“Dad!” Alys’ happy voice echoed through our home as she closed her arms around her father, pulling him into a hug that made the human grunt in surprise.

  Seeing them together confirmed the suspicion I’d formed based on the wooden statues of Alys’ family: she was much closer in build to her father than her mother. For one thing, she was taller than her mother, who was surprisingly short for a draconian.

  Not that Alys was tall enough to match her father, mind. The human was, somehow, even taller than I was. I estimated his height to be just past two meters.

  That height allowed him to return Alys’ affectionate embrace while glaring at me suspiciously over her head.

  “Of course,” groused Amara, Alys’ mother. “I greet my daughter, and she says she didn’t think I’d come to visit. Her father walks through the door, and she’s immediately glomping onto him.”

  Unfortunately, Amara’s playful tone vanished as her attention turned to me.

  “And who’s this, hrrrmmm? And why does my darling daughter smell of him?”

  “That, I believe, is her husband.” Alys’ father, Soren, was still glaring at me. “You might have missed some of the people in town congratulating us on our daughter’s recent change in marital status.”

  Amara’s eyes flew wide open. She was speechless, but not for long. The squealing that escaped her a few seconds later was so shrill, it was only with great effort that I resisted the urge to cover my ears.

  “Oh, oh! I mean, I was starting to suspect, but…”

  Amara pulled my very embarrassed dragoness away from her father to squeeze her again. Alys patted her mother’s back, clearly bewildered by this reaction. It was certainly positive enough to be stunning.

  Almost literally so. I felt more than a little dazed by all the emotions coursing through me. Relief and some amusement at her mother’s antics… that odd sense of pressure and roiling unease in my chest whenever I looked at her father, for more reason than one… lingering weariness and a tiny bit of fear at her grandmother…

  I really needed to sit down and get myself something to drink.

  “And when did anyone say anything about our daughter being married, husband?” Amara pressed, her voice slightly muffled as she pressed her face into Alys’ neck.

  “When you were busy cooing over ‘everything our daughter has achieved’, dear,” Soren said dryly. His gaze hadn’t ceased roving appraisingly over me.

  I firmed up my smile and gathered my courage. “It is an honor to meet my mate’s parents at last. My name is…”

  I trailed off for just a moment, doubts and fears battling with my desire to be honest with Alys’ parents. It still felt risky to reveal my true identity to anyone.

  Anyone.

  Then again, hadn’t I already taken that risk with The Molten Expanse? Alys’ grandmother knew my secret. I couldn’t conceal the truth from Soren and Amara for long, even if I wanted to.

  My mana, so recently pushed into my hair and eyes, began to bleed away.

  “Lianthorn Belladonna,” I announced. “Technically still of the Autumn Court.”

  There was a shift. For but a moment, Soren’s gaze turned into something cold and… ready, for lack of a better word. He didn’t have an obvious weapon on his person, but I felt like he’d been on the verge of reaching for one, regardless.

  Alys’ mother had also frozen. Her eyes snapped onto me as she pulled slightly away from Alys. The tension lingered, choking up the air.

  I slowly raised my hand to display the jug I was still holding. “Would you like some juice? I know from experience how thirsty traveling can leave you.”

  I was genuinely proud of myself for acting like nothing was wrong at all!

  “Relax, you two,” Shaessath cut in. “Sit. Have some of what he is offering.” Her gaze flicked to Soren. “Well, maybe not you, knight.”

  Her son-in-law flinched like she had struck him. I could only imagine it was a reminder of the shaky ground he’d been on himself when he started a relationship with Alys’ mother. The man certainly looked a lot more subdued as he moved to obey The Molten Expanse.

  “He’s not getting set on fire, then?” Amara asked conversationally, glancing between me and Shaessath. When Shaessath merely rolled her eyes, Amara sent me a blinding smile. “Well, if Mother trusts you with my daughter, then I have no reason to doubt you! Still…”

  Her voice dropped to a dangerous rumble as sparks flared from her nostrils. “I’m watching you, fae.”

  “Mother!” my dragoness hissed. “Don’t threaten my mate!”

  “Ooohh, protective of him already, hrrrmmm? Can we expect a grandchild soon, then?”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  My dragoness flushed. I almost dropped the juice jug, but I recovered smoothly enough. Leaving Alys to field that question, I focused on pouring some juice for her mother.

  “Give me a moment. I have another beverage that won’t try to eat us from the inside out,” I ‘whispered’ to Soren, making sure my voice was loud enough for Amara to hear. She turned towards us and giggled, which bought Alys a few extra seconds.

  The human nodded at me imperiously. I shot him a tentative smile in return as I put the jug down on the table… after refilling Alys’ and Shaessath’s cups, of course.

  Finally, Alys managed to respond. “No, mother, we are not planning on having any children yet.”

  “Awww, why not?” Amara exclaimed, her voice again rising to the ‘squeal’ register. “You have no idea how adorable you were when you were all tiny and newly born! I couldn’t let you out of my sight for days!”

  “She speaks truth,” Shaessath commented. “I had to knock her out with a spell after the fifth day she spent cooing over you and showing you off to every kobold that came near. She even threw your father out of their bed because she didn’t want him to ‘accidentally squish her adorable, sweet little hatchling.’”

  As Amara protested her mother’s teasing, I slipped away from the group and went back to our cooling cabinet. I had known Alys’ grandmother would prefer the torture juice — wildefire juice, rather — but I had also taken something I’d brought with me from home and left it there to chill, just in case.

  The bottle of fae wine sparkled ostentatiously as I pulled it out of storage, the thick red liquid swirling with inner light every time it shifted. With two more cups in hand, I turned towards the chattering family. Then I paused, taking a moment to observe them.

  Alys’ mother was much more talkative than I had expected. She was almost too expressive with her affections. Yet the way she was clutching Alys’ arm, even as she exclaimed in delight at her first taste of the juice, told me there was plenty going on beneath the surface of her bubbliness.

  Alys’ father was steadier. His presence loomed large, though not in a particularly threatening manner anymore. Nor was he particularly powerful when it came to the actual violence he could bring to bear against me. I could certainly feel his metaphysical presence and knew he was exceptional when compared to an average human, but I still couldn’t believe this was the man sent to kill The Molten Expanse. There was probably a story there…

  Not that I would push for it any time soon. From how Shaessath had used Soren’s knighthood to poke at him, I gathered that no one liked to remember that whole situation. Especially Soren. And while I didn’t fear the man in a physical sense, I definitely dreaded his disapproval.

  Alys loved her family. Any conflict between us would only hurt her.

  And that was precisely the point: Alys loved her family dearly… and her father was a human. A mortal.

  I could admit I had never really thought about what that meant before. I had met mortals, vaguely noted their ages as I was able, and filed the knowledge away as mere interesting morsels of information.

  Now, however…

  My thoughts drifted to Nasha. Pen. Martha. Vance. Some of the elders. And that same odd feeling I’d experienced the first time I noted Soren’s aging features came back with a vengeance, grasping at me all the more tightly.

  The human wasn’t that old. The changes in his appearance from Alys’ statue were not terribly severe. They had simply caught me by surprise. Alys still had decades left with her father.

  Even so, the thought of what would eventually happen tore at me. I didn’t want to see Alys hurt by her father’s passing. I also didn’t like the idea of Nasha and the others simply disappearing from our lives one day.

  My mind spun in all sorts of directions, many of them quite dark, as I stood there and struggled to invent some way of preventing such things from coming to pass…

  “Thorn?”

  I looked up and into my dragoness’ concerned eyes.

  “I apologize. I got distracted for a moment.” Smiling quickly to cover whatever expression had been stealing across my face, I hurried over to the table and gently set down the cups. Then I brandished the bottle. “From the Autumn Court itself, I present to you Silverthorn Wine. It is something of a special product made by my own family.”

  “The Belladonnas?” Soren rumbled, eyeing the bottle with a fair bit of fascination.

  The scarlet wine shot through with sparkling silver light was quite a spectacle, especially for someone who had never seen it before. Even my draconic audience perked up in interest, though Alys’ reaction was based on prior experience with the drink.

  Obviously, I hadn’t denied my dragoness the chance to try the wine ahead of time. While it fell short of the torture juice in her estimation, she had praised it quite a bit.

  “Correct.” I nodded at Soren. “I, ah… I have fled from the family, but —”

  “And why is that, hrrrm?”

  The Molten Expanse’s sudden question almost made me fumble opening the bottle. Thankfully, I managed to spike my mana into the cork and then pull it out, so I was perfectly able to keep my hands steady. I even kept my smile in place, however it threatened to crack.

  “I might approve of you from what I’ve seen so far, fae,” Shaessath continued. “But I still don’t know what could have made a Belladonna run away from Autumn’s Court.”

  “Grandmother!” Alys huffed irritably.

  I appreciated her defense of me, but I couldn’t blame The Molten Expanse for asking, now could I?

  “It’s fine, love. The question is more than fair.” I took a deep breath, wondering how to approach the subject. I decided to begin by countering Shaessath’s inquiry with one of my own. “How much do you know of my family?”

  While I spoke, I poured the wine and slid a cup over to Soren. He didn’t hesitate to pick it up and take a small sip, then a much deeper one as a smile spread across his face.

  He regretted that the next moment, when Shaessath’s words made him choke on his drink.

  “You are Autumn’s little assassins,” The Molten Expanse said calmly. “Trained in the art, as well as in alchemy, from a young age. Your poisons are well known among any of sufficient standing and strength, though that side of your family is remarkably well hidden from the more common folk.”

  Soren’s expression was rather amusing to witness as his gaze darted between me and his cup of wine.

  Alys’ mother, I noted, did not react at all. There had been recognition in her eyes when I revealed my full name. More than in Soren’s, anyway. It had been enough for him that I was a full-blooded fae. I could only assume Amara was more informed than her husband.

  I carefully filed this information away.

  “That is not an incorrect description,” I replied, pointedly taking a sip of the wine myself to reassure Alys’ father. Granted, that would do nothing for someone who knew of my family’s poison resistance, but he had already shown that he did not. “As for why I left…”

  I sighed, then shook my head and finally took a seat, letting myself relax a little. If I was ever going to get used to having The Molten Expanse as an in-law, then I would have to stop acting like she was going to set me on fire any second.

  Alys’ hand found mine in less than a second and gave a reassuring squeeze, which made some of the tension coiling within my stomach fall away. I sent her a grateful smile.

  Nonetheless, I still had to force my mouth open to start talking.