Page 96 of His Retribution

"Umm..." Her gaze bounces between me and Andrej then stops at the door as Henrich and Grace walk into the dining room.

“Gracie," Andrej grunts. "Will you entertain my flower child for a bit? It seems something has come up that requires my undivided attention."

Henrich frowns until Grace is cradling Daisy because all of us males seem to just go to fucking pieces when we see our mates interact with a child. And as soon as she takes her down to the formal sitting room turned playroom, Henrich plants himself on the chair next to Andrej.

"What's going on?" he asks while pushing a hand back through his Danny Zuko hairdo. "Is there need for concern? Should I have Kai and Milos join us? Are you alright, little one?"

See? My brothers love my light too.

"I'm fine, I think. I mean, yeah. Fine.” Cora squeezes my fingers in an attempt to prevent herself from chewing her thumb again, which fails because she just sticks the other one between her teeth. "I was just telling Havok and Andrej that there is something I haven't exactly told you guys yet..."

"Should we have Kai and Milos join us? They're out back with Karel and Hank, they should—"

Cora shakes her head. "How about we play it by ear? I'll tell you and you decide if anyone else needs to know, ok?"

I am going to explode through my skin and make a mess of this goddamn dining room if she doesn't get to the point. My nerves cannot handle this sort of suspense at the moment.

But we all nod and wait patiently for my light to fill us in.

"So..." She takes a deep breath. "So I'm not sure if it's because of the whole past lives, old as dirt soul thing or what, but I can, well, I've been able to see what I've been referring to as auras but I'm pretty sure that's not what they're called."

I blink.

Andrej blinks.

Henrich nods.

We share a look.

"Go on, little one."

Another deep breath. "Everybody has a colored light that emanates from their body, like a halo that blankets them from head to toe."

"A colored light?" I ask because all I can think about is how I refer to Cora as my beautiful blue light because I feel as though between her hair and eyes, she radiates the most gorgeous blue light. I didn't quite mean it literally.

She nods to me. "For example, yours is white. A brilliant but soft white, warm and inviting." Cora looks to the others. "The two of you as well as your brothers favor the color of your dragon’s spikes, but all share a black ring around the edges of your light."

Andrej frowns but my love laughs.

"Yours isn't all black, silly. Your light is gold with the black around the edges. Henrich is navy blue, Kai red, and Milos, the little shit, is violet. And your mates are similar but they each have their own as well. Like, well, close to their bodies they each sort of have this tone that makes me think of a sunset. Pink, orange, lavender, yellow. Posey, Grace, Casey, Allie. Then the further from the body their colors swirl with yours, dip into the same shades and mix then stop at the black edge. Even Daisy is a mix of yellow and gold, a splash of periwinkle just like Allie has, and black on the edges."

Andrej smiles proudly.

Obviously he is taking this much better than I am.

I'm two minutes away from freaking the fuck out.

"So these lights show shared genetic traits, shared family bonds and such?" Henrich asks as he leans into the table.

Cora nods. "I guess. Hank's is green, grass green like his dragon, but he has a tint of pink for Posey, peach for what I'm assuming was her mother, and some silver like Janet."

"Fascinating."

"So when you say Allie is different..." I say carefully because I do not want to make an announcement on behalf of my best friend, but need a little clarification.

"There's a new color. It's small and not defined yet but there's a new color and..." Cora bites her thumb so hard. "A hint of that and the periwinkle are mixed in with Andrej's gold and yellow."

Again, my brother beams with pride, Henrich too focused on what Cora is saying to decipher the true meaning, but I can tell there is something else, something my light has yet to say.