Page 26 of The Salvation

After a final growl, Merikh beats his wings in an upward spiral before he shoots forward in a striking motion to soar right past those obsidian doors. My stomach bottoms out, and I hold onto him for dear life as he navigates all the passages and stairways. He takes me to the Sea first, but he doesn’t delay. One mere rinse in the water to heal me until we arrive inside his outer chambers.

Despite how my stomach works to restore its balance, my pulse dives into a tailspin. My heart careens right out of my chest. And practically lunges for the little one in Drago’s arms with her hair the color of a flushed sunrise just like his.

“Aislynn!”

The second I say her name, my baby stirs from her father’s chest, her too-perceptive supernatural eyes locking onto mine. Her wings flutter, and tears glisten in my eyes by how much they’ve grown, from baby fluff to more feathers of ebony black and resplendent gold. She’s grown, but thankfully, not too much since I last saw her. I remind myself it hasn’t been so long, but it feels like it, especially with how often her fathers hoarded her.

Just as she opens her mouth, Merikh puts me down, and I lurch for my daughter, our daughter, all of ours. My heart starts beating again when she’s finally in my arms.

“Someone care to share why my little rose is in naught but her lovely skin?” Mayce wonders while palming my bottom with his thick, soft robe brushing my back. I take a deep breath of his earthy scent of the woods and the notes of herbs.

Drago chuckles darkly, arms bulging across his chest. “I’m not complaining.”

“With me, Kyan,” Merikh barks to his partner.

Kyan’s eyes settle upon me. The angel pulses his resting wings until their gold catches the chandelier light to shimmer. Touching my shoulder with the tips of his fingers brushing his mark, Kyan asks, “Are you all right, Quinny?”

Before I can respond, the serene blue fades to those familiar shadowy depths I love so much. “Spirit moth...” Shadow cups the side of my face and nods in understanding, the nod born from Kyan’s inner Oracle, who will always be the Shadow demon I love.

After he kisses me, hard but slow and intimate as only the angel God of Air can manage, he departs with Merikh, leaving me to deep breaths—as if he drove a little windstorm into my lungs.

Aislynn makes a gurgling noise, and I smile as she reaches for him with one hand. He shakes his head with a laugh, kissesher brow, and tells me, “She’s made a new habit of plucking my feathers from time to time. Seems to like the way they shine.”

“And my scales,” Drago snorts, but I catch his sheepish grin and the glint in his eyes when he observes our daughter.

Mayce chuffs a laugh and flexes his Fae wings of amber-brown skin and darker sinew with hickory-brown skeletal structure—the most dynamic wings. “She’s a natural illusionist. She still hasn’t spoken?—”

“God, I hope not!” I say with a flustered breath and touch my head to my daughter’s. “Aislynn, I hope you know how much I love you and how I am giving you permission to slow down...” She makes a soft squealing sound the boys tell me is her way of expressing excitement. While I recognize how unique she is, how aware she is with supernatural senses she inherited from her quartet fathers, I still hope she grows as slowly as possible.

Merikh and Kyan depart while I discuss with Mayce and Drago.

“We’ve been practicing a little something for you,” Mayce mentions and winks at me, then turns his eyes, flicking them down to Aislynn. “Are you ready, little Lynne?”

I thread my brows in curiosity while warm affection lifts my chest. Mayce shrugs and nods to Drago. “He calls her Aisy. Kyan prefers Lynnie.”

Stroking our daughter’s flame-red waves that now curl beneath her ears, I can’t help but giggle at their camaraderie and how they’ve adopted pet names for our daughter—ones that directly mirror the ones they call me. Drago’s Aisy for Tessie, Kyan’s Lynnie for Quinny, and Mayce’s little Lynn for little Tess. I wonder what Merikh will call her, if he will call her anything since little dove is his only name for me, aside from Quintessa.

“Shall we show her?” Mayce curls his fingers toward Aislynn.

Our child blinks, her Merikh-dark eyes have the same soul-piercing ability as her vampire father. Her little heart-shapedmouth, a mirror image to mine, opens to flash her fangs at Mayce.

Less than a second later, an illusion bursts before my vision. Stronger and more intense from the combined force of father/daughter sharing their godly power. My lips part in awe as I witness Drago in full-dragon form, my Thiago, giving the other gods a wide berth with his greatest dragon wingspan of dark emerald scales.

Mayce holds Aislynne while hovering in the air between his partner and Kyan, who lies on his back, beating his wings in reverse as he’s the fastest and most skilled with his gold wings and ability to control the wind currents.

My heart skips a beat when Mayce tosses Aislynn into the air. I choke on a gasp, but my choked breath vanishes, replaced with a welling up of emotion as she beats her little wings...and flies! I sense how Kyan twirls his currents, giving her a boost, but it’s still her—flying.

As soon as the illusion dissolves into reality, I glance down at Aislynn and lift her to my face. “Did you fly without me, young lady?” I scold her but smile when she touches her little chubby palm to my cheek.

“If it makes you feel better, she hasn’t learned to crawl yet,” snickers Drago, gently elbowing my side. Aislynn lurches, stretching out her hand toward his bare chest. He steps back, hands held up in defense. “Oh, not a chance, little lady. You already claimed three of my scales for your collection this morning.”

She scrunches her brows, knitting them into a frown. Warm laughter bubbles up inside me as I consider how she shares so much of her fathers. It makes me wonder if she possesses any of their powers—as I can when they’re buried inside me.

Trapped in Wyntris’s tower was the only time I unlocked my monstrous boys’ abilities, which helped me shatter her ice.

Ever since, I haven’t done a thing.

Not even tonight spent with Merikh granted me anything. But I didn’t care. I still don’t. I sweep my lips across my little one’s cheeks and rock her, breathing in her scent as her two fathers observe from nearby.

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