Page 14 of My Eternal Light

“How many of you are there?”

“Twenty. There are usually fifteen, but the new set was born last year. That’s how I know they would be coming soon. The babies are about a year old. The bad men make sure the babies make it to one, then take all the older ones.”

“Where are your mothers?” Aiden asked in a gentle voice.

Aralea shook her head. “We don’t remember them. We are brought here as babies.” She pointed to the oldest looking children. “From my set we are Aeron, Aiya, Artis and Angel. Then the ten-year-olds. Brin, Brea, Bo, Blythe and Bryer. The five-year-olds are Cana, Cael, Cody, Cleo and Crue. And then the babies. Dane, Dariel, Dillon, Dion and Damira.” She rested her cheek on her knee. “The next set will be ‘A’ names since we’ll be gone. We don’t know who has what mother or father, so we just claim each other.”

The small girl in Brie’s arms tapped her cheek. “Are you ten? You have a ‘B’ name. I’m five so my name is Cleo.”

Brie shook her head. “I haven’t been ten in a while. I’m like that three times over.”

“You can get that old?” the small girl asked in with a sense of wonder.

Brie smiled mischievously and pointed to Darian. “Fae live for thousands of years, he’s like fifteen-thousand years old or something.”

“I am not. I haven’t even hit my six-thousandth year yet,” Darian protested.

Aralea shuddered. “I used to fear dying when I was small. But, recently I was looking forward to it.” She closed her eyes. “The thought of living that long scares me more than death.”

“Let Meryn introduce you to anime and chocolate, then maybe a few extra years won’t seem so bad,” Brie said, warmly.

Aralea opened her eyes. “Is she the one that said, ‘yello’ and set this man’s car on fire?”

“Yup.”

“She sounds fun.”

“She is.”

Aralea frowned. “What’s a car?”

Kincaid rocked back and forth. “Something you have plenty of time to learn about. But, to give you context, it’s something you sit in as a way to get around faster.”

“Oh. Okay,” Aralea said.

Kincaid could see she had no idea what he was talking about.

Behind him the same girl from before walked up and tried to pass him her blanket wrapped sibling.

Scrambling so as to not drop either baby, he simply sat and held them both in his lap. “What’s wrong, hun?”

She pointed down. “His face is getting red. He’s either about to cry or poop. If he cries it’s because his tummy is hurting,” she explained.

“What are your names?”

“I’m Cana and this is Dane.”

“I’m Kincaid.”

“Your hair ain’t yellow.”

“That’s because I’m a witch and not fae.”

“You look human.”

He nodded. “We do.”

“You have hair on your face.”