But then the Dark Prince and Princess had been born.
Now, both Arach and Rowan had dreams of uniting our kingdoms and continuing the dragon-sidhe race through marriage. Except I'd been to a horrible future where that plan had torn Faerie apart and killed me in the process. Arach had vowed to never merge Fire with Darkness; making it the deadly DarkFire Kingdom that was fated to attempt a hostile takeover of Faerie. But just because he'd given up on merging the kingdoms, it didn't mean he'd give up his dream for dragon-sidhe grandchildren.
“How are the Prince and Princess of Darkness today?” Arach asked the dark twins; his eyes straying hopefully to Sinnea.
“We are most excited to be here, King Arach,” Prince Baidhen answered as his sister gave a very adult curtsy. “Thank you for the warm welcome.”
The Dark Twins were just a few months older than my boys, and they had matured at a similar rate. Baidhen and Sinnea appeared to be equal in size to nine-year-old human children, but they were a bit more mature in their deportment. The maturity was likely due more to their royal upbringing than their accelerated development.
They had the dark-sidhe coloring with eyes the same shade as Lia's. But Baidhen looked every inch Rowan while Sinnea was a little version of the Dark Queen. Which made her a little version of me. I frowned at that; not because her looks upset me—I'm vain enough to love having a small, black-skinned version of myself running around—but because if Arach had his way, and Rian married Sinnea, my son would have a wife who looked like his mother. That seems wrong to me.
Then again, they say that little boys look for their mothers in their partners, just as little girls look for their fathers. Not in a gross Oedipus way; simply because a child's mother is the first representation of female beauty they see. That stays in the psyche and works in the subconscious. Maybe I was overthinking it. I glanced at Rian and saw that he was puffing out his chest and showing off his glorious green scales to Sinnea; who was secretly admiring him. I hadn't wanted to push the children together because I had this idea that people should follow their hearts when it came to love. But Arach and I had been brought together by nefarious means (his) and still managed to fall in love. Perhaps a little push was all right, as long as the people involved were already facing in that direction.
“I'm so glad you've come,” I said to all of them. “Have you eaten? Would you care for some breakfast?”
“We have eaten,” Lia said. “Thank you for the offer. We just wanted to bring the children for a visit. They've been missing their friends.” She gave me a knowing smile and leaned in to add, “Especially Sinnea.”
Rian gave a screech, pushed off his perch, and swooped down to land beside his father. Brevyn and Hunter followed him off the dais, but Hunter waited on the side as Brevyn came to stand beside his brother. Brevyn grinned at the dark twins as he laid a hand on Rian's shoulder.
“Rian wants to go flying,” Brevyn translated for his brother since Rian hadn't learned to speak in dragon form yet. “Want to go?”
Baidhen and Sinnea looked hopefully at their father.
“Not alone,” Rowan said. “But perhaps we can all go.” Rowan lifted a dark brow at the rest of us.
“That's a fantastic idea,” Arach agreed. “It's been ages since Fire and Darkness have flown together in a dread.”
The men were ready to shuck off their clothes and run outside immediately, but I was watching Brevyn. He looked back at Hunter; who was leaning against the wall as if he couldn't care less if he got left behind. Hunter had his father's devil-may-care attitude already, but he was still a child, and he was obviously hurt by the prospect of his friends flying away without him. Brevyn couldn't fly, but Rian would carry him. The twins hated being separated.
Brevyn wasn't the type to blithely leave anyone behind; especially not if it hurt them. He looked at his brother and then over at Sinnea. I saw a hint of boyish admiration in his eyes for the darkly beautiful girl, but Brevyn's heart was already given—to a human woman three times his age. Before he died, Ull had been involved with a human woman named Kaitlin. Kaitlin had loved Ull so much that she ate an Apple of Immortality and put her love life on hold just on the chance that Brevyn might grow up and remember how much he'd loved her too.
And it had paid off. Brevyn had already confided to me that he knew he was meant to be with Kaitlin. So, it was easy for him to let his brother pursue the dark princess. It wasn't so easy for him to step back and let his brother fly off without him, but that beautiful soul inside him—the same one who already loved a grown woman—knew it was the right thing to do.
Brevyn looked up at me, and I smiled proudly at him. Sometimes it felt as if my son were far wiser and kinder than I. I hoped that was true, and the promise of the man inside this boy came to fruition. I think we all want our children to be better than ourselves. If they aren't, it's a step backward, isn't it?
“I think I'm going to stay here with Brevyn,” I said. “But the rest of you have fun.”
The
