A Passion for Potions (Petalfall #1)

34. Thirty-Four - The Sister

Thirty-Four - The Sister

Viggo

Penny takes my hand, pretending to adjust my cuffs. “You’re fidgeting.”

“I know.” I hold his hand to keep from plucking at the fabric he’s just set. “What if she likes her more than us?”

Penny smiles at me like he’s about to laugh, but thank the Goddess he doesn’t. “Kirra is not going to try to steal away the woman you love.”

“You say that like she hasn’t before.”

“Has she?”

“Yes!”I step into him, holding him close, burying my face in his neck and breathing him in as I say, “And it worked.”

“You didn’t tell me about that,” he says softly, stroking my back.

Exhaling, I deflate against him. “It was not my finest moment and I don’t enjoy recounting it.”

I always meant to tell him, but the shame that came from finding out the woman I thought I’d loved was after the false immortality of a changing bite was too embarrassing, even to tell him.

It makes me flinch, even now, thinking about it.

“Well, Ana might be charmed, but I refuse to believe she’ll fall for Kirra’s whiles. After all, there are two of us.” He whispers the words against my cheek and kisses me. “We out number her.”

An ugly sound comes from the door.

I turn to see my sister watching us with an amused and feigned disgust. Blicks races after her, a consternated scowl on his face.

“Miss Kirra has arrived,” he says, belatedly and glares at her a little before he turns to go.

“I would expect better from you,” she says pointedly at Penny, “You knew you had a guest coming, keep all that smoochy stuff out of your common spaces.”

“If you had let yourself be announced,” I remind her, “then there would have been nothing to see.”

She smiles and I know she was hoping to find some other way to embarrass me.

“Come here, baby brother, It feels like ages since I’ve properly seen you.” She holds out her hands. “Skulking around my home in the middle of the day doesn’t count!”

She hugs me tight, but immediately pushes me back.

“Ugh, Iggy! You stink of sunshine.” She makes a disgusted noise and sticks her tongue out as if she’s eaten something rotten.

“It’s lovely to see you again, too, Kirra. I’m so glad the Queen could spare you.”

She waves her hand in a flippant gesture. “Her majesty barely notices when I’m here or there. She can spare me for a few weeks if it means I can help my brother out himself to his neighbors.”

She looks me over like she’s my mother and I try not to squirm like a little boy. But in the end, she nods. Satisfied.

“So! What is the main concern?”

She flops down onto the sofa and eyes us both.

“The usual fear, of course,” Penny says, sighing and glancing toward the front door.

I know what he’s thinking. I would prefer if Ana was here as well.

“At least one young lady in the village has already made it clear that the less savory stories have made their way to this pocket of the world.” I try not to think of the fear on Mina’s face.

“I see.” Kirra says the words very carefully. “So you’re worried about stakes?”

“Not exactly.” Penny glances at me. “Public opinion has swayed in my direction so far, but... we want to keep the village happy.”

“I want them to like me,” I say.

“Why?” She looks at me like I’m still ten years old. “As long as they tolerate our presence, why should we care if they like us?”

“Aside from the fact that life will just be easier…?”

Kirra takes my hesitation as an opportunity to guess. “It’s the woman from the other night, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” I take a deep breath. “And as she is a part of this village and has no desire to leave it, we don’t foresee leaving for quite some time either.”

Penny adds, “Even if the Queen should decide to appoint someone else to guard this forest.”

Kirra sits up straight, all humor gone from her face. “You plan to marry her.”

“Eventually.”

“I hadn’t realized you were serious about her . ”

Of course Kirra would jump to the correct conclusion. “We would like to introduce you to her... if you promise not to overreact.”

“Why would I overreact?” Suspicion narrows her eyes and she glances back and forth between us.

I say it, because I don’t want her to scold Penny. “She’s human.”

“Oh, Iggy.” The disappointment in her voice is laden with a sadness I hate. “You must be joking.”

“If you meet her, I think you’ll understand.”

There is a commotion outside the room and a moment later, the sharp flutter of wings precedes the arrival of one of Kirra’s owls.

“Hello precious,” she says as it lands on her shoulder and knocks its head against her cheek, nuzzling her. “I know. I would not have left you behind, but you hate it more when I wake you.”

The owl hoots and she responds as if she understands it. “I have a tasty little mouse ready to make it up to you.”

Looking back at us, she purses her lips, still glancing between us. “I will meet her, but knowing her... even liking her won’t change the problems that come with loving a human.”

She looks at us each in turn and it reminds me that even though she’s only known Penny for twenty years, she still thinks of him much as she does me.

“Do you plan to turn her? You know that never ends well.” She looks at Penny. “And if your face is any clue, it would gut you to see her altered in that way.”

“I don’t know what the future holds.” I say, hating that I have to admit it.

“If you’re sleeping with her—and I assume that’s why you smell of sunshine, not because Edric’s been rolling around in the fields—you may have already sealed your fates.”

“She’s a potion maker. She can deal with any surprises that might arise,” Penny assures her.

“I hope so.” She stands, sweeping her skirts down and fussing with one of the flounces as her owl flutters its wings to maintain its balance.

Kirra’s is a nervous gesture.

And it makes me feel the smallest bit better.

“I will meet her,” she says again, taking a deep breath and looking at the clock. “I assume she will be coming to dinner tonight?”

“Unless you are too weary from your travels?” I say, goading her, even though I know I shouldn’t.

She looks at me askance. “She can join us for dinner and I will see just how much trouble you are in.”

Pausing to press a kiss to my forehead, she leaves us, joining a waiting Blicks in the foyer. He collects her and leads her to her room.

“I don’t know if that went better or worse than expected.”

“Both?” Penny takes my hand, holding me there for the time it takes to hear Kirra disappear into her guest room and leads me out to climb the stairs in her perfumed wake.

Dorrian will open Ana’s door to our room and we’ll be waiting for her here.