Page 3 of Finn's Solace

Penny was Dad's princess, and she'd always be that, no matter how old she was. He didn't treat us differently or anything—we all got the cat videos, but only Penny got the pics of Padfoot, our husky, and Neya, Dad's squirrel familiar—but I knew he missed Penny just as much as I did. I was also sure he was going to start texting Dean too, now that he was all settled into his routine.

After dinner, I cleaned up and did the dishes while the dads took Padfoot out for his evening romp around the backyard. I enjoyed our daily routine. It made me feel calm and settled in a way very few things did.

Even though it'd been more than fourteen years since me and my siblings were kidnapped and held for our blood, I still didn't feel 'normal' most of the time. I didn't think I ever would.

There was also the fact that I absolutely hated my supe heritage and wished I'd never found out what powers I had. Add to that being away from my siblings since the first time they came into this world...and yeah, I was struggling big time. I was good at hiding it, though, and in moments like these, I could just let it all go for a little bit and enjoy being around the people I loved.

"Woof!" I glanced down at Pads, who gazed up at me, his tail wagging rapidly. His gray-and-white body wriggled in excitement, and I smiled.

"Hey, Pads. What's up?"

Padfoot started off on a long-winded reply in the way only huskies could, and I nodded along as if I understood him perfectly. I only did it because it made him happy—and it also made him shut up faster, which was appreciated—and though Dean liked to tease me about it, I'd seen him do the same when he thought no one was watching.

Neya skittered into the kitchen and chirped, and suddenly, Pads didn't care about telling me about his backyard adventures. Instead, he raced off after Neya, still as spry as he was fourteen years ago when I first met him. Dad had made sure of that. If it was up to him, Pads would live as long as us, and enjoy every moment of it. It was good to have a healing mage for a dad.

Two

Finn

I jerked upright as I came awake, then hissed as my head slammed into something hard.

Rubbing my head, I blinked a few times, then sighed when I realized where I was.Not again.

Shaking off the stiffness in my limbs, I climbed out of my closet and shut the door behind me. Stretching my arms above my head and wincing at the ache, I glanced over at the clock. My nightmare had been kind enough to wake me up just in time for breakfast.

Grabbing my glasses from the nightstand, I slipped them on, then tried to get my hair into some semblance of order before giving up. The reddish-brown strands stood straight up, and for once, I was glad my sister was off to college so she couldn't tease me about it.

Heading out of my bedroom, I pushed the nightmare to the back of my mind with all the other nightmares and memoriesI preferred not to think about. I could hear my dads talking in the kitchen, and I found them plating up fluffy pancakes.

I pushed my glasses up when they started sliding down my nose, and wondered if it was time to get a new pair. I'd been using this one for quite a while, and though it still worked just fine at protecting people from my magic, the frame had turned quite loose. Considering how adamant everyone was that I didn't need them anymore, I was worried Raiden—the dragon who watched over this town, and who'd made my current glasses—might not make me a new pair, which was why I hadn't asked.

"Good morning, kiddo! Grab a plate," Dad said, and I grabbed a plate from the cabinet. Papa slid two pancakes onto my plate, and I wished them both a good morning before settling on a stool across the counter from them.

"Do you have any plans today?" Papa asked, and I shook my head. Papa and Dad—Jai and Raphael Presley to everyone else—had adopted me and my siblings when I was thirteen, and it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I'd never thought I'd get to have a normal, loving family, but here I was.

"Not really. Did you need something?"

"Yeah. We're running low on a few things. Would you mind doing a grocery run?"

"Not at all."

Not many parents were willing to let their adult son live with them, but my dads had never even suggested I move out. Iguessed part of it was that they both came from cultures where that was the norm, but I knew it was mostly because they truly didn't care.

I didn't think I was ready to live on my own, and I was glad they hadn't asked me to.

After I'd finished my breakfast, I freshened up and got dressed. Papa had a list waiting for me, and I grabbed the car keys before heading for the door.

"Finn!"

I turned with the door halfway open, and Dad gave me a sheepish grin, his blond hair falling into his face. "Take your time, okay?"

Take your time was his code for 'Your Papa and I need some alone-time.'

"Will do." Giving him a mock salute, I closed the door, then got into the car and started driving toward The One-Stop Shops, or TOSS as the locals called it. It was a shopping center that housed everything from an arcade to a grocery store.

Mistvale was as alive as ever, and while the sky was clear, it could change at the drop of a hat. That was what happened when the weather in your town depended on the emotions of the storm dragon who watched over it.

Raiden was pretty mild-mannered most of the time, but with his son off on a belated honeymoon, and his eggs only three months away from hatching—dragon eggs hatched after eighteen whole months—I imagined he wasn't at his best, which meant untimely rain and unpredictable storms.

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