Page 13 of Nanny for the Demon's Twins

"No." I grab my tied-back hair protectively. "This is staying exactly as it is."

"Please?" Both twins deploy their best pleading expressions.

"I think you'd look quite fetching with braids," Mira adds, and there's a teasing glint in her green eyes that makes my pulse skip.

"Maybe later." I look around Mira. "Is dinner ready?"

She gives me a look like she knows exactly what I'm doing, but she nods. "Yeah. Can you get the girls settled?"

"Come on, troublemakers." I scoop up both twins, one under each arm. They squeal and kick their legs as I carry them to the table. "Time to eat."

"I want the blue bowl," Luna announces as I set them in their chairs.

"No, I want blue!" Nova's lower lip trembles.

"You had blue yesterday." I tap her nose. "Your turn for green."

Mira glides between us with steaming bowls of stew, rich with root vegetables and tender meat. Her movements are precise, practiced - like a dancer avoiding invisible obstacles. She sets the blue bowl in front of Luna and the green one before Nova.

Nova peers into her bowl, pushing the vegetables around with her spoon. "Don't like orange things."

"Zynthras make you see in the dark," I tell her, spooning up my own dinner.

"Don't need zynthras. Got magic." Nova scrunches her nose. A zynthra chunk rises from her bowl, hovering at eye level.

"Nova." I use my warning voice. "Food stays in bowls."

She grins. The zynthra spins lazily in the air, joined by two more pieces. "They're dancing!"

"Nova!" But it's too late. More vegetables float upward, creating a small parade above our heads.

Luna claps her hands. "Make them go faster!"

"No, don't-" The vegetables shoot across the kitchen like tiny projectiles. I duck as a zynthra whizzes past my ear.

Mira laughs - actually laughs - and reaches up to snatch a floating quillnash chunk. "Got one!"

The twins turn it into a game, jumping up to catch the runaway vegetables. Their giggles echo off the walls as they chase their dinner around the room. Even I can't help grinning as Mira gracefully plucks another carrot from the air.

"Uncle Karn, catch!" Nova directs a piece of meat toward my face. I snap it out of the air with my teeth, making both girls shriek with delight.

"My turn!" Luna bounces on her toes, pointing at a floating zynthra.

"No more playing." I try to sound stern but fail. "Food goes in mouths, not air."

"But they're happier up there," Nova insists, watching her handiwork with pride.

The kitchen becomes a battlefield of flying produce, but I can't take my eyes off Mira. Her careful movements transform into something fluid and free as she spins to catch another carrot. The firelight catches in her hair - still a mess from the twins' attempts at braiding - and her green eyes sparkle with genuine joy.

"Look, I got three!" She holds up her prizes, performing a mock bow that sends the twins into fresh peals of laughter. "Whatever you catch, you eat. Who can catch the most?"

"Four!" Luna announces, stuffing her captured vegetables into her mouth all at once. Her cheeks puff out like a chipmunk's.

"Small bites," I remind her, but my heart's not in the scolding. Not when Nova's directing a quillnash to do loop-de-loops around Mira's head while she pretends to chase it.

"Almost..." Mira jumps, her fingers just missing the chunk. "So close!"

Something warm unfurls in my chest watching her play with them. The careful mask she usually wears has slipped away, replaced by flushed cheeks and bright eyes. She looks younger, unburdened. Beautiful.

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