A Life Earthbound (6 page)

“Now put ointment on the cuts so they don’t get infected.”

Rhiannon had a hard time gripping the tube of disinfectant, but she managed to squeeze a tiny bit onto her hand. She spread it around and winced as it burned, but still she did not cry.

“Put the bandage over it,” Serendipity instructed, her voice even, but tinged with irritation. “This should teach you to be more careful, Rhiannon. I don’t have time to deal with you getting hurt. Next time, you can come up here and do this yourself.”

Rhiannon bandaged her cuts, and nodded solemnly. She believed every word her mother said and blamed her own foolishness. She shouldn’t have bothered her mother and it was stupid to cut herself on purpose.

Serendipity swept from the room, leaving behind the vivid scent of sweet pea and vanilla.

Rhiannon never asked her mother for anything ever again.

When her little sister was born, Rhiannon saw a side of her father she’d never seen before.

She watched him warily, nervous at his agitation and fear as he paced back and forth in the guest room a few doors away from where Serendipity was currently giving birth. Lucian was there, offering words of comfort as the hours stretched on, seemingly endless.

“It won’t be much longer now,” Lucian said reassuringly, sitting beside Rhiannon on the bed and resting his hand lightly on her shoulder. She stared curiously at his hand, not sure why the gesture hurt more than comforted.

“It’s been nearly twelve hours,” Rohan groaned, running his hands through his slightly graying hair, his eyes meeting his friend’s. “When Rhiannon was born, it took half that. Something must be wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong, twelve hours is still fairly normal,” Lucian insisted, motioning with his eyes to Rhiannon so Rohan wouldn’t alarm her. “Everything will be fine.”

Nodding but still anxious, Rohan began pacing again. He stopped in his tracks as a sudden loud, shrieking cry pierced through the stone walls, echoing down the corridor and filling the castle. Alarmed, he whirled around, his eyes frantic. “What was that?”

Lucian grinned, standing up to pat his friend on the back. “That’s probably your new daughter.”

Rohan looked dumbfounded. “But…” He glanced at Rhiannon, who was sitting patiently and quietly on the bed, watching him. He was about to remind Lucian that when Rhiannon had been born there had been no shrieking cry. But then he realized that his daughter was just unique that way. In fact, now that he thought of it, had he ever really heard or seen his little girl cry?

His thoughts were disrupted as Thea suddenly walked in, a pink bundle in her arms. She smiled at Rohan and handed him the baby, wiping the sweat from her brow, clearly exhausted.

“Mom and the baby are both fine,” Thea assured him, watching as he held his new daughter. She noted he seemed distracted and unsure, and that he kept looking at Rhiannon instead of the new baby.

“I want to see my wife,” he said, pushing the baby back into Thea’s arms. “She might need me.”

He left the room swiftly, leaving Thea and Lucian alone with the baby and Rhiannon.

Sighing, Thea met eyes with Lucian. “Let me guess. He’s worried because this time it took twice as long to deliver the baby as it had the first time?”

Lucian smiled and nodded. “I tried to tell him that twelve hours isn’t all that odd, but he worries nonetheless.”

Shaking her head, Thea turned to face Rhiannon. “Would you like to meet your new sister?”

The little girl nodded, waiting good-naturedly for Thea to take a seat beside her and to shift the baby up so she could see.

“This is Sierra. She is a Muse, like your mother.”

Rhiannon looked, but did not touch. The first thing she noticed was that she had blonde hair, the same color as their mother’s. Jealousy over that settled dully in her stomach. And when the baby opened her eyes, they were the same clear blue as Serendipity’s. Rhiannon’s heart ached.

She knew she should be happy about having a little sister, but instead she felt confused and hurt.

Awhile later, Rohan led Rhiannon in to see her mother and told her to sit in the wooden chair beside the bed. He had the baby in his arms and went to give her to his wife.

“I’m too exhausted to hold the baby, Rohan. Set her in the crib under the window, that’s what it’s there for,” Serendipity snapped, reaching for a cold compress to put over her aching temple. Labor had given her an intense headache.

He paused and eyed her as if seeing her for the first time.

“You wouldn’t hold Rhiannon either,” he murmured, more to himself than to her, as he straightened and turned away, gently placing the baby in the wooden crib. He looked down at his new daughter, wondering what his prim and proper wife would do if he just started shouting at her and screaming all the things he’d wanted to say for the last several years, to release all his frustration in one giant tirade. But he knew he couldn’t, especially not with Rhiannon in the room. He would be reserved and courteous as always, and keep his comments to himself.

But part of him, somewhere deep inside the locked doors of his heart, began to wonder what it was about Serendipity that kept him bound as if by chains, unable to ever break free.

“I’m a knight, come to save the three princesses from evil!”

“Nuh uh, Liam, I’m not a princess!” Blythe challenged, rearing up to her fullest height, chest puffed out arrogantly. “I’m a witch, but a good one, who uses her powers to also save the helpless princesses!”

“Then we ride together on horses, across the land to get to the castle where the princesses are being held hostage!” Liam pranced around as if on horseback, with Blythe behind him making appropriate galloping noises.

Under the cool, dappled shade of a nearby tree, Rhiannon sat on a white blanket with Capri, braiding flowers into crowns.

She watched Blythe and Liam race around the courtyard, confronting imaginary enemies and battling them with pretend weaponry, crying out war chants as they went.

She was content to rest in the shade with Capri, who was nestled in her lap and leaning against her chest comfortably, her little fingers playing with one of the pink flowers. Around them, the day was sunny and beautiful, as always.

Liam pretended to gallop toward where they were sitting, a big grin on his face. “Don’t worry, princesses, we will save you!” he declared before racing off to fight a battle Blythe was engaged in.

Capri giggled and pointed after Liam, looking up at Rhiannon with bright eyes. “Hero!” she called out, her expression adoring and sweet.

Rhiannon smiled in return, pressing a neat kiss to the top of Capri’s head. “Yes, Liam is our hero.”

On impulse, she hugged Capri, relishing in the simplicity of the love she felt for her. She’d never been affectionate with anyone before, but with Capri it was easy and came naturally.

She spotted a little boy walking toward them, about Liam’s age, his chin held so high in the air it almost appeared as though he were looking up at something. But in reality, he was staring down his nose at everything in his path. He approached Liam and Blythe, who both whirled around.

“Hi there!” Blythe greeted, racing toward the newcomer excitedly. “Who are you?”

Liam followed her, coming to a stop in front of the new boy, not quite as excited as Blythe was. Being the only male Dryad made him naturally protective of the girls and defensive when it came to other boys being around.

The newcomer sneered at Blythe, his sandy colored cap of hair glinting bronze in the sunlight. He was about Liam’s height, but rail thin with knobby knees and expensive, formal looking clothing. His hair was combed neatly to the side, not a strand out of place, and his dark blue shorts were pressed and stark against his pristine white button-up shirt.

Rhiannon thought his face looked as though he’d tasted something sour, because his nose and mouth puckered together and his light eyebrows creased over his eyes in distaste.

“My name is Michael,” he announced, adding as much authority to his voice as he could. “My father is an Enforcer. We are here on business. Who are you?”

“I’m Blythe,” she greeted, although she was looking at the boy as if he were an alien. “So you’re a human?”

“Thankfully. I would hate to be a freak like you.”

She wasn’t used to someone being unabashedly mean to her and she almost missed the context of his comment. But when Liam jolted forward defensively, they all understood what he had meant.

“We are not freaks!” Liam shouted, glaring at the boy angrily.

Michael just smiled haughtily, as if these simpletons had no clue just how superior he was to them.

“You keep telling yourself that, but it doesn’t change anything,” he huffed, rolling his eyes.

“So you don’t have any powers?” Blythe asked inquisitively, her hands on her hips as she stared him down.

He responded to her question with a glare. “I can shoot a gun.”

“What’s a gun?”

Again, he rolled his eyes. “Too important for you to understand.”

“You know what I can do?” She grinned wickedly as she stalked right up to him, getting in his face. She was shorter than him, but daring all the same. She saw him retreat slightly, clearly unnerved by her. “I can shoot fire out of my hands.”

“So?” he responded, attempting to sneer again even though there was fear in his eyes.

“So, you wanna see?” she taunted, holding up her hands, palms facing him.

“
Don’t!
” he shrieked, backing away and tripping over his own feet, falling to the ground. “I’ll tell my father on you!”

Blythe doubled over with laughter, and Liam joined in, both amused by the terrified expression on Michael’s face.

“You’re gonna run and tell your daddy?” Blythe teased with a grin.

“Shut up!” Scrambling to his feet, Michael lunged toward Blythe, only to have Liam intersect him and push him back to the ground.

“Go away!” Liam shouted, his chest heaving, anger taking control of him.

From beneath the tree, Rhiannon watched the whole scene unfold. Seeing Liam so valiantly defend them all excited her for reasons she couldn’t explain. He really was a hero.

Michael brushed at his pants as he sat on the ground, looking humiliated and furious. His eyes shot over and landed on Rhiannon and Capri, who sat in silence beneath the tree.

“What are you looking at?” he snarled, getting to his feet. “You’re all nothing but freaks!”