Chapter 7 Lothbrok Manor #3
Both boys exchanged a worried look and nodded wordlessly, following Ember out the door and into the garden. She sat on the edge of the fountain, feeling the sun beat down on her face as both boys looked at each other in worried silence.
“Find a body in the basement or something?” Fen laughed as he sat beside her.
Ember shook her head with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Killian furrowed his brow, arms crossed tightly over his chest as he cocked his head. “What’s going on, Starshine?” he whispered.
Ember took a shaky breath. “I have a little brother,” she whispered, as she bit her lip. “I met him just a little while ago.”
Fen’s jaw hung slack as his eyebrows shot up his forehead.
“How is that even possible?” Killian asked, as he furrowed his brow.
“Well, Vargr,” Fen quipped, “when a mummy witch and a daddy witch love each other very much—”
“Now is not the time, Fenrir James,” Ember scolded, as she rolled her eyes and turned toward Killian. “She was pregnant before the storm. He’s ten, and he’s mute.”
“He can’t talk at all?” Fen asked, as he leaned back on the fountain, dipping his hands in the water to play with the fish.
Ember shrugged. “Mum says he never has.”
“Can’t talk? Or won’t talk?” Killian asked, as he arched a brow.
Ember shot him a glare.
“Does he know sign language? Or any other way to communicate?” Killian continued, as he crossed his arms.
Ember shrugged again.
“Maybe telepathy?” Fen tapped his chin. Ember cut her eyes at him, and he threw his hands up in front of him. “Just a thought.”
Killian scoffed as he looked back up to the house. “Your mum has plenty of money to figure something out.”
Ember furrowed her brow angrily. “Are you saying she did this intentionally? That she has willingly neglected her son? Honestly, Killian, don’t be stupid.”
Killian’s eyes narrowed. “I’m saying there are alternatives to letting a child suffer in silence and not be able to communicate with his own mother, that’s all.”
Ember crossed her arms tightly over her chest. “She’s doing the best she can,” she argued. “She lost her husband and daughter and had to raise him on her own. Not everyone has it as easy as you do, Vargr.”
His face fell, and Ember immediately regretted her words. Killian had anything but an easy life, at least when it came to his family. His past was bloody and bruised, littered with hidden scars and terrible secrets. Ember closed her eyes as she bit her lip.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean that.”
Killian shrugged with a half smile. “I won’t lie and say I didn’t have it better than most in some ways.”
Ember caught Fen turning around out of the corner of her eye, and she whipped around to see him ogling at Maize pruning the trees around the yard.
“You have a dryad?” he whispered, as his jaw hung slack. “You must be loaded.”
Ember rolled her eyes. “I don’t have a dryad,” she quipped. “He’s not a potted plant. He works here.”
“That’s not how that works with these types of families.” Killian laughed. “He might not be a Merrow, but he most certainly doesn’t do this because he wants to.”
Ember huffed. “Can we talk about anything other than my mother’s money please?” she groaned.
“Alright.” Killian smirked. “Are you ready for tryouts?”
“Ugh.” Ember rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Anything other than that too.”
“Scared, Lothbrok?” Killian smirked. Ember cut her eyes at him before letting out a long sigh.
“Scared or not,” Fen said loudly, as he pulled an apple off one of the low hanging branches, prompting Maize to give him a stare that forced him to back away slowly, “they’re coming up quickly. We should probably practice this weekend. Maybe at the orchards?”
Ember chewed her lip as she shook her head.
“I have plans with my mum actually.” She tried not to smile too widely at the thought of shopping with her mum, something she never dreamed she would get to do.
“I should probably stay close to home for now, until I’m settled anyway.
I wouldn’t want her to think I’m not happy. ”
Fen’s face fell, and Ember felt her chest tighten.
She didn’t want to lose Fen, but she had to focus on rebuilding her relationship with her mother.
That was what was important right now. She shook the thought away—she would find her new normal with Fen eventually, but right now, this is what mattered.
Fen nodded with a shrug, forcing a smile. “Maybe some other time.”
Ember nodded in reply. “Yeah, maybe. I should head back inside, but see you at school?”
“See you then, Starshine.” Killian winked and quickly pulled Fen down the long drive toward the Echopoint.
Ember wandered back in the house, slowly making her way up the steps to her room.
She winced as she stood in front of the oak door.
It didn’t feel like her room, not the way she thought it would, not the way her room at the Kitts’ had felt.
She shook her head and turned the knob, insistent that the feeling of all the newness would pass and she would feel just as comfortable in this manor as she had at the farm. It would just take time.
Her room was filled with deep greens, her favorite color for as long as she could remember.
Her four-poster bed was pushed up against the center of the wall, and large picture windows were scattered throughout.
All of her favorite books from her childhood filled the small bookshelf on the far wall, some even still had the bookmarks in them where her father had stopped reading for the night.
Her chest clenched as she climbed onto bed and hugged the stuffed dragon her mother had given her for her second birthday, something she always imagined had been lost forever.
The entire room was curated just for her, to make her feel as at home as possible after ten years of longing for this feeling.
It was filled with love and comfort and nostalgia for a home that she never imagined she would even glimpse again.
Her breathing eased as she looked out the window to the gardens beyond. Yes, it would just take time.
Time was something she was very good at.