Chapter 14
Hadrian
I smile at the young gargoyle female standing by my side.
“Oh, I’m so excited to finally meet you!” She lets out a high-pitched squeal and jumps up and down. “Dad told me how to find you, but I thought it would be harder.” She holds out a hand to shake mine. “I’m Petra, your sister.”
Across from me, Jasper chokes on his food and starts pounding on his chest.
I blink as I look from him back to the gargoyle, who’s staring at me expectantly.
Cocking my head to the side, I eye her suspiciously. “Hey, young one, I don’t have a sister. You must have me confused with someone else.”
She reaches into her pocket, sticking her tongue out of one side of her mouth as she does.
“Oh, don’t worry, I was a surprise to him too!
Technically I’m your half-sister because your dad dated my mom a long time ago in the human world.
Well like, ten years ago there, but that’s what inside the haven system, like almost three hundred haven years? ”
I blink rapidly as I try to follow her train of thought. She’s three hundred years old? Pinching the bridge of my nose, I struggle to deal with this information.
She hands me a crinkled envelope with my name written on the front. My mouth goes dry. It’s my father’s handwriting. The way he connects the “d” and “r” in my first name is so distinctive.
The girl hands me a necklace next. It’s a mini stone arakna spider, similar to the necklace my father gave my mother as a mating present.
The arakna only exists in a sprawling haven in Brazil where they’ve been doing their research for the better part of two haven decades.
And now this young gargoyle is holding one with a letter in my father’s handwriting.
Hands shaking, I take the envelope and withdraw a single sheet of paper. My mouth drops open at seeing his handwriting here too.
Hadrian -
This is Petra, your sister. So sorry we haven’t had a chance to tell you about her.
She was quite a surprise to us as well! You know that whole time difference thing means we lose track when we’re working.
Petra found us after searching for a long time in the human world.
Her mother, an old flame of mine, passed, so Petra stayed with us for a time, but she was so excited to have a brother.
We could barely hold her back from visiting you once she learned where you were.
Hopefully you’re okay having her around for a little bit.
We’re headed deep into the jungle for a few weeks where it’s not safe for her, but we’ll be back soon!
As always, we love you,
Dad
“What the fuck?” I bark.
To my right, the girl, Petra, blanches.
Jasper snatches the letter out of my hand. He and Jack put their heads together as they read it. I stare at the young gargoyle who’s now lashing her tail side to side, brows furrowed as she bites the edge of her finger.
“How old are you?” I ask.
She crosses her arms at her wrists, threading her fingers together. “Umm, I’m nine. Well, in human years.”
I shift uncomfortably, glancing at Jasper and Jack. Jack finishes reading the letter first and holds out a fist toward Petra. “Welcome to the family, lil dudette! I’m your Uncle Jack.”
She looks askance at him. “Uncle? You’re…human.”
“Witch,” he corrects. “But yeah. Hadrian’s lived with us every summer for almost three haven decades. So I’m your Uncle Jack.” He elbows Jasper. “This is your Uncle Jasper. You’ve got an Uncle Jace too and we’ve got a sister around here somewhere. So, yeah, welcome.”
Petra tentatively fist-bumps his outstretched hand.
I throw both of mine in the air. “Wait a second. Am I dreaming right now? This can’t be happening, can it?!”
A sister? A fucking godsdamned sister? My parents gone for years? What in the ever-loving shit is happening?
“Umm, I’m hungry,” she says softly, eyeing the half-eaten burger on my plate. “Can I have your burger while you finish freaking out? I haven’t eaten all day.”
Jack and Jasper burst out laughing, and Jasper pats the seat next to him.
“C’mere, honey. Sit by Uncle Jasper, and we’ll order you your own thing.”
She takes a seat, looking nervously at me until Jasper hands her a menu. I’m still staring at the three of them in utter disbelief when Jack lifts his drink to mine, clinking it. “Congrats on the surprise sister, dude.”
A million thoughts fly through my mind at once. How do I know she’s really my sister? How do I know the letter’s not a fake? Could this be some weird stalker fan thing?
“We need to see the sheriff,” I mutter.
Petra’s mouth drops open, and she frowns like she might cry. “Why?!”
I run both hands through my hair. “Just to verify some details, okay? It’s not that I don’t believe you, but it’s better to be sure, right?”
She purses her lips. “And when you figure out I’m really your sister, you’ll take care of me, right? Because Dad said you would, and it was a lot of travel from Brazil. It’s taken me, like, two whole days to get here.”
Jasper gasps. “They let you come by yourself?”
The girl shrugs, still eyeing my burger.
One of the Jays says something else, but time and space blur into television fuzz in my brain.
I can’t find words. I just kissed the woman of my dreams for the first time.
I just promised to be in her corner. I just told her I was hers.
And now I’ve got a surprise kid sister literally dropped onto my doorstep for fucking years.
Leaning forward, I press my forehead to the table and pray for peace of mind. This can’t be happening.
“Just give him some processing time, sweetheart,” Jasper says confidently. “You shocked your big brother. You probably knew about him, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” she says with a laugh. “I knew he didn’t know about me, but I guess it didn’t really sink in until right now. I thought they’d have said something when I was on the way.”
I lift my head. She sounds a little heartbroken. “Grab some food, Petra. We’ll figure all of this out, okay?”
She nods just as the minotaur waitress reappears at our table.
Half an hour later, I’m still in shock as Petra licks burger juice from her fingers.
Jack and Jasper have her in stitches, but I’m still staring at her trying to decide if we look alike.
When she turns a crooked smile on me and I notice the same dimple in her chin that I got from my father, it all hits me like a ton of bricks.
I’ve got a one-bedroom apartment across the hall from my fucking mate, who I just started pursuing.
One nest. No extra room. I don’t even know where Pine Gulch’s elementary school is or what grade Petra would be in.
I don't have the first clue what to do with her while I’m in games or at practice.
Who babysits in Pine Gulch? I don’t fucking know.
And I cannot add another thing to Bluebell’s to-do list.
When dinner is done, I call the sheriff to verify he’s at the office up the street. Petra follows me there in silence, her footfalls impossibly light as she hops in and out of the railroad tracks.
“How come you don’t believe me?” she asks when I grab the door handle.
I sigh, dropping to my heels and clasping my hands together. “You caught me by surprise, little one, and I’d like to verify all of this. Imagine if a random kid came up to you on the street and said they were your sister.”
She frowns, shooting me an exasperated look. “I’d obviously be excited, and then I’d ask them to go play.” She crosses her arms and taps her foot. “Dad said you’d be, what was the word? Kerfluffled. Is that what this reaction is?” She waves at me.
I purse my lips. My father is the only monster in the entire world I’ve ever heard use that word.
Fuuuuck me.
Rising, I grab the door and open it. “Let’s go, Petra.”
Inside his office, Sheriff Rygold sits behind his desk with both big feet up on it as he reads the newest issue of the Gulch Gossip, the one with me on the skyball pitch on the front.
Petra runs up and grabs it right out of his hands, scanning the words. “Oh my gods, Hadrian, this is so cool! You’re in the newspaper!”
Rygold rises and eyes her, then me. “What can I do you for, Alkazar? Bit late to be here, ain’t it?”
I point at the little one. “Petra here seems to think we’re siblings, and I was hoping you could help me verify.”
Rygold barks out a ragged laugh. “For real? Surprise relation? Don’t see that every day.”
Petra sighs and throws the paper back onto his desk. “Hadrian doesn’t believe me. He’s kerfluffled about it, but he’ll come to terms with it. Dad said he would. Also, what happened to your face?” She points at the sheriff’s half-horn and ripped lip.
I resist the urge to start shouting at…someone. It won’t do any good. I’m not close with my parents, but I never thought they’d casually drop a sibling on my doorstep. I’m comm’ing them the moment I get home.
“Can you help?” I’m practically begging.
Rygold nods and looks at Petra. “Hand me a piece of your hair please.”
Petra reaches up and yanks out a strand, then lays it in his outstretched hand.
He looks at me, and I do the same.
Rygold stalks toward the back of his office and shuffles around in a cabinet, withdrawing a beaker and a vial of purple liquid. Returning to us, he sets the beaker on the desk and drops both hairs into it.
“Now, if you’re related, when I put this purple liquid in, it’ll turn black. If you’re distantly related, it’ll go pale blue. And if you’re unrelated, it’ll stay the same color.”
My mouth is as dry as the gulch’s wheat fields as Rygold dumps purple liquid over the hair. Almost immediately, black swirls through the shade. In moments, the entirety of the beaker is filled with obsidian liquid.
Rygold chuckles. “Ain’t never seen it turn quite that fast.” He looks between us, his smile crooked because of the huge scar running down the left side of his face.
“Guess y’all are family.” He reaches into his desk and withdraws a blue-banded comm watch.
Handing it to her, he wiggles his brows.
“Young lady, you know how this works? You can make calls within Pine Gulch but not outside of it. Need a comm disk to call other havens.”
Petra hops up and down as she fastens the watch around her thin wrist. “Yes! I have a brother! That is the best thing in the entire world. I’m so excited, Hadrian.
I want you to show me everything about the haven system.
Dad’s been teaching me about how time moves faster inside havens, and how thralls are drawn to the protective wards…
which is so dang creepy. I’ve never seen one of those in real life but—”
I tune her out as I stare at the sheriff. He stares right back.
What in the actual shit am I gonna do now?