Secrets of the Great Oak

Chapter 47

The vulnerability in her voice caused Anna's tears to fall at last and close the last bit of distance between her and her sister. Crying, they embraced each other and sank on their knees to the floor.

The hug was a mess of fabric, hair, and tears as the sisters held each other for the first time in six years. Anna didn't pay Jake or Elas any mind as she wept and wept and wept. Both pain and healing happening in her heart at the same time.

She was angry and ecstatic and broken and mending and elated and woeful all at the same time. Her feelings felt like a hurricane reigning chaos within her heart.

Nothing else mattered.

Maggie was here.

And alive.

And safe.

"Hi," Anna choked out after who knows how long. Maggie was brushing damp hair back from Anna's face. Coal ran down her sister's cheeks, but Maggie didn't seem to care what she looked like at the moment.

"Hi," Maggie said again. This time her voice was even less steady.

She began to rise and offered a hand to Anna, but Jake was there, helping her up before she could think to take it. He seemed to be trying to school his features into that calm again, but couldn't hide the hint of anger that lay there. Not from Anna, anyway: the person who knew him best in the world.

Anna refocused her gaze on Maggie as Elas came up and encircled his wife's waist with a strong arm.

"This is Elas, my... my husband." Elas released his grip on Maggie to extend his hand to Anna. She wondered if this was a common way for people to greet princes or if he was used to being bowed to.

"Elas, it's nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you in the dreams Maggie's sent me." Anna took his hand and shook it with as much strength as she could muster. "This is Jake, my... umm..." She looked back at Jake for help. She wasn't quite sure what to call him.

"Lover?" Jake began from behind her. Anna immediately turned red."Mate? Boyfriend? Captivator of your heart? Love of your life? The future father of your beautiful future children?" She turned and swatted him in the arm as he reached for her. "None of those? Friends with benefits, then?" She laughed with him before he added, "many benefits." That earned him another swat. But, his joke made the tension in the room evaporate and she appreciated him for it. Maggie and Elas joined in the laughter.

"Okay, stop!" She begged Jake, turning back to face Maggie and Elas. "We're romantically together." And with a look over her shoulder, she added, "Happy?"

"You do realize you just suggested that I'm romantic, don't you?" Jake arched an eyebrow as he teased her again. Anna rolled her eyes and let out a dramatic sigh as she gave Maggie and Elas a pleading look that set them laughing again.

"Mates?" Elas said as he reached for Jake's hand, "How lucky you are to have found each other, especially in the human realm." Anna could tell that his words were genuine. Mates were fairly rare. Even rarer if your mate was a human. Seeing as how humans don't often venture into Traverra. For her and Jake to have grown up next to each other and fallen in love before they knew they were mates... It was improbable, to say the least.

"That's what I keep telling her," Jake reached for Anna's hand and brought it up to his lips. She just smiled and shook her head, but didn't pull her hand away.

"I wondered when you'd fall in love with each other," Maggie said sweetly.

Jake just grinned down at Anna. "It was only a matter of time." She grinned right back up at him. "So, I think your lunch is getting cold." Jake gestured to the still steaming silver trays. "Or not." Probably kept warm by magic, Anna thought.