Broken Souls

49

Maya sat on the couch, staring up at the four daggers displayed on the wall. Her head tilted, wondering why they displayed such items. They distracted her from the book in her lap she was using to pass the time until the cookies she baked with Sol cooled down. She adjusted rather quickly to her new home. She loved spending time with all her new parents, Uncle Kai and Aunt Rebekah.

Her mind was slowly understanding more what Solène meant about having too much love for one person. She loved each and every one of her new family members. Maya loved having multiple dads. It would be a lie if she said she wasn't excited for Christmas or her birthday. Getting gifts from all of them made her impatient for the gift worthy holidays. However, her favorite part of her new family was all the love they showed her everyday.

Uncle Kai getting her milkshakes and having a new story to share. Aunt Rebekah was constantly taking her out for new clothes to help develop a new style for her. Solène and Finn were constantly including her in their baking adventures in-between Nik showing her the beauty of art; letting her try her hand at painting on his big canvases. Sol already had an albums worth of photos of Maya standing on her stool to paint using Nik's easel. Elijah had begun giving her piano lessons while Kol's lesson leaned more into mostly harmless pranks.

Maya smiled, her heart feeling fuzzy with all the memories swirling around her head. She wanted to stay her forever. The way her family stood up for her while she was in trouble with the school really solidified that fact for her. This was her forever family and nothing could ever change that.

"Hey, honey bun." Sol sat next to her with a plate of cookies. "What're you thinking so hard about?"

Maya straightened up, somehow embarrassed to admit how happy she was with her current life, so she backtracked her thoughts to her original one. "Why do we have those daggers on the wall?" She used her little hand to point to them. The young witch looked at them, displayed in a sort of addition sign with a family photo in the center. A subtle middle finger to those who understood the meaning behind the daggers.

"Well, your dads are collectors of sorts. These daggers were created almost a thousand years ago, so we finally decided to put them on display." Wrapping an arm around Maya, she sets the plate of cookies into her lap.

"Are you gonna put more pictures up?" Her eyes trained on the one in the center. Everybody was all dressed up, Sol wearing her red ball down next to Aunt Rebekah in a gorgeous green one. The men surrounding the women to properly fit in the frame.

"So many more, honey bun. Soon, you'll be up there, too. The wall will grow as we grow. What do you think?"

Maya hummed as she thought about her answer. She felt fuzzy again at the idea of joining everyone else up there on the wall. Her mind was stuck on Sol saying "as the family grows."

"Am I going to have siblings?" She wondered aloud. It was obvious that Solène tensed beside her, which let her mind go wild. The older woman quickly regained her composure and rubbed Maya's arm. "That's something we would discuss with everybody, honey bun. You have as much say as the rest of us. Having a sibling would affect you, too. If you want all our love to yourself, you got it, baby. However, if you think you've got room in that big heart of yours for some siblings, you let us know, okay? We would never make a decision without you." Placing a kiss on her child's head, she finally handed the girl a cookie. "We should eat these before everybody else smells them and comes running," she whispered conspiratorially to the girl who began to giggle.

"Did Papa Finn get any?" She asked since the man did participate in the baking.

Sol smiled. "Yep, he got his share. What book did you pick today?" Looking at the thicker book in her lap. Maya's reading level was higher than your typical kid her age. It helped that Elijah had grown a vast library over the centuries. However, her tastes in literature leaned away from the classics he collected. She flew through the Percy Jackson series and had moved onto the Beautiful Creatures series.

"This is the the first one," Maya half closed the book to show the cover. "Beautiful Creatures" written across the front. "I like this one. Lena's family is really fun to read, and all the magic happening is really cool!"

Sol wanted to ask more questions, but Kol plopped onto the couch on the other side of Maya. "I thought I smelled cookies." He nabbed one off the plate. "You know she made these for me the second time I met her?" Maya's eyes were practically sparkling at the new information.

"Kol, I made them for everyone. You tried to keep them all to yourself, if I recall." She tilted her head at the man with a teasing smile.

"Well, it was the first time a lady had made sweets for me to enjoy. Perhaps I was excited. That's not even mentioning how good a baker your mother is. Wait until you try her muffins, Pumpkin. They're to kill for." He leaned towards the girl mischievously.

"Kol!" Solène chided.

Maya just giggled and corrected him. "It's to die for, Papa Kol. Not kill for."

"Oh, is it, smarty pants? We'll see who's right." He wiggled his fingers at her, showing her what's coming. She gasped and jumped up from the couch, dashing past Solène who was chuckling at the situation before her. "You can run, Pumpkin, but you can't hide!" He laughed, stalking out of the room to find his little girl.

It only took a couple minutes before she could hear Maya laughing her heart out up stairs. Solène's heart swelled at the sound. She wanted to hear it forever, and she supposed she would if she was to give each of her mates a child. Only is Maya was okay with having siblings. It was a big discussion everyone needed to be involved in. Unfortunately, there seemed to be other things that needed handled first before they could really think about actively having a child. Bringing back Freya was something she needed to talk to her family about, and Joshua was still out there with a lethal vendetta against Kai.

She knew the enemies would probably never stop, but she was only worried about the bigger fish, the Gemini Coven leader, for example. The rest weren't worth getting stressed over. All of the bigger villains were all ready either taken care of, or completely avoided. All she needed to do, was help Kai get rid of his evil father, and reunite Freya with her family.