Page 27 of Outnumbered

I turned to look at him. “What?”

“All of the plants inside of your wards never died. As soon as you stepped outside of your wards, you could see the difference, especially in winter,” he explained.

“But it snowed inside my wards,” I reminded him.

“And the plants got buried under the snow, but never died. I dug one out to check.”

How had I never noticed that before? I wished I had. I would have planted more things to sustain myself to avoid ever going back into town. Knowing it now, though, I would put some plants on the roof to grow herbs and things.

“Shall we go inside?” Leona suggested. “We have lunch ready.”

“Oh, good. I am starving,” Caleb said and kissed Leona’s cheek as he walked by and into the house.

“That boy hasn’t changed since he was born,” she said and shook her head.

“Not true,” Thor countered from inside the doorway. “He doesn’t bite as much.”

Caleb bared his teeth. “Don’t be so sure.”

Thor smiled. “I’ll just pin you to the floor and smack your nose like I did when you were a pup.”

“You could try,” Caleb said and smiled back.

Thor tackled Caleb back out of the house and the two began wrestling around on the grass.

“That took longer than I expected,” Kylan said as he came out to join us. “My bet was five minutes, but it only took two.”

Caleb got out from Thor’s hold and ran over, tackling Kylan. Declan smiled and jumped into the fray, so that it was Caleb versus Thor, Kylan, and Declan.

Leona put her arm around me and squeezed. “Welcome to the chaos, girl. This has been my life for about twenty years now.”

“You don’t look a day over twenty-four,” Triston said and winked.

She giggled. “Okay, you’re my new favorite. It’s official.”

We went into the house and she gave me a tour. I’d thought the house was small, but we found out there were two floors below ground, which allowed for more rooms and space. They even had a theater room.

“This is impressive,” Branson said as he walked around the bottom floor. “It doesn’t even feel like you are underground.”

Silverowl nodded. “We had to make sure it wouldn’t since shapeshifters notoriously dislike being underground.”

“You don’t have a problem with it?” I asked.

“Although I can shapeshift because of my elven blood, I don’t have the same senses or issues that the others do. One perk for us,” he explained.

After showing us where our rooms were and moving our stuff inside, we went to the top floor, headed for the dining room to eat lunch.

Caleb had finally admitted defeat to his uncles, but all four were panting as they came inside. It was one of the first times I had seen Caleb so carefree.

“Did he visit you often?” I asked. “When he was younger.”

Leona nodded. “Silverowl put a ton of wards around the property, our nearest neighbor on any side are at least two acres away, so it’s pretty secure, which allowed him to play outside without too much worry.”

“Plus, Leona was the only other siren, so he liked coming here for the lessons she gave him about controlling his emotions and avoiding affecting others,” Silverowl added.

“Speaking of that, how is your training going?” Leona asked me.

“I’ve been able to lock my emotions up so it doesn’t affect them even with our connection,” I said proudly.

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