Makatza, Nilsa, and Vanya should be back from their patrol shift soon, so I skip the stairs and mist into the lower levels. One step and I go from my room to smelling broth and roasted chicken. The mess hall is one of the bigger caves in the mountain, holding three long tables in its center. The dusk sunlight streams in from the long horizontal crevice on one side of the room, lanterns line the walls, and candles sit on the tables in preparation for dinner. It's dim and always makes me sleepy when night falls, but with my sisters being gone from the entirety of the day, this is the first place they'll mist into.
Right on time, three forms appear out of thin air in front of the table with the night's soup. The others in the room are used to us misting that they don't give more than a quick glance at them. I'm half tempted to mist right beside one of them just to see them jump, but I bite down on the rising power in my veins and walk to the cloaked forms.
Mak's red-orange hair is tied up in her usual high ponytail, the length of her hair falling just below her shoulder blades. She could easily change the color and length with her shapeshifting abilities, but she's always kept to her amber eyes, bright hair, and light skin. She says that shifting sometimes causes her to forget who or what she's become, and her birth form isn't one she wants to forget.
Vanya's eyes are the same shade as Mak's hair, and I've always thought she looks more phoenix than any bird Mak could shift into. Her dirty blonde hair just makes those eyes pop out even more. Men have been known to walk right into brick walks because she looked at them. It only gets worse when she duplicates, and then there are ten pairs of those eyes pulling you into a stupor. If she's in the room, we often find ourselves talking to one of her duplicates instead of the actual Vanya. I've since learned to sense the differences, but it's still unsettling.
"You look like you could use a trip to Histra's inns," Nilsa says as I approach them. Her dark eyes scan me up and down, likely scanning for where I'm the tensest. She doesn't have the bright characteristics of the rest of us, but she's the most dangerous of us all. Her name means champion, and there's no better name than that to describe her. Trained by a military father, she can take anyone on and stay true to her name.
"We all do," Vanya chimes. She plops a large spoonful of chicken into her bowl before heading off to the nearest open spot.
"Updates-"
"Uggghhhh! Can't we eat before you start peppering us with questions and orders?" Mak takes her bowl that's filled to the brim and drops down on the bench. "I'm hungry."
I fall the seat across from her, Nilsa gently placing herself beside me. "How about you tell me while you eat."
"Fine, but don't yell at me if I end up spitting broth all over your leathers."
"I won't. I'll just make you wash them."
"Witch."
"Updates. Now." I let them sit and eat for a few minutes, knowing that they'll likely cut off my head out of their hunger. I would.
"Everyone in the cabin is still alive and scaring away the creatures with their squeals and loud whining that never ends," Nilsa reports, letting the other two get a chance to drink more soup. She's basically the big sister of our group. Always giving us more rations, more advice, and the shoulder we don't want but need to cry on. I may be the Lady One, but I find myself more than once a day following her rather than the opposite.
"I don't know why we're still monitoring them," she complains. Again. "If the creatures don't scare a passersby, then the screaming ought to do the trick." The other two grunt their agreements. If only they were there when I was telling Willa all of this two days ago.
YOU ARE READING
Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)
FantasyA kingdom across the sea, a man in pain clawing at a hated king who bears two shadows who protect him. A child, born from a mother with the powers of the Gods, screaming at a blood-soaked bed. A boy, a Prince, kind and full of the flame of life, sit...
