Page 4 of Drawn in Blood
Kady O‘Malley, the youngest of the O’Malley children, lived a few miles down the road and was Maeve’s best friend. She has spent most of the summer glued to the little girl’s side, and they had a tendency to go back and forth between their houses, rarely spending more than a few nights apart.
“No,” Fen snapped, as he whipped his head around, chest rising rapidly as he stared his little sister down, “You are not going to Kady’s, or into town, or to the beach, or anywhere else unless you’re with me and Ember, or Mum and Dad.”
“But it’s not that far!” Maeve argued, narrowing her eyes toward her brother. “I’ll be back before supper, and Mum and Dad will never know?— “
“Drop it, Maeve,” Fen hissed, as he focused on his board again. “I’ll tie you to the tree if I have to, but you aren’t going anywhere.”
Della seemed to straighten at that, slowly placing herself in front of Maeve. Ember shook her head as she sighed. Fen was scared, and sometimes fear made people do stupid things, like threaten to tie their sister to a tree.
“I can’t get this scratch off,” Fen mumbled, as tears pooled on his lower lash. He ran the cloth over the same spot over and over again, bottom lip wobbling as he shook his head. “It’s ruined. I can’t fix it.” Tears slipped down his cheeks as he tossed the board in front of him, wringing his hands together as he bit his bottom lip. “I can’t fix it,” he whispered.
Ember slid beside him, nudging him in the arm as she slid her hand into his and squeezed. The tether at her sternum thrummed, her magic reaching out to his as she sat in silence with him.
“It will be okay,” she whispered, as his breathing began to slow. “We will figure this out together.”
She wasn’t talking about the board.
The house smelledof warm stew and soda bread when they walked into the kitchen later that evening. The floor was bathed in late summer sun, and Ember felt the warmth of home engulf her once again.
My home.
The realization that she had a home didn’t hit her the way she expected it to. She always thought it would feel like a storm—something loud and impossible to ignore that left her ears ringing and her pulse racing. A single moment in time that would stand out, forever etched in her memory. The final puzzle piece shifting into place.
But it wasn’t like that, not at all. It was slow and steady. It was like going to bed on a cold winter night and waking up to a blanket of snow the next morning. It was like waking up one morning and realizing the shoes you wore the day before were too snug now. Something that happened without notice but happened, nonetheless.
“Em, time for supper!” Fen shouted from the table, pulling out his chair and quickly plopping himself into it.
Ember gave Eira a smile, something she found herself doing more often now than ever before, as she walked past her and into the dining room. Maeve was already talking animatedly about her day while simultaneously inhaling the fresh bread that was waiting in the middle of the table. Eira’s smile was turneddownward as she entered the room with the stew hovering beside her. She hadn’t spoken much since returning home from the town meeting, but Ember could tell with the way her eyes flitted between the three of them that Chief Thornsten’s words weighed heavy on her heart.
“Can we still go to Heksheim to practice tonight?” Fen asked, as he shoveled stew into his mouth with a fervor. “The sun shouldn’t set for another few hour, and we’ll be home before?—"
“No,” Eira cut in. “Absolutely not.”
Fen let out a huff. “But, Mum, you said?—"
“Isaidno, Fenrir.”
“Don’t argue with your mum,” Otto said before Fen could argue any further.
“Those poor children,” Eira sniffled, as she shook her head and took a shaky breath. “I can’t be with you every moment, but I won’t let you wander off to find danger on your own.”
“Mum, I think we can handle ourselves for the—" Fen began, but quickly snapped his mouth shut as Eira’s eyes bore into him.
And that was the end of that.
Supper was quiet for the most part, everyone seeming to be lost in their own thoughts. forgetting the others were there entirely. It wasn’t until the last bites of stew were being eaten, that a lightbulb flashed on in Ember’s head.
“Wasn’t there something you needed to talk to me about?” she asked, as she looked between Eira and Otto. The couple exchanged a knowing glance, and Otto pushed away from the table and quickly left the room. Eira’s eyes lit up as they met with Ember’s, and she wiped a single tear away that was starting to fall down her cheek. Otto quickly re-entered the dining room and sat back in his seat, laying a sheet of paper on the table in front of him.
“Ember, we love you so much,” Eira whispered, as she reached across the table to grab her hand. “We have loved you since the day we met you. You have always been ours.”
Ember’s heart raced in her chest, and it felt like there was cotton lodged in her throat. She quickly wiped away the tear forming on her bottom lash and gripped her hands together.
Is this actually happening?
Something like fear ripped through her chest as every ending with every family she had ever been with tumbled through her mind. Had she become too much? Did they need to focus on protecting Fen and Maeve and not have time for her anymore? Had they finally had enough?
Otto put an arm over his wife’s shoulder. “We have a sort of back-to-school gift for you, If you’ll have it.” He pushed the folded paper across the table and under Ember’s tightly clenched fists. She didn’t realize just how tight she was holding them until she felt Fen’s hands lay on top and give her a gentle squeeze. His smiled calmed her like nothing she had ever felt. Even when everything in her felt turbulent and out of control, he was there to calm the waters. Like a lighthouse in the middle of a hurricane.
