Page 82 of Rage of Her Ravens
“What?” Shirina gasped. “Why didn’t you go to the cave?”
“We did, but it was too scary there, and we were hungry,” the girl with the longer hair answered as she grabbed a pillow off the bed, clutching it to her chest. I realized she no longer had her ugly straw doll. She must’ve lost it. I would make it a point to replace it with a much better doll.
“Nobody was there,” the other child said. “Not even the chickens and the dogs.”
The other girl nodded, her eyes wide with fright. “And then the bad man came.”
“Who?” Shirina asked, the fear in her voice palpable.
“Thorin!” both girls cried in unison.
Fire raced through my veins. The mind spinner. The one who Derrick and Flora had called to steal my mate’s memories.
“Oh, girls.” Shirina hugged them both to her chest, kissing their foreheads. “Did he say anything to you?”
I suddenly remembered Ember had the longer hair. She was the more shy of the two who always clutched her doll. Aurora had the shorter hair. She was the one with teleporting abilities. How could I have forgotten?
“He asked about Yaya,” Ember said while wiping her nose with the back of her hand, smearing grime and snot across her face.
Shirina slid the girls onto the bed and quickly strode to the nearby table. She grabbed a cloth and dipped it in a pitcher of water, using it to wipe the girls’ faces like a tender and devoted mother. My chest warmed while thinking of her nurturing her own children, my brothers’ children, and if I could be so lucky, mine, too.
“What did you tell him?” she asked, frowning while she picked grime out of their hair.
“We didn’t tell him anything.” Aurora shivered, wrapping her thin arms around herself. “He scared me, and I dropped the lamp.”
Shirina’s mouth fell open. “You lit a lamp?” she asked the girls as she draped a throw blanket around Aurora’s shoulders.
Aurora hung her head. “It was dark.”
“The house was smoking,” Ember said, “so we came here.”
Shirina knelt in front of the children, grasping their hands. “I don’t care about the house. I’m just glad you’re okay.” She stood and hugged them again, tears streaming down her face. “I was so worried about you!”
“You’re squishing me, Auntie!” Aurora cried.
But Shirina didn’t let go. If anything, she clutched them harder. Her love for them stirred something in me, perhaps a memory, perhaps a longing, for my mother used to hold me like that. These children didn’t realize how lucky they were to have Shirina. And now the queen I served wanted to kill the girls’ own mother. How was I supposed to serve Malvolia now?
I got up from the bed and crossed to the other side of the room when I heard a knock on the door. I ushered in two nurses, younger women of mostly human descent with dark hair tied back in simple braids and wearing clean, white aprons. I motioned toward their patient on the bed.
“He was struck in the head,” I murmured. “Tend to his wound and keep him comfortable while I send for a green witch.”
They both curtsied. “Yes, My Lord.”
“I’m hungry,” Ember whined, squirming in her aunt’s arms. “Aurora’s porridge was hard.”
“Uncle Nikkos said we get tarts,” Aurora said with a grunt while struggling out of her aunt’s embrace.
Shirina finally released them.
“And tea that isn’t stale,” Ember added.
Stale tea? What kind of childhood had these children been forced to endure? And Shirina had probably never known comforts, living far below her station in squalor. All that would change now they were at Abyssus. I remembered the shack they had called their home and was honestly surprised they’d had tea at all.
“The servants brought some food.” Shirina motioned toward the table with the small repast the servants had prepared just for her.
Aurora scratched the back of her head. “Are there tarts?”
I cleared my throat. “That isn’t enough food.” I nodded toward the door. “Let’s go down to the dining hall. We’ll get you filling meals.”