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Essie swung their linked hands. “Are you going to be all right? We don’t have to go inside Winstead Palace if you don’t want to.”

“I will be fine. I asked Taranath to fill me full of his healing magic, so I should not get a headache or feel the effects of the stone.” Farrendel felt great with all the healing magic pumping through him at the moment.

Still, he found himself tensing as they stepped through the doors into the large, stone palace. The walls closed around him, but he did not feel the weight of them like he normally would.

“Is it working?” Essie’s eyes were focused on him, her forehead wrinkled.

“Yes.” He smiled, and it felt more natural than forced.

Essie led the way to the family dining room, where her family already assembled. Farrendel found himself gripping her hand tighter. Not that he was scared of her family, not anymore.

But he was still nervous, much as he knew he had no reason to be.

When they entered the room, Bertie and Finn squealed and raced around the table toward them. “Aunt Essie!”

The two children barreled into Essie’s legs, and Farrendel used his grip on Essie’s hand to steady her under the impact. She hugged each of the nephews with her free hand.

They glanced over at Farrendel and waved their hands in the air, saying something in their high-pitched, garbled toddler language. He glanced at Essie. “Translation?”

“They want you to do more of your sparkling magic like you did last time.” Essie patted Bertie’s back. “We have to eat dinner first.”

The two little boys made whining sounds but trudged back to their seats.

“Notice anything different?” Essie gestured at herself and Farrendel.

Farrendel braced himself as Essie’s mother, Averett, Paige, and Julien turned to them.

Averett groaned. “Not this game, Essie. You know we can never guess right. It isn’t something like you got a new haircut, is it?”

Wait, they could not tell thathewas the one with the new haircut? Farrendel shifted, dropping his gaze down to the table instead of looking at them.

“Not me. Farrendel.” Essie patted his chest, and it took everything in him not to flinch.

“Oh.” Averett drew out the word. “Right, should have seen that.”

“See. That’s how you know it’s a good haircut.” Essie grinned up at him. “When it looks so right on you that people don’t even notice.”

That eased some of the tension from his shoulders. He had seen the truth of that, the past few days. His hair, so obviously hacked off with a knife, had been glaring any time he looked in the mirror. While it was still a shock seeing his hair short, he could get used to this Escarlish style. Probably. Especially while they were here in Escarland where all the males wore their hair short.

“It looks very good.” Essie’s mother’s voice was warm. “You did a good job, Paige.”

“Yep, definitely looking good, little brother.” Julien slapped Farrendel’s shoulder as Farrendel took his seat at the table with Essie’s brother on one side, and Essie on the other.

Farrendel found himself relaxing. He had told Essie that he saw Aldon as his home as much as Estyra. Yet, sitting there now with Essie’s family as the servers set a non-seasoned steak in front of him, it truly felt like home. A place he could relax and feel safe.

The feeling lasted all the way through supper and as Essie’s family gathered in her mother’s sitting room.

Farrendel sat on the carpeted floor, shooting harmless sparks of his magic to the squeals of the nephews as they chased each spark.

Essie was sitting across the room, ensconced between her mother and Paige as they chatted so rapidly that he had no hope of keeping up with the conversation.

But, Farrendel had been hoping to talk to Julien and Averett. He glanced between them, waiting for a lull in their conversation about some law going through Parliament before he spoke. “Is there a place I can go to train Essie in how to use my magic? It would need to be free of other people where it does not matter if we cause a few magical explosions.”

Averett frowned. “Essie still has use of your magic? That was not a one-time thing?”

“No. I may have accidentally linked my magic to the heart bond. She has use of my magic and thus should be trained.” Farrendel sent another shower of sparks into the center of the room, causing another round of giggles from the nephews. “There is no rush. She is in no danger of magic spontaneously leaking from her, since she has to purposefully reach for it through the heart bond.”

“I will see if you can use the army’s bomb range. It won’t matter if you magically destroy a few things there.” Julien leaned his elbows on his knees. “But it might be a week or two to get something arranged. And to convince the army brass to give the two of you space, at least for the first few training sessions. I might have to promise that you’ll do a demonstration for them, possibly let them see how much ordinance you can incinerate with your magic.”