“That’s so fantastic! She took her first steps! You should write that down in her journal thing you have. I think that’s a great thing for a family to have for a baby.”
Finn was smiling so brightly, but when I spoke, his smile dimmed. It could have been because of the enchanted journal I wasn’t technically supposed to know about, but more than likely, he wasn’t thrilled with me being here and getting in the way.
“Oh, uh, yeah. I’ll write it down tonight. The journal has been a big lifesaver so far, so I’ll make sure to write everything down for when she goes back.”
There was so much between us that we couldn’t talk about. No wonder we hardly spoke. I wanted to ask him about the other Mages and what they’d written about Ameria when she’d been with them or who she was destined to go to next. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t ask any of that. I had gotten curious and thought about peeking once or twice, but I didn’t. I was supposed to be a good guy, not break the rules. I snorted because how many had I broken just by being here.
Changing the subject was the only option. Considering safe topics, I settled on the only thing we could talk about that we obviously had in common.
“You said she was almost one year old. When is her birthday?”
Finn looked perplexed. “It’s this month, I know, but I’m not sure of the date.”
“You don’t know your niece’s birthday? You should text somebody and find out. You can’t let her have her first birthday without a party. Even if it’s just us.”
I sat on the sofa, and Ameria crawled over, then pulled up to stand beside me. She handed me the puppy she still held onto, so I asked her, “Oh, thank you. I love puppy. Do you love puppy?”
She looked at the stuffed dog, grabbed onto it, then replied, “Pupupupu.”
“Did she just say puppy?”
Finn looked doubtful until she crawled over to him, showing him the dog and telling him, “Pupup.”
“I’ll be damned. She walked and learned a word today.”
“Actually, she learned two words today. She also said tree.”
Finn picked her up to put her on his lap. “Did you learn to say tree, princess?” She squirmed to be put down, then crawled to the window, pointing out, and said, “Tee. Ma tee.”
Finn stood up to go see but stumbled a little, grabbing his calf where I saw a long scratch that was red all around it.
“Finn, are you okay? Where did you get the scratch?”
He looked down like he didn’t know what I was talking about but then continued to the window and brushed it off.
“Oh, that, it’s nothing. I got scratched by a branch or something on the trail. It’ll be fine tomorrow.”
Now that I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself, I noticed that Finn didn’t look good. His skin was pasty with a sheen that looked feverish. I wished we were closer so I could just walk up to him and feel his forehead, but after this morning, I didn’t know what we were to each other or where the boundaries were.
Ameria was chewing her hands and getting fussy, which I knew meant she was getting hungry.
“Did Uncle Finn feed you, princess?”
“I tried to get her to eat, but she was more interested in trying to walk. I think she’s ready now, though.”
I gathered the baby so I could get us some dinner. I had never wanted to drink, but a glass of something would have been fantastic right about now. If I couldn’t have any alcohol, then I could at least have carbs. The tension in the cabin was still heavy. Being forward hadn’t worked out for me today, so ignoring the tension was for the best. I could pretend everything was fine.
“I’m going to make something for us for dinner while my clothes wash. Do you want anything?”
“Yeah, that would be great. I’m going to go check on that birthday real quick. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Finn went slowly up the stairs to his office. His demeanor and obvious injury were troubling. What could affect a Nightshade Guild Mage enough to make them weak like that? To make sure he didn’t fall down the stairs, I watched him until he got up to his office, which was a locked room on the upper floor. He hated technology, so all his devices, those that he actually had, were kept up there, he said. I imagined an old Gateway desktop from 1998 and a Startac cell phone from 2000.
After he made it into the room and closed the door, I took Ameria, who was continuing to fuss, to the kitchen. I placed her in the highchair Finn had put together and gave her a few puffed rice cereal pieces while I made her some oatmeal. I grabbed a frozen pizza from the fridge and put it in the oven, using a little of my power to get it up to temperature instantly. I could have just willed it done or created a nine-course meal, but that would have given me away.
While I was feeding Ameria and getting more oatmeal on me than in her, I thought I caught a glimpse of something dark dash by the window. One second
