Page 21 of Drawn in Blood
Maeve shook her head furiously. “We are her family,” she argued, as tears pooled on the bottoms of her lashes. “Ember lives here with us. They can’t take her.”
Fen rolled his eyes. “No one is taking her, Maevie. How would you like it if someone kept you from Mum and Dad?”
Maeve crossed her arms over her chest. “I wouldn’t like it,” she mumbled.
“And we would miss you very much,” Otto whispered. “That’s how Ember’s mum feels. She’s been searching for her for ten years, longer than you’ve been alive, and she deserves to have her daughter back with her.”
“But why does that mean I have to lose my sister,” she whispered.
Ember wrapped her arms around the little girl and held her tight, running her hand down her hair. “You’re not losing me, Maevie,” she whispered. “Not now, and not ever.”
“You’ll come back, won’t you?” Fen asked, as he twiddled his thumbs on the floor in front of her. “Come fly in the orchard on the weekends?”
Ember grinned as she kicked his knee playfully. “Wild draics couldn’t keep me away.”
Light filteredthrough Ember’s bedroom window, bathing the wood floor in what was left of the slowly setting sun. She was busying herself with packing her suitcase, meticulously checking each drawer in her dresser to make sure she had everything tucked away to take with her. She smiled as she pulled one of Maeve’s drawings off the mirror above her dresser, laughing as the stick figure of a curly headed girl came to life and floated across the page, chasing chickens and donkeys through a wind whipped pasture. Ember folded it gently and tucked it inside her messenger bag to hang it in her new room.
Her heart sank, stomach coiling into knots as she walked around the warm room. She perched on the edge of the bed, eying the packed bags sitting by the door, and took a shakybreath. This had been her first true home since she had been placed in the foster system—the first place she had ever felt welcome. These walls had seen more love in the last year than any of the houses she had been in combined since her sixth birthday. She clutched the blankets on her bed, rubbing them between her fingers as she chewed her lip.
“Bittersweet, isn’t it?” a voice rang from the doorway.
Ember wiped away the silent tear sliding down her face as Eira walked into the room and sat on the bed beside her. “It is.” Ember gave a half smile as she nodded.
“You’re allowed to be excited.” Eira smiled as she tucked a stray piece of hair behind Ember’s ear. “You don’t have to keep it tucked away to save our feelings.”
“It’s so strange,” Ember breathed, as tears pooled at the corner of her eyes. “I gave up dreaming of seeing them again before I even turned seven. I never would’ve imagined she would show up at my front door. It’s all so…”
“Overwhelming?” Eira breathed with a laugh.
“Very.” Ember shook her head with a smile. “You’ve all been so kind to me. You treated me like a daughter. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you for what you’ve done for me.”
“We did for you what we would’ve done for any of our children.” Eira smiled as her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “No matter where you go, you will always be family, and we will always consider you a daughter. Nothing could change that. We are so thankful for the time we got with you. Now get some rest.”
Eira hugged Ember tightly and walked out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Ember took a shuddering breath as she changed into her pajamas and slid beneath the sheets, wrapping herself tightly in the heavy quilt.
Her life was about to change forever. This was a moment she hadn’t even let herself dream of, let alone think of how it could feel. Joy and grief thrashed in her chest like a tsunami, beatingagainst her ribs and swirling in her stomach. Tomorrow, she would say goodbye to the home she had known for a year, the home that had saved her, and begin a new adventure.
Chapter 7
Lothbrok Manor
“You mean to tell me that in ten years, your mum has never once tried to look for you?” Killian asked, as he leaned against Arlo’s stall door, tossing the silver case that his game-winning broja was locked in.
“She thought I was dead, Killian,” Ember replied, as she rolled her eyes, quickly gathering all of Maia’s things and packing them away in a bag. “Where exactly was she supposed to look? And for the love of Odin, will you stop throwing that? You’re going to take someone’s eye out.”
Killian smirked as he tossed the silver ball into the air, but instead of landing in his hand, it hit the tips of his fingers and flew across the room, smacking right into Fen’s face as he lay asleep on a bale of hay. Fen’s eye shot open, and with a quick jerk, he tumbled off the bale and wound-up face first in the aisle of the barn.
“I rest my case,” Ember mumbled, as she rolled her eyes.
“Sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it?” Killian asked, as he helped his friend off the floor. “You’ve been on the island for a year now, and she had no idea? Ellesmere isn’t small by any means, but it’s notthatbig.”
“She hasn’t lived here,” Ember replied, as she fed Maia a handful of berries. “She was in Scotland till a few months ago. You don’t know what she went through for the last ten years.”
“True.” Killian shrugged as he lazily leaned against the stall door. “But I do know I would cross oceans and deserts and otherworldly realms if it meant getting back to someone I loved.”
Ember stared daggers at the boy as she grit her teeth. What did he know about losing anyone? His family wasn’t perfect, but he had never known anything less than a life of luxury. Pristine floors, sparkling walls, meals fit for a king all inside his giant manor. He didn’t know loss, not the kind of loss she had endured. Ember slid Maia’s halter over her snout, rubbing the draic between the ears as she stood up and slung the duffel bag over her shoulder.
“Don’t make me laugh,” she scoffed. “You’ve never had to work for anything a day in your life.”
