Daughter of Tide and Illusion

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Elys got up just once during the night, waking Lyv from her slumber enough to unwrap her arms from around him, needing to go to the bathing room. Posy had curled herself up against her neck when they went to bed and didn't even move when she shifted to let him up. As soon as he did, Lyv was fast asleep once more.

She didn't even notice he never made it back to their bed until she woke up earlier than she would have liked. Posy had fallen in between the pillows, her head sticking out from the bottom, but she was at least still breathing. The sheets beside her were cold, though, and panic rushed through her as Lyv sat up. Her eyes first went to the bathing room door, finding it open, and then swept the room before finding the second bed.

Elys had walked himself, half-asleep, to the wrong bed. Little did he know the move would leave Lyv's heart stumbling in her chest.

The little boy had curled himself up against Jai, fitting in the place between his arm and side, his head in the crook of his shoulder. Who knew if Jai had actually been awake when Elys laid down beside him, but he wrapped his arm around him and they were still sound asleep as if they'd been like that all night.

Lyv wanted to forever lock that image in her memory. Barely half a week and Elys had grown close to Jai, which she had absolutely no opposition to. With so many males in Elys's life having abused him before Lyv saved him, she thought he'd be skittish around all others. At first, he had been, especially with Moswen in the village they'd stayed at while he recovered. Anytime a male would reach for him with absolutely no intention of hurting him, he would shrink away and start to cry. It took weeks for him to not hide himself behind Lyv.

Even so, he was always cautious around males he didn't know...until Gideon walked back into their lives in Ajolak. Elys had seen Gideon in his visions, how he would grow close to him as well. And then with Jai...Mother above, it was something completely different. It was an instantaneous, otherworldly connection between them and, of course, both Lyv and Jai knew why.

Lyv thought seeing them playing around together the day before made her heart full. Now, seeing them both asleep, Elys curled up in the crook of Jai's arm with his mouth open slightly and Jai's head turned toward him, that's what did her in.

Grabbing her bag and tip-toeing to the bathing room, she left both boys and the pixie to sleep.

After brushing her hair and teeth and washing her face, Lyv braided her hair as she typically did when there would be a full day of flying, pulling it over her shoulder whenever she was done to tie it at the bottom. She then changed out of her nightclothes to pull on her leather riding pants and tight white shirt she wore tucked into it. She wasn't going to put on her leather jacket until they were about to leave.

Keeping her bag slung over her shoulder, Lyv crept out into the room, seeing Elys and Jai still sleeping, but Posy was now awake. When she saw Lyv appear, she jumped up and flew over to land on her shoulder.

They found themselves down in the kitchen then as Lyv grabbed the two giant slabs of meat Tahmuras had the butcher bring for the dragons. As she carried it out to the backyard where Roshan and Erly were sleeping, the smell woke them both. They stretched out their bodies and unfurled their wings to full span before tucking them back in.

"Well, good morning, you two," she grinned, setting down the meat in front of them. "You'll have to thank Tahmuras before we go for being so good to you. You didn't even have to go out of the city to find your meals."

Erly took the time to eat, but Roshan immediately snatched it up, chewed, and swallowed. He hummed happily as he then curled himself around Lyv. Posy grinned as she landed on top of his head.