Ryatt
“Dance with me.”
“I don’t dance with men who won’t even tell me their last names.”
I fidget on the edge of the dreamworld again, the same scene playing through my memories. Ella, so young, so beautiful, in that too-tight red gown against a sea of vibrant color in a ballroom that at the time was considered enemy territory.
Now, I’ve been to countless events and weddings there, watched the sun set and rise through the same ceiling height windows, the same creamy golden walls, a thousand times.
Some would say, after being together as long as we have, that the memory of that first meeting should feel like a lifetime ago.
In reality, it was. We’re so old now. But I dream about it every night, the same memories of our youth, that tumultuous first year. Her in the gown at Isaac’s twenty-first birthday. Her in the pouring rain at that dilapidated cottage in the middle of nowhere after I finally caught up to her in the Roguelands. Her in only moonlight, my face buried between her legs, my teeth breaking the skin of her inner thigh to mark her as mine.
Her rising out of the lake in Moonrise like a siren, eyes glowing crimson, when I fell to my knees in awe.
Now, I’m pulling her against me. She grumbles something under her breath, still asleep, but melts against my chest. The blinds are closed to another warm, sunny morning in Maatua, but I hear the waves beating against the beach beyond the sanctuary of Isaac and Maddy’s house.
“GG?”
I close my eyes for a moment as the door creaks open, followed by the telltale, thundering, boulder heavy footsteps of our great-grandson, Kieran, who calls us both GG interchangeably. We’re working on it. Brie has thumbed her nose at the prospect of Great-Grandfather Ryatt Westfall so far.
The mattress dips, and the sheets shift. Ella mumbles again, settling closer as Kieran climbs over my legs and plops directly on my chest, big, round, hazel eyes blinking down at me expectantly.
“Good morning, Kieran.”
“The Solstice Wolf didn’t come last night. I checked.”
“It’s not Solstice yet. The Solstice Wolf is coming in three days… if you’re good. According to your mom and dad, you’re firmly on the naughty list this year.”
He frowns and rubs his eyes. His thick dark curls stick straight up at odd angles, and his jaw cracking yawn makes his cheeks puff out. Gods, he looks like his mother when she was his age.
“Where’s your Mom?” I whisper.
He topples to the side and rolls off the bed, done with me already. “Sweeping.”
“Sleeping or sweeping?”
“Sweeeeping,” he says, still working hard on those Ls, it seems. “Daddy’s awake.”
“I’ll come down soon.”
He trips on his way out the door and leaves it wide open. I lean back, staring at the ceiling, listening to the early morning sounds of the house beginning to filter upstairs. A door opens and closes down the hallway followed by Cole’s and Misty’s voices lifted in a soft laugh. Logan calls out for Kieran, murmuring something about how quickly the boy wanders away as he comes up the stairs. Isaac’s voice cuts through the murmur while explaining from the expansive living room below about how plastic Solstice trees are a menace to society and tradition, and Maddy laughs at him, of course, reminding him that last year he complained about the flurry of pine needles and the scent of evergreen for weeks on end.
I roll to the side again, closing my arm around Ella’s waist, and close my eyes. “I know you’re awake.”
“You’re warm. I’m just enjoying it.”
I press my mouth to her shoulder, nuzzling her skin, relaxing into the softness of decades together.
Decades I was sure we didn’t have when this all began.
She rises before I do, drifting out the door, smoothing her hands down a thin robe, her dark, thick hair piled messily on the top of her head. I remain glued to the mattress for several more minutes, and when I finally sit up and ease out of bed, I’m reminded, for a moment, of how long it’s really been since I met her for the first time and made it possible for our side of the family to fill this house to the brim every year. My body aches in ways it didn’t use to. Sometimes I have trouble remembering small details. My hair has gone a soft gray around my face. Every time I look in the mirror these days, I see my father, and now I get it. The feeling that’s been weighing on me heavily for the past twenty years or so. Have I done enough? Do they have what they need?
Is it almost my time to go?
The kitchen is full and already loud when I make my grand appearance. Soren’s making what sounds like the third pot of coffee already this morning. Skye is propped on the counter watching Isaac bitch and moan while dutifully making her a pancake shaped like a unicorn. Maddy and Ella are on the porch with Maeve, Brie, Misty, and Josie, drinking coffee in the quiet morning air, watching the tide roll out.
Who are we missing?
“Where’s Blake?” I lean my thigh against the counter, scanning the room at large. Marianna has her arms folded around Ian, now back in his human form and fast asleep, the glint of his silver chain necklace catching the sun’s glint. Lexa has Blake and Marianna’s twins in her lap, feeding them pieces of pancake while deep in conversation with Marianna.
Soren presses a fresh mug of coffee into my hand and shrugs. Above him, resting precariously on his shoulders, Fallon blinks down at me with those huge sea-green eyes, her lips pulled back in a gummy smile. I smirk at her, and she giggles wildly, leaning forward over Soren’s head and reaching for me, her favorite person by far, at least, in my opinion.
I set my coffee down and let her fall into my arms.
“Blake and Kaleb went on a run, I think.” Soren presses his mug to his lower lip and glances at Maeve, and then smiles softly, turning back to accept Fallon when she leans toward him.
“If you see him before I do, tell him I need to talk to him.”
I begin to move toward the back deck, but the front door opens and shuts, and a few gasps and excited greetings ring out from the living room, where the rest of the family is gathered. I hear Nora and her mate, Trent, talking to whoever just arrived, and then Ryan chimes in that they’re late.
Skye bounds out of the kitchen with her plate, curious about the newcomers, and Isaac comes to stand by my side just as Aris and Posey come into view, both dressed in dark grays and blacks, looking like they just stepped out of another realm.
In a way, they have.
“Look at him,” Isaac says beside me, smoothing his hands down his ridiculous apron printed with little radishes.
“I see him.” I also see the wedding band on his finger–both of their fingers. Kenna’s going to lose it. I better warn Evander.
“He looks like you did,” Isaac says absently, like he didn’t mean to say it out loud. “During those first few years of peace.”
Aris smiles down at where Ryan and Aviva are resting in the sunken living room with Nora and her mate, laughing at something Aviva said, and as the sun blots over his wrists, I see his Shadowsynger bracelets illuminate, every gem swirling with the full brunt of his gifts. Our gifts.
He seems so happy when he looks at Posey, his eyes darkening with the same heavy emotion I know so well from years of looking at Ella and Kenna, the stars I’ve orbited around since my late twenties.
He’d nearly broken me into pieces that day in the foyer when I followed him from Silverhide to Veiled Valley, watching him come undone at the seams over the idea of anything happening to her.
Shadowsyngers are brutally loyal dogs to not only our crown but our women. It’s a burden he’ll carry for the rest of his life.
But he’s ready. He’s stepping into the role our ancestors protected and kept hidden with their lives.
I wish my father were still here to see this.
“Well,” Isaac says with a rough sigh, his mouth curving into a smile at the edges. “I guess that’s it for you. All your grandkids are settled. Now you can die.”
“You’d love that, ,wouldn’t you? You fuckin’ bastard.”
He claps me on the shoulder. “I need you to stick around a while longer. I have a few left unmated, and Sydney is pulling his hair out over Briar and Noah. I don’t want you getting any funny ideas about going first and haunting me.”
“I’m sure I’ll have better things to do in the afterlife.”
He snorts, turning back to the stovetop. I lean on the frame of the archway separating the living area and the kitchen, watching. Watching Ryan, who went through hell and back last year, converse with Trent, the least problematic of the men in his direct line.
But then I notice Skye tentatively approaching Posey, her eyes shining a brighter violet than they normally do.
Posey watches her like she’s being stalked by something threatening, and for a moment, I wonder if I should intervene, to rein the powerful little girl in by calling out her name and mentioning that her great-grandfather is willing to make her another complicated pancake, possibly in the shape of the elusive Solstice Wolf, which would undoubtedly chap Isaac’s ass, but then Skye reaches out and runs her fingers over the leather satchel draped over Posey’s shoulder.
“Do you want to see it?” Posey asks, her forest-green eyes taking in Skye’s dark hair and high cheekbones. Skye nods excitedly, giggling as they crouch, ignoring the conversation taking place next to them.
Posey brought several alchemy tools and little boxes of raw metals and alloys.
“I love rocks,” Skye states, and Posey laughs, murmuring something about the chunks of iron ore in the box now in Skye’s hands.
But then they touch. It’s a single brush of Posey’s fingertips on the top of Skye’s hand. Innocent. Accidental. Posey goes perfectly still, her fingers still resting on Skye’s skin.
Aris notices the exchange and stiffens. Posey takes Skye’s hand in hers, closing her fingers over Skye’s palm, and I’ve never seen Skye surrender like this.
Posey searches her eyes, brow furrowed, and then looks right at me.
I don’t need to question what Posey might be seeing because my guess would be the entire universe in that little girl's hand.
She blinks, smiling at Skye, and says, “Do you like pretty things?”
Skye nods.
“Do you want me to make you a bracelet like Aris has? See these?” She takes Aris’s wrist and drags him a step closer. “I can make one that you can hang charms from.”
“I want that!”
“Okay,” Posey says breathlessly, but there’s a slice of panic and confusion in her eyes. She squeezes Aris’s hand before letting go to rummage through her bag, looking for something she’s not going to find. Something strong enough to keep Skye’s enormous powers of sight in check.
“What’s your favorite kind of rock?” Posey asks, blinking up at Skye.
“Daddy found me a meteor. Do you know what that is? It’s a rock from outer space! He said it came from farther than the tapestry!”
Isaac has moved closer, silently, now standing at my side to watch the exchange, spatula in hand.
“Amazing. Do you have it with you?”
Skye nods, beaming with excitement. There’s nothing she loves more than showing off her treasures. She zooms away, and Posey slowly rises, whispering something to Aris that seems to calm him down and erase the tension in his shoulders, but her eyes meet mine again.
She gives me the faintest of nods.
“What do you suppose that was about?” Isaac mumbles.
Another weight settles directly over my heart when Skye returns with the meteor, no bigger than her thumb, and Posey sighs with relief, nodding, and says, “Yes. This is exactly what we need to make your bracelet.”
“I have a feeling we’re going to find out,” I reply to my lifelong friend and companion, my old, grouchy brother-in-law, and turn from the scene to join my mate on the porch.