Page 42 of MidKnight
Lewart took the bundled baby girl and brought her to my mother.
Mother’s eyes hardly glanced at the child, though she held the babe close to her chest. Her gaze stayed pinned to Gorg. “Were you followed? Does she know?”
Gorg shook his head.
Finally, my mother looked down and the tiny pink infant in her arms. “Good.” She rocked the child a few seconds and then nodded to Wyle.
“Enchant her. She needs to look enough like Bloss that no one will ever suspect.”
The mage nodded, stepped forward, and emptied a vial over Avia’s head. Red smoke poured out.
“That was?” Mother asked.
“More permanent than a disguise spell. It was a humanity spell. I got it from a wizard years ago. He told me not to use it until I was ordered to.”
“And?” Queen Gela prompted, staring down at the squirming infant.
“It will make her appear completely non-magical. Completely human.”
Chapter Ten
For the next two days, I walked through the castle in a daze. My sister wasn’t my sister. What was more … she wasn’t human.
It also appeared my mother was a thief. Gorg had been our spy master and he’d flown in through the window with that baby.
She’d asked if he’d been followed.
To me, all of that screamed conspiracy, secrecy, theft.
Declan had argued that maybe my parents had simply adopted Avia. “Maybe she was an unwanted bastard like me.”
I thought he gave my mother too much credit for taking him in.
“There’d be paperwork,” I’d argued.
“Well, all the damned confidential paperwork that is handed down from monarch to monarch is kept with the castle mage. And since ours got blown up—” Declan shook his head.
Connor said, “Maybe her family couldn’t keep her.”
Quinn thought,Maybe her family didn’t want her.
Ryan got home, a full day and a half later than he’d originally planned because he’d spotted something to the south. But whatever was flying through the sky had been so elusive that Ryan hadn’t been able to get close. Each time he’d tried, a storm had come up and he’d been forced to land.
Ryan had heard everything that had happened from Quinn. He knew how distraught and distracted I was. So, when he saw me, even though I was in the middle of a public audience in the throne room, he swept up to my seat, scooped me up, and carried me off, shouting, “Newlywed privilege!” to the delight of every male courtier.
I was tomato-red when he set me down in my chambers. But when he kissed me, it wasn’t with the passion and ardor I expected after his newlywed claim. It was with concern. “How are you, Little Dearling?” He sat down in a chair and pulled me onto his lap.
I sighed and leaned against him, moving my head until I could hear the strong, steady beat of his heart. Ryan’s presence just made me feel safe. His hand rubbed down my back, soothing me. We sat like that for a bit.
“I can’t even imagine how I’d feel about my family if I thought they were liars,” Ryan broke the silence.
“It feels like … a huge hole in my life,” I struggled to explain it. “Or like I’m off balance.”
“We base our whole lives on the idea that our families raise us right and teach us the truth,” Ryan said. “But if you look at your knights … look at Declan, cast off; Quinn and Connor were sent away like they were burdens; it’s not true. Families don’t always do right.”
“Your family’s all right,” I pulled at the lapels on Ryan’s vest.
“They’re simple.”
