Miracle Child

The Twin's Goodbye

“Hi monkeys,” I said, my voice barely more than a whisper as my knees gave out at the sight of them. As soon as I hit the ground, they rushed me. This last set of twins, my seven-year-old siblings, were tiny. They always had been, seeming to grow at a slower pace than any of the rest of us, and they both fit into my arms like they always had. Bright red curls shielded my view of the rest of the room, but I didn’t care. Tears, for the first time since I had heard that the King would be taking me, spilled onto my cheeks. I pulled back to look at them, smoothing their hair away from their beautiful faces. One set of dark chocolate brown eyes started back at me, watery with tears of his own, and the other, pale and unseeing looked in my direction without actually into my eyes. Hers too were filled with tears.

“Are you really leaving?” Misty asked, her voice small and fragile, just like her body. Her hands reached for my face, seeing me in the only way she could. I hated that she found tears there as she traced the lines of my face, gently, like she was trying to comfort me.

I couldn’t answer her, so I just nodded. “Don go,” said the little boy that was her mirror save for the eyes. His voice was too loud, and his words a bit strange as he wasn’t able to hear them.

“I don’t have a choice,” I said and signed with a hand for Micheal to understand. He’d gotten good at lip reading, but I would never make him do such a thing to understand me. I pulled them to me again, burying my face into their curls as sobs wracked my body. I would never see them grow, never see how amazing they’d become. By the time they were my age, they would probably have forgotten most of me. Would they remember me tucking them in? Telling them bedtime stories? Would Micheal have forgotten what I looked like? Would Misty remember how my voice sounded?

I looked up, over at the male who stood, still at my vanity. His head was twisted away, at an angle that should not have been natural. He was studying the wall above the mirrors, purposely not watching the scene before him, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to feel gratitude. He was taking me from my family, taking me from these two beautiful souls that would need me, need my protection, my support. Feeling my gaze on him, his eyes found me in the reflection. I knew there were tears on my face, but they did nothing to lessen the burning hate he found in them. He seemed to flinch away from my gaze, returning to examining the wall, but I didn’t stop looking at him as I held the two children who were crying at the loss of their sister. As if I needed any more reasons to screw the Fae over.

My mother finally came over, pulling the twins off me and taking them back to where they would be safe from any Fae eyes. I didn’t want to let them go, but I didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter. I stood, staring at the door my mother had vanished through with the twins for a while, but it didn’t bring them back.

“You’d better not tell anyone about them, Faerie,” I hissed into the silent room, not bothering to look at him, but I could feel his attention on me.

“You’d better learn better manners, Princess,” he said, his tone a warning, and once again, I was stuck by the power he had just in his voice. I looked at him then, hating my title in his mouth. He didn’t say it with respect. It was mocking, like he found it funny.

“I’m surprised you aren’t gloating,” I commented, my voice taunting, and his eyes held mine.

“All of your siblings are weak and wouldn’t survive a minute in Erythium,” he said, his tone holding no sense of emotion, as if he was solely stating facts, but I still scowled at him. He stepped to me, reaching to his waistband. “You, however,” he said as he offered me a hilt wrapped in leather, “just might.” My dagger shone in the light of the afternoon sun coming in from the window opposite the one it’d shone through this morning, and I looked at him, curious as to what he was doing. Still, I wasn’t about to leave a weapon like that behind. His wound, still unhealed, was proof that it was effective. I’d just have to wait for the right moment to strike.

“Why?” I asked as I tucked it carefully into the back of my dress, “You know I plan to use it.” His eyes burned with intensity as a fierce grin split his face.

“Perhaps that is precisely the reason,” he responded as he leaned forward, his face so close to mine I could see sparks of silver in his deep blue eyes, “Now, shall we return to the dining room, princess?”

His breath was hot on my face, and I glowered back at him, refusing to back down. There was an edge of anticipation in his eyes, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it one bit, but I had changed into this dress for a reason. I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity to remind the Fae of who they were dealing with. I nodded at him.