Kincaid shook his head. “Me either.”
“Kendrick, leave the children be. Whether by design or some miracle, we have what we need to save the sprite population,” the queen admonished.
She turned to them. “Unstructured spell casting is dangerous, but it can yield results. Try not to fall back on lazy thinking too often.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Zoe said.
“That’s what I said,” Kendrick pointed out.
“Actually, my love, you just screeched a lot,” Anne corrected.
“We came here so Kendrick could show us how to use anchors so I can check the spell centers. If it’s a bad time…” Zoe pointed to the room.
Kendrick’s mouth became a straight line. “I will show you because gods only knows what you two would cook up without supervision.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Gods! I sound like my father. I will beg his forgiveness in the hereafter for putting him through hell,” he said, then scowled at them again.
Zoe blinked. “Your magic is like ours! Like Nigel’s and Neil’s! It’s why you helped us when we were growing up. You understood what it was like trying to force a round peg in a square hole.”
“Technically, a round peg can go into a square hole. It should be a square peg in a triangle-shaped hole or something,” Meryn corrected.
“I just thought he knew everything, but that makes more sense,” Neil observed.
“I swear I have aged millennia since meeting you, Meryn,” Kendrick admitted sounding tired.
“Not my fault. I’m just trying to make it in this crazy paranormal world. You should be blaming the reapers,” Meryn pointed out.
“You’re right, forgive me,” Kendrick said, then exhaled. “Alright, you two, let’s check on your crystals on the way out, then start lessons at the closest spell center.”
“The closest one is in the merchant district right outside the palace gates,” Zoe informed him.
“Good.” Kendrick turned and kissed his mate. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Be nice to the kids,” Anne said, rubbing noses with him.
He sighed, then smiled. “Yes, dear.”
Zoe was nervous as they headed toward the courtyard. What if her magic konked out and was no longer warm? She looked over to Kincaid and noticed he looked as ill as she felt. She gave him a half smile, which he attempted to return.
Portia opened the door for them. Along the walls, long workbenches were filled with multi-story dollhouses, and plants were everywhere she turned.
On one far side, an amber crystal glowed. The one closer to them was Kincaid’s umber one. She felt a wave of relief that both crystals were still pumping out a good amount of heat.
At her side, Ame tugged on her hand. “I can help.”
She knelt down. “What would you like to do?”
Ame pointed around the room. “It will be too dry.” He swallowed hard. “Too dry.” He looked up at the center of the room, and before her eyes, a sapphire flower bloomed that released a gentle mist. His expression eased. “Better.”
Kendrick stared, then shook his head. “You know what, we’ll save that for another day.”
Portia looked down at Ame. “We never even took into consideration the effects of constant heat.” She smiled at Ame. “Thank you, little one.”
He smiled shyly and ducked behind her. Zoe remembering that morning, looked to Portia. “I know Gage has to make special requests to Noctem Falls but is there anything, in particular, we have to do to formally adopt Ame and Yuki?”
Portia’s only reaction was a slight lifting of one brow. “You and Gage will need to come to the palace and make a declaration stating you wish to become their parents. Normally a clerk would handle such a thing, but I feel this is something that would brighten the queen’s day. Would you mind it being slightly more formal if she were to accept your vow instead?”
“We made our own private vows this morning, so if it would help the queen, I don’t think Gage would mind having her accept the official ones.”
Portia smiled. “Ryuu made sure that their contract had a caveat that should you choose to adopt them, the contract is null and void.” She shook her head. “I think he knew how much you all needed one another.”