Thia wrinkled her nose. “It is fun toying with new people. But back to your question, while it is rare for Andarions to adopt, it’s not unheard of. Again, it has to be initiated by a female who is willing to bring the child into her lineage… it’s why I’m still allowed to be princess even though I’m a bastard.”

“Thia!” Hauk snapped. “You would make Kiara cry with that statement, and rile your father.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s true and we all know it. While my grandmother has been extremely loving and accepting of me, I see how she looks at Zarina.”

“Zarina is an infant,” Hauk growled.

“And she looks Andarion. Fully.”

Hauk paused. “Is that what’s been bothering you?”

Sumi saw the tears in Thia’s eyes before she blinked them away.

“Forget I said anything.”

Hauk started for her, but Sumi held her hand up to stop him.

“Why don’t you two go on ahead and let us catch up in a few?”

Hauk considered it for several minutes before he nodded. “Illyse, stay with Thia.” Then he motioned for Darice to follow him.

Sumi gave them a decent head start before they resumed their trek. “Zarina is your sister?”

She nodded. “I love her. But she’s so strange-looking with her Andarion eyes and thick black hair and claws. None of my brothers were born like that. They all look human.”

“Does it bother you that she’s Andarion in appearance?”

“No.” She brushed at a tear that fell down her cheek.

“Thia? What is it?”

More tears fell as her lips quivered. “Since she was born, I get so jealous sometimes that I want to lash out and hurt her, and I hate myself for it. She doesn’t deserve that from me. Like Hauk said, she’s just a baby.”

Sumi couldn’t follow the girl’s logic. “Jealous of what?”

“Everything.” Sobbing, Thia held her hands up to her eyes as if she were physically trying to stop her tears. “It was bad watching my father and stepmother with my brothers. Seeing what life was supposed to be like. You know?” She ground her teeth. “It just rams home how wrong my childhood was, and makes me so mad at my mother for her part in it, that I want to go back and confront her for it. Why did she have to sleep with my father and then, knowing she’s pregnant with me, marry his stepbrother, who hated him? Really! Why would she do that? Aksel was such a sick, demented bastard. I don’t understand why she didn’t gut him the first year they were married and save us both years of misery.”

“Oh, Thia. Pray that you never understand that fear.”

“How do you mean?”