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Perhaps that was why she was staring anxiously out the window, watching for any sign of their return from the hunt. It was very nearly time to leave. Sacks were prepared with packages of carefully smoked meat, and gourds had been painfully hollowed, cleaned, and filled with water, each bottle corked in preparation for departure. Seeing the supplies reassured her that they wouldn’t simply just disappear into the woods one day like her husband had and never return. Logically, she knew it was silly to worry about such things when they swore that they would never leave her, but when her husband disappeared, she would have sworn that he would have been back that evening. It was difficult to trust that they would return to her, even though she reminded herself that they wouldn’t leave their supplies.

“All done,” Lily announced, startling her from her reverie.

“Hmmm?” She looked over at her daughter curiously, her brows rising at the overstuffed bag at Lily’s feet. “What is that?”

Lily gave her a quizzical look as she played absently with the feather tied into her hair. “My stuff, of course. We’re going to be going soon, right? That means everything needs to be packed. My daddies were packing things during the night and loadingthe cart so that we can leave today, but I wanted to pack my own things.” She gave the room a curious glance. “Haven’t you been packing, momma?”

“Yes, of course,” Delilah murmured.

She had thought that she’d been making good progress getting the kitchen and living room squared away, but now she was ashamed that she hadn’t noticed how much the Atlavans were doing while she slept.

She smiled reassuring at Lily. “There’s just a little left to pack up here and then I will go see what I want to pack in my room.” She hesitated. Her bedroom and all the memories of everything contained within it had been a task she had been putting off for far too long. “Perhaps you should go into my room and see if you can find a keepsake from your father that you want. We won’t be able to take all of daddy’s things with us. But it is good to have something to remember daddy by so we can hold him close.”

She could pretend for her daughter’s sake.

Lily shrugged. “That is what daddy Agrel said. He said that it’s important to remember daddy because daddy Agrel and daddy Gehj can never take his place, even though they love me a lot. And daddy Gehj says the more love someone surrounds themselves with then the happier they will be.” A look of uncertainty crossed her face. “Is it bad that I don’t think about daddy anymore?”

Delilah’s heart ached for her daughter. “Of course not, baby. It has been a long time, and you were small when he disappeared.” She left it unsaid that he was seldom around, anyway. She didn’t know if Lily remembered how often he was gone, and she didn’t want her daughter to feel sad and unwanted from what happened in the past when she was clearly healing. Unlike Zack, the Atlavans always had time for her, which put another chink in the armor over her heart. “What about yourdaddy’s pocket watch? He once said it belonged to his daddy, so it can be something extra special.”

Lily shrugged again and smiled gamely. “Okay, I guess.”

Delilah nodded. “Okay. It is on the big dressing table in my room. But first I wanted to talk to you about something,” she said, turning away from the window.

Lily’s brow wrinkled. “About what?”

“Well, about Agrel and Gehj,” she replied. “I know that you think that the stars gave them to you to be your daddies but?—”

“Not just for me,” Lily interrupted with a cherubic smile. “I asked the stars for a special daddy who makes you happy again. And they did! You smile so much now and even singing when you are working in the house.”

Startled, Delilah stared down at her daughter with wonder. “I… I am?”

Lily nodded as she bent down to scoop up Nimh who had charged into her feet. “Our family is getting bigger and better, just like it should.”

“Lily, I know I should have talked to you about this sooner, but you do realize that they are not human—not like daddy and momma, right? Which means that if we end up deciding to go all the way with them instead of heading toward the nearest human town, that it will mean leaving everything we know behind.”

Her daughter’s brow wrinkled. “Like what? Daddy Agrel says that there are a lot of fledglings around my age that survived the epibema?—”

“Epidemic,” Delilah gently corrected, smothering a smile.

“That’s what I said,” Lily muttered crossly, but her expression cleared quickly as she refocused on the matter at hand. “And Daddy Gehj said that even though they don’t have a home yet, that when they find a home, they will build a real school. Until then, there are lots of people who will teach meanything I want to know. And I could havereal paintfor making my pictures, momma,” she said in a hushed voice.

“Really?” Delilah’s brows rose, impressed. They certainly sold her on life with the Atlavans. “And you wouldn’t miss living around other humans?”

“Other humans left us,” Lily replied quietly, her head bowing slightly as she suddenly became interested in studying Nimh. “There is no one to miss.”

Delilah swallowed thickly past the lump in her throat. She certainly stuck her foot in her mouth. The last thing a ten-year-old ever needed to know was how quickly and easily people abandoned each other. She had already had multiple lessons in that. Delilah cleared her throat, abandoning that line of conversation. There needed nothing more to be said aboutthat.

“You do realize, whether we stay with them or not, that you will have to listen to what they say, right? Especially when we are traveling through the woods—it will be very important. They wouldn’t be guests anymore but would have a real say in your life.”

Lily’s head lifted, and she smiled. “I will listen to them like I listen to you.”

“Blessed Mother helps us,” Delilah teased as she snatched her daughter up into her arms and proceeded to tickle her, drawing peals of laughter even when they lost their balance and dropped to the ground. When they finally calmed again, she brushed the hair from Lily’s eyes from where they sat on the floor and looked down into her daughter’s sweet face. “Everything will change, regardless of where we end up.”

“Everything’s always changing, momma. We should stay with them… it will be a good one.”

“I hope so, baby,” she murmured.

Chapter