Page 28 of Eight Embers

He sits up, looks up at me and immediately smiles, then darts his eyes in panic to my parents and scrambles up off the floor. He’s not too gone though to remember to extend a hand down to help me stand.

He puts an uncertain arm around my shoulder, patting me very awkwardly but becomingly and grimaces at me. “This feels unnatural, doesn’t it?”

I grab his hand and lace our fingers together. “It’s sweet. I like it.”

“Hold still, my princess. There’s a critter in your hair!”

Wil reels back his hand like he’s going to squash it, but I stop him. “No, it’s Saladriel! He can adjust his size, apparently.”

“It’s— really?”

“Okay, so we need to figure out what happened to everyone then, right?” My mother asks, trying to keep us on track.

The unicorn starts shaking, so I set him on the ground carefully and watch him swell and shift until he’s a regular sized human again. His ears are pink, and his face looks mortified. “Sorry about that, your energies kind of wrecked my nervous system. It’s possible I expected something traumatic to happen, like it does back home when I’m anywhere in the vicinity of Fairygoddess Unicorn.”

“I feel like I should be offended by that. Are you saying I was that something traumatic that happened?”

He shakes his head at me and snorts. “No. Well, kind of, but no. She’s…look. She’s probably the one responsible for… all of this. I mean, think about it. It makes sense, right? I bet you she’s starting her games.”

“Games?” one of my dads asks, unimpressed.

I sigh dramatically and pin my mother with a stare. “This might be your fault. She told me the gods take turns choosing saviors; by the way, she’s grateful to you for saving our goddess. Rules state that the savior has to be somehow connected to theprevious one chosen. She was so impressed by you she chose me to save her realm.”

“Why does her realm need saving?” Papa Gray asks, definitely suspicious.

Saladriel puts a finger in the air, seeking permission to talk. “I can answer that. We’re…miserable there. We need to be happy to thrive because hello, unicorns, but it’s…not a happy place.”

“And what is your goddess doing about this?” My mother asks, getting a bit heated now.

Saladriel looks to me, and I sigh, dramatically again, and show my mother my arm from Fairygoddess Unicorn. “She told me she was giving me mates from her realm, that I had to compete in some games, yadda, yadda, yadda. I don’t know. There were singing crustaceans the size of thimbles and psychedelic confetti. There wasn’t exactly a lot of time for questions.”

“Well, you know what you need to do then,” my mother says as she walks to the door.

“Um, research?” Wil asks timidly.

“We’re going to the portal that Uncle Bennett uses to travel here. With the unicorn’s magic signature, it should take you to his realm. You need to go get your mates back.”

“And if it’s a trap?” Saladriel asks quietly.

“Oh, I’m sure it is,” my mother says as she collects my brother, who is for some reason playing with the basket of tri-colored mini potatoes on the counter, stacking them into a pyramid. “But if you’re her savior, I can’t help you. I’m only the voice of the goddess in this realm. You’ll be fine, kid.”

My fathers offer similar sentiments as they kiss me on the head and walk out.

“Aren’t you worried about her safety?” Wil shouts after them.

One of my fathers, the really scary assassin one that trained me the most, starts laughing. “She’s good. They should be worried about their own safety once our daughter unleashes herself over there.”

Wil, Saladriel, and Rush look at me. I shrug and follow my family. “Looks like we’re going to the portal.”

Rush eyes the kitchen. “Will there be potatoes there, or should I pack some?”

“We only have sweet potatoes,” Saladriel informs him.

Rush shudders and then starts shoving his ‘emergency instant potatoes’ into his pants in his ‘super-secret hidden compartment,’ before following us out to the hallway. I lock the door and there’s not much else to do but be the savior, I guess.

Chapter eleven

Wil

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