Page 16 of Song of Her Siren

When Aurora let out a sob, I took her from Blaze, rubbing her back as she buried her face against my bosom. “Darling, please don’t cry. Someone should have burned down that shack years ago.”

I couldn’t deny that, even though she was upset, some selfish part of me was glad to be holding her in my arms. I rocked her back and forth, trying to quiet her while whispering soothing words.

She finally pulled back, blinking at me with watery eyes. “You’re not mad?”

“Of course not.” I dried her tears with the pad of my thumb, just as I’d done for the past four years, loving my nieces as if they were my own children. “All I care about is that you’re safe.”

“Darling,” Drae whispered at my back. “We should go. It’s not safe to stay here overly long.”

A loud, deep bark startled me and Aurora. My mates jumped in front of us, flames arcing off their palms at the sight of the big, shaggy silhouette with the scraggly tail.

Aurora squealed. “Wolfy!”

One second, she was in my arms, and in the next, she’d teleported to our old hound, falling to her knees and throwing her arms around his neck.

“Oh, Wolfy!” she cried. “I’ve missed you.”

I brushed past my mates and knelt beside the hound as he slathered Aurora’s face with kisses while Blaze walked the perimeter of the yard, his flames illuminating burned branches and brush.

I pushed back Wolfy’s big snout when he tried to lick my face. His breath was rancid. No doubt from his favorite pastime, eating his butthole. “Easy, Wolfy,” I said with a laugh. “I’m already taken.” Then I rubbed his mangy head. “Hey, boy. What are you doing here by yourself?”

“Your parents left him?” Drae asked at my back.

“I guess so,” I said as he cast light over us, illuminating Wolfy’s matted, dirty fur. Normally wiry and black, his fur was gray from the dirt and ash that coated him. I fanned my face when I was hit by his stench. He smelled like he’d rolled in skunk piss, his second favorite pastime. “I thought they’d left him at one of the nearby farms.” Though I wouldn’t put it past my parents to abandon our family dog. Add it to their long list of transgressions.

I yelped when I felt a pinch on my finger and pulled back to see my hands and wrists had several flea bites. “Aurora, let him go.” I pulled my niece off him. “He’s covered in fleas.” I turned my head when his pungent odor hit me again. Forget skunk piss. No, this was far worse. Maybe skunk pissanddecaying buzzard food. “And he smells.”

She turned to me with a pout. “We can’t leave him here.”

No, we couldn’t, though I wasn’t sure what to do with him. Leave him at Abyssus?

“I’ll give him a bath,” Aurora blurted while scratching her arms.

“Malvolia doesn’t allow dogs in her castle.” Drae frowned down at our old mutt. “We’ll have to leave him at Abyssus.”

Aurora jutted both hands on her hips, scowling at Drae as if he’d suggested we take Wolfy to the butcher. “What if he runs away from Abyssus?”

Drae knelt beside Aurora, waving his light over Wolfy’s back, causing several fleas to jump for cover. “It’s walled. He can’t.”

Crossing her arms, Aurora stomped a foot. “I want to keep him with me.”

“Okay.” I let out a groan. “Okay.” Hopefully, Malvolia’s servants had flea ointment, and lots of it.

Drae clucked his tongue. “You aunt will be angry.”

“I don’t give a damn.” He should’ve known I didn’t give one troll fart what Malvolia thought anymore.

Blaze cleared his throat as he returned to us. “It’s not safe here. You have to go, and I have to start on my journey.”

It felt as if a giant was sitting on my lungs as I watched my mates extinguish their flames and share a hug, their shadowy figures outlined by rays of waning sunlight that cut through the trees.

“Elements protect you, brother,” Drae whispered to Blaze, his voice strained.

Blaze nodded in my direction as I clung to Aurora. “Protect them with your life.”

Drae turned toward me, holding out his hand. “You know I will.”

I stumbled to my feet, taking Aurora with me and handing her to Drae, my gaze tunneled on Blaze as if we were the only two Fae stuck in a fathomless abyss. The darkness that surrounded us no longer frightened me, even if the trees hovering over us looked like skeletal phantoms reaching into a crypt.

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