“That’s right. My sparkly,” Mina said. “Mother? Papa? There isn’t anything to fix. Pixit hatched, and we’re bonded.” She tried to say it firmly, the way Mother spoke when she needed them to do their chores. Mina didn’t want to argue. And I’m not arguing, she thought. I’m just telling them the way it is. He hatched, and that’s that. He’s mine, and I’m his.

Mother and Papa were both staring at Mina now too, and Mina wished she could swallow back the words. This wasn’t how she’d pictured this moment. Her family was supposed to be happy. Her egg had hatched! She had a storm beast! She wished she could think of what to say that would make them see everything was all right.

“Mina, sweetie, we just don’t want you to be unhappy,” Papa said.

Why wouldn’t they listen to her? “But I’m not—”

Before she could finish, Rinna, who didn’t understand what was happening except that everyone was upset, began to wail. “I don’t want Mina to be sad! That makes me sad!”

And that set Beon off wailing too. Great, fat tears rolled down his cheeks, and he screamed even louder than his sister, which was impressively loud. In Mina’s lap, Pixit stirred. «Loud sound.»

Sorry, Mina thought at him.

«They don’t like me?»

They don’t know you. You just surprised them, that’s all.

«Do you like me?» He sounded so forlorn.

“Like” wasn’t even the right word. Mina felt as tangled up with Pixit as a kite string. She’d known him only a handful of minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. Yes, she told him, and she tried to put every ounce of her love into that word. But it’s more than just “like” or “love.” We belong together. Two pieces of a whole.

He purred, his eyes wide. The white zigzags in his pupils shimmered as if they held bits of lightning.

Looking up, Mina noticed that her family was still talking. “. . . send a message balloon to the capital, and let them sort the mess out. It has to have happened before,” Mother was saying. “She can’t be the first with an unsuitable beast. Surely they won’t punish us for a faulty egg. Let another child endanger herself, playing in thunderstorms far away from home. Not mine.”

Mina gaped at her. A message to the capital! But she wanted this! She wanted to train and be a guardian—​it was what she’d wanted her entire life! She might not have known she’d hatch a lightning beast, but that didn’t matter. She and Pixit belonged together! They were going to do great things!