Page 90 of Whispers of the Water

My brow pinched with my obvious confusion. “Why’d you tell Rance it was Sinclair?”

“My family is a well-known one, and I knew if I told him my real last name, it would only bring up the history between my family and Water Fae. We’d already had a rough start to the meeting, so I didn’t want to blow it up all over again.”

His explanation reminded me of Dax’s declaration. The son of a powerful Fox Fae family had killed my parents. Rune was powerful, and he belonged to a well-known Fox Fae family. That wasn’t necessarily the same as a powerful family, but still, the idea briefly flickered through my head of what if. What if Rune … I shoved away the idea, because it was too absurd to even consider. There was no way Rune killed my parents.

Slowly, I nodded. “Okay. That … makes sense. What sort of—”

Sudden loud knocks came at the door, followed by two voices calling, “Big brother!”

Rune sighed and went to answer.

As soon as it opened, Newt and Greshim crossed their arms. “Where were you all day?”

“Sorry, boys,” Rune said. “We all had some stuff to do today.”

The twins shared a look, and Greshim whispered, “Grown-up stuff.” Looking back at Rune, he asked, “Are you all back now? Can we hang out with you?”

“Sure,” Rune said with a soft smile. He reached down to ruffle each of his brothers’ heads.

Newt inched closer to me and asked, “D-Did you have a g-good d-day?”

I smiled. “I did. What about you?”

“We had fun,” Greshim said, scratching at his fox ear, which twitched in response. “We stayed with Marlow in his room, but then Mother needed us for our studies and training.”

Rune and I quickly shared a panicked look until Newt said, “Papá didn’t let us th-though. He had M-M-Marlow take us out for ice cream in town instead.”

I raised a surprised brow at the news.

Rune shared my shock as he asked, “And Mother let this happen?”

“Well,” Greshim said as he looked like he was weighing Rune’s question. “She wasn’t happy. I think she and Papá got into a fight about it when Marlow left with us.”

“We haven’t seen her or Papá since,” Newt added.

I glanced at Rune to gauge what he made of all of this, because I was reeling. I knew Alvaro was protective of the boys, yet he still let Myra do as she pleased with them. She used them against him just like she did with Rune. To hear that Alvaro was willing to truly intervene and fight Myra on whatever she’d been planning most likely meant it had been something severe. I feared it was getting dangerous for the boys, and I wished that Alvaro would take them away from all of this, especially if he was pushed to the point of getting involved now.

Anger boiled inside me, and I gritted my teeth to keep from outright slandering the boys’ mom in front of them. I couldn’t help but note that Myra attempted whatever her devious plan was after the fiasco yesterday. Myra was reminding us who held the power in this situation—steps out of line, spectacles like yesterday—were a deviation from her plan and would not go unpunished.

The twins needed to get away from this hellhole, and while I couldn’t give them that, I could at least give them a distraction.

“How about we all go hang out in Akira and Bassel’s room?” I offered. “I think everyone’s gonna be over there.”

Newt’s eyes brightened, and he nodded his head quickly. “Okay!”

The four of us made our way next door where everyone else had already gathered on the couches, all in their Fae forms. I was the only one not, but since it was just our group in here, I didn’t see the harm in not wearing my disguise.

“Here comes trouble,” Ardley joked when he saw the twins.

“We aren’t trouble,” Greshim pouted and ran over to punch Ardley in the arm.

“Ouch!” Ardley yelled as he clutched his arm and feigned pain. “You got me. I’m done for.”

“You are an actual dork,” Akira mumbled from where he was stretched out on the couch with his wings tucked behind him, flipping through TV channels with a bored frown.

“I’m hungry,” Marlow said. He lay on the carpet on his back, staring upside down at the TV.

“I think the cooks were making homemade pizza. I can go grab some and bring it up here,” Ardley offered.

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