Until Fate

Chapter Thirteen

Phina's eyes closed and she puckered her soft rose bud lips. I smiled as I stared at her lovely face. I held the world in my hands holding her face in my palms. I planted a kiss on her forehead, her temple, her high cheeks, her button nose, and lastly her stubborn chin. She opened her stunning eyes and grinned at me with a childlike innocence.

"Dinner is done, guys." Klaus was behind us. Since the girls knew the truth about our mortality, he had aged his face back to a youthful man. His age was anywhere from early to mid-twenties, no later. The absence of wrinkles, laugh lines, and the few strands of gray hair was startling. I was used to thinking of my best friend as an older man. Now he was back to being the crazy, inappropriate college guy. Phina seemed to notice the change; she kept eyeballing his face as if he had grown a horn. He resembled Brad Pitt even more now.

I grasped her small hand in mine and led her into the kitchen. The food was laid out on the table with lit candles in the center and gold rimmed china plates.

"Wow, this looks wonderful, girls." I complimented and scanned the room.

"Yeah, with no help from you guys." Maya snickered.

Klaus elbowed her. She smacked his arm and he caught her hand. He let them fall to their sides, but they were still holding hands. Klaus' face was unreadable. Maya was puzzled. Phina smirked in my direction and wiggled her eyebrows at me. I chuckled softly and shook my head.

The doorbell rang and I left the room to answer it. Lucy was pushing John Ethan who was in a wheel chair. Cassie waved; she was standing next to her best friend. I grinned, "Thanks for coming."

Phina marched behind me and I heard her gasp, "Dad! Mom! Cassie! How are you here?"

They both gazed at me and I shuffled my feet, glancing at the floor. Phina was beaming up at me astonished. She rose on her tippy toes to kiss my cheek.

"Thank you so much." She whispered somberly.

"Mom, Dad, this is Cael." Phina introduced.

My stomach sunk and I managed, "We've already met."

"Oh," Phina smiled eagerly and called the squad in to meet them.

"Phina's knows we've known all along?" Lucy whispered to me.

I shrugged, "I suppose so. She's taking this too well."

Maybe she's waiting until later to rip into me about that. I never mentioned that her father could sense me or that Klaus and I had been known to the family for years. But she acted as if she knew, perhaps Assyria told her. Either way, I was grateful to have that off my chest. I didn't want any more lies between us.

We all sat down at Phina's table and had to squish in a few more chairs for the added guests. Maya seemed content with her mother on her left and Klaus conveniently sitting on her right. Cassie kept gazing at Klaus and then at her daughter. I assumed she was quickly realizing that they were (sort of) an item. She didn't appear upset, but merely curious and interested. The squad sat together with Antony and Syri obviously sitting side by side. We passed the trays and bowls of food down the line; plucking what we wanted from each.

John Ethan and Lucy sat at either end of the table as the head patriarch and matriarch. They kept grinning at each other from across the long table. Their silent flirting caught my eye. I admired their passionate relationship. Even though he was sick and she was weary, their love knew no bounds or limits. I glanced at Phina whose lips spread into a smile when she noticed me watching her. Either she was really mad and was good at acting fake or she was slowly accepting everything.