As I watched her fidget and rock in place, I thought perhaps this was the right time to start that something real. So, I walked off the porch toward her. The moment my feet hit the grass, her aura slammed into me like I’d walked into a wall of seaweed in the ocean. It was thick, tense, and itched my skin everywhere it touched me. That feeling removed any doubt I had in approaching her.

I wasn’t surprised when her back straightened a good twenty feet before I got to her. She’d sensed my approach. Yet she waited to glance over her shoulder until I was a few feet away. Her eyes were tense, but she plastered on a fake smile as I stopped beside her. “Hey, Frankie.”

“Hey, Saber,” I said in my most cheerful voice as I crouched down to pet my dogs lying between us. “Mind if I join y’all?”

“Yeah, of course. I just thought they needed the attention.” She ruffled Squishy’s fur and little embers fell to the grass. “They can feel it too.”

I sighed but then Houdini crawled into my lap and that pressure on my chest lightened ever so slightly. “I wish my furbabies were fire-doggos too, then I’d be less worried about them.”

She chuckled. “Maybe Everest can think of something for them.”

“Yeah . . .” I watched her face. There was something bothering her, and now that I’d noticed it, I couldn’t shake it. I cleared my throat and scanned the backyard to make sure we were still alone. “Well, your father does seem to have a few tricks up his sleeve.”

She gasped and sat up straight. Those red and hazel-gold eyes were so wide I saw the whites all the way around them. “What did you say?” she whispered.

“You heard me.” I turned toward her, which was difficult with Houdini in my lap, but it was important to look her in the face for this conversation. I gave her a small smile. “He told me the truth, that you’re his biological daughter.”

Her jaw dropped.

“He also said your mother was his wife and that she died a long, long time ago,” I added softly. “I hope it’s okay that he told me. I admit, I may have cornered him because I accidentally heard your conversation about making him promise not to sacrifice himself for me⁠—”

“Oh, God.” She groaned and pressed a hand to her stomach. “Frankie, listen⁠—”

“No.” I leaned over Houdini and squeezed the hand not on her stomach. “You have nothing to apologize for, Saber. You two have been waiting a thousand years for this freedom . . . You deserve to have each other on the other side of this war. I don’t want to come between that, or between the two of you.”

“Frankie . . .”