors, followed by rapid footsteps. I turn and smile down at my granddaughter, at her silver eyes flaked with blue and her messy brown hair. She likes to wear it in braids, but currently her hair is damp and covered in sand. “What did they do to you this time?” I say as I crouch to catch her in my arms.
Five-year-old Kenna sniffles dramatically as she turns on the water works and makes herself cry. She’s so much like Ella was at this age.
“Syd dumped a bucket of sand on my head.”
“I’m sorry, darling–”
“And then Ryan told me I looked like a sand crab and pinched me!”
“Your parent’s told me you’ve been training with your grandpa,” Maddox says. “Go whoop them both. You have my permission.”
Kenna looks up at Maddox, who the kids lovingly call Papa, and wipes her nose on the back of her hand. “Really? Can I use a stick?”
“Yes–”
“No,” I say firmly over Maddox’s voice.
“My pinchers?” Kenna makes little crab claw motions with her hands. I sigh and nod. “And I won’t get in trouble?”
Maddox looks at me then, maybe coming to the realization that he’s about to start a war between our grandchildren, but shrugs. “No, you won’t.”
Her tears immediately dry, and she beams up at her papa, then races back outside to terrorize her cousins.
“Why do you rile them up so early in the morning?” I ask my mate as I rise and begin gathering platters to take outside.
Maddox shrugs, his expression dripping with feline amusement. “I love watching Kenna give Ryan and Syd what they've been asking for. They taunt her constantly.”
“Well, one day she might actually snap. You shouldn’t forget what she… is.”
His eyes meet mine in understanding, but there’s no concern in his expression. “Who knows, maybe the twins will start showing some hints of power like Isaac and Ella did at this age?”
I roll my lower lip between my teeth and turn back to the food, making quick work of taking the enormous breakfast spread to the outdoor table on the patio. In the distance, along the white-sand beach, two female figures are making their way into view. Maddy and Ella have been taking morning walks every day since they arrived. I’m sure it’s the only quiet time they get together all day.
Ryatt and Isaac must still be asleep upstairs.
I smile to myself at the thought. The two of them tend to stay up late talking about politics and such.
It is so good to have this month with my children and their families. I look forward to it every year.
But a week has already passed, and soon, I’ll start feeling that creeping ache that comes with telling them goodbye, especially Ella, Ryatt, and Kenna. While the veil is a thing of the past, Eastonia is still so, so far away. Veiled Valley is a week's journey from Maatua by boat, and planes and cars are not allowed to pass the mountains between Crescent Falls and Eastonia because it’s still too dangerous. At least, for now.
Maybe one day it’ll be easier, but for the time being, Ella and Ryatt have a lot to deal with in their strange kingdom.
I set a few platters of juice on the table as Ella and Maddy come into view. Maddy’s cheeks glow a pretty pink, and her eyes are shielded from the sun by huge sunglasses. “Is Misty awake yet?”
“Not yet,” I smile.
She pushes her sunglasses to the edge of her nose. “Really?”
“She’s gotta be totally worn out,” Ella laughs, eyeing the table. “Wow, Mom. You really went all out.”
“This is your dad’s doing, not mine.” I laugh, but my eyes settle on the strange band of symbols etched along Ella’s hairline. Right now, the markings are pale silver lines and whirls, almost like scars.
It’s easy to forget that Ella, who is dressed in cut off jean shorts and an oversized T-shirt with her mass of dark hair piled on top of her head, is one of the most powerful beings in our universe, and that her mate, whose voice is now drifting outside from the kitchen behind us as he asks Maddox to make him a latte, also wields enormous powers.
I look over at Kenna, who is straddling Ryan and taunting him with her pinchers. My heart tightens as my mind wanders to a place I try to avoid. Who will she be one day with such powerful parents?
“You okay, Mom?” Ella asks, snapping me back to reality.
“Yes,” I tell her with a smile.
“Oh, I hear her now,” Maddy says, plucking a piece of bacon from a plate before walking inside to get Misty from one of the bedrooms upstairs.
Ella sits down at the table and tilts her face to the sun. A shimmer of golden light is now visible in those markings as I pour glasses of juice for the kids.
“Ryatt and I decided something,” she says, leveling me with a look. “Kenna is going to start school at the coven next fall.”
“School?” I have no idea what that entails in Eastonia. I can’t imagine Kenna skipping to a bus stop wearing a sparkly backpack and sneakers that light up.
Ella’s mouth quirks into a smile. “I know what you’re thinking. She’s not going to learn how to use a wand and turn people into frogs. It’s a real school. She’ll be in kindergarten, learning how to write her name in an intelligible way.” She sighs wistfully, her eyes going momentarily glassy. “And it’s nearby, just a few blocks away from the castle.”
“You got moved in, then?”
She nods, toying with the empty plate in front of her. “Yeah, we did. We miss Veiled Valley, though. Ryatt, especially, but… Moonrise does feel like where we’re supposed to be. Kenna likes it there. The city is starting to fill up now that everything has been repaired and modernized. She’s made friends.” She pauses, sighing. “She misses her Grandpa and Grammy.”
I sit down next to her and begin putting food on her plate. “How are Westfall and Cressendra?”
“They’re fine. Westfall is still a little miffed Ryatt forced him to take over his rightful throne, though.”
“Next year, you should bring them.” I pour Ella some orange juice and motion to her plate. “I’d like to see Cressendra again. We really hit it off last time I visited Eastonia.” That was last year. It was the first time Maddox and I ever visited, and it was overwhelming. I hadn’t been prepared for the history, the culture, and to see the place where Ella went through so many trials.
But what she and Ryatt built together is amazing.
Over the past year, the ancient city that rose out of the lake when Ella brought down the veil five years ago finally opened up to the public, and it’s now where Ella and Ryatt rule over Eastonia. It’s incredible. We saw it during its reconstruction, and I still have a hard time believing it's real.
“I’ll bring them for sure!” Ella’s eyes brighten. “Kenna would love it. Maybe we’ll get Granger and Amanda to finally come, too.”
“Will Kenna be going to school with Evander, then?”
Her eyes darken a shade, and she shakes her head. “Evander is being privately educated and trained….” She tapers off, toying with her food. “He recently showed signs of being able to shift. Not fully, yet, but… he’s a fox, like Amanda, and even though things are different in Eastonia now, it’s not safe for either of them yet. They’re the only foxes, Mom. He’s just a kid. He wants to go to school with Kenna and is heartbroken about it, but if he were to shift during class–” She shakes her head. “Granger says that until Evander can control his powers, he’ll be at home.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
She shrugs, looking over the grassy backyard to where it meets the beach down a small, rocky slope. “Hey! Ryan, you know you’re not supposed to go down to the beach by yourself!”
Ryan’s head pops up over the edge of the embankment. He looks defeated.
“We’ll go play at the beach after breakfast, honey,” I add.
“Okay, Gramma,” he grumbles and crawls back up onto the grass.
“Mama!” Kenna launches herself into Ella’s arms.
“Come eat, kiddo,” Ella says, pressing a wet kiss to Kenna’s sand covered head. Ella grimaces and tells Kenna to go shake off in the yard, and she does, which causes another ruckus between the three kids.
Maddy walks out to the table with a bright eyed Misty on her hip, who is giving us a gummy smile. She only has two teeth, which is the cutest thing I think I’ve ever seen. “Gramma,” Maddy says sweetly, lowering Misty into my lap. “I believe this is yours.” For the next three weeks, at least.
I snuggle Misty as the rest of the family joins us at the table. Ryatt ruffles Ella’s hair before taking a seat next to her, leaning in for a kiss. Isaac carries Ryan and Sydney under each arm and deposits them next to Maddy before sitting down. Kenna sits next to Maddox and begins whispering to him, likely buttering him up so he’ll give her the pancake that looks the most like the elephant she requested.
I look around the table at my family. At this beautiful thing Maddox and I created. Everything I’ve ever gone through, every trial, every tribulation, every bad and uncertain day led to this.
The most beautiful, most powerful, thing in the world.
“Will you build a sandcastle with us after breakfast, Gramma?” Sydney asks.
I nod, smoothing my fingers through Misty’s soft golden hair.
“Always,” I tell him and smile.