Page 43 of Prior Claim
“That’s a Norse rune. Daeg. It means day or dawn. Mythologically, it’s associated with the god Baldr.” Ellisandre picked up the piece. It matched the cuffs. And their mood.
Where are you, Sevastyan?
Ash watched as Ellisandre fastened the necklace around their neck. It was technically a necklace but it had the weight and almost the shape of a torc. Ellisandre checked themselves in the mirror and ran their fingers over the rune. It was time for a daybreak, for clarity. For balance.
They lowered their hand.
Ash was staring at them. Something in his eyes said he’d seen more than he understood, and he knew it. “Why do you have that one?”
“I bought it from a craftswoman in Minnesota.”
“Yeah, but why that one?”
Ellisandre raised a warning eyebrow at the redheaded imp.
Ash scrunched up his face. “Fine. Fine!” He threw up his hands. “Let’s go upstairs. Dana wants to play Mario Kart and Alice doesn’t want to.”
“Big brother duties?” Ellisandre let amusement creep into their tone.
Ash narrowed his eyes. “Hey, I’m being nice. You can’t make fun of me when I’m being nice.”
“Then be honest about liking it.”
Ash’s face wrinkled up in outrage.
Ellisandre swept past him toward the front door. “Coming?”
He dragged himself after them, still sputtering.
Ellisandre
Linda’s living room was full now. Only three months ago it had been a silent oasis of muted colors and perfectly styled furniture in soft white and pastel beige. Now it was quickly exploding in color and unsorted items, from a child’s coat over the back of the couch to a pile of textbooks on the kitchen table and the boxes of markers on the counter. Ellisandre let themselves and Ash in with their key. No one greeted them right away. Alice, her hair just starting to curl over her ears after being chopped off scant months before, was in the kitchen. It smelled like spaghetti and meatballs. Dana lay on the floor, dressed in bright green overalls and a pink long-sleeved shirt. Her hair was in two pigtails secured with bright cloth flowers. She saw Ellisandre and Ash first. All of her nine-year-old energy returned to her the instant her eyes fastened on Ash and his neon-red hair. She bounded up and flung her entire body at him. “Mario. Mario. Mario.”
Ash bent his knees, catching her. “What if I don’t want to?”
“You want to, you want to!” She pounded her fists on his chest. Maribel, the German Shepherd, heard the smacks and came racing out of one of the bedrooms. She woofed once.
“You’re making Maribel worried,” Ellisandre said.
Dana stopped smacking Ash and looked over her shoulder. She didn’t seem to realize that Ash was now holding her off the floor. “Sorry, Maribel.”
“What about me?” Ash said.
“You’re lying!” Dana said. “You like Mario.”
“Are you sure?” Ash carried the child toward the living room where the game controllers were laid out and ready for them.
“Yes!”
Ellisandre left them to it and entered the kitchen. Alice greeted Ellisandre. She had a smear of tomato sauce on one cheek and sprinkles of red across the front of her ragged brown shirt. There were cheap polyester flannel pants on her legs and floppy socks on her feet. She was a mess. The most cheerful one Ellisandre had seen in a while. Bare face, barely dressed, and disheveled, she was beautiful down to the freckles scattered across her nose and under her eyes. In this moment, she looked like a younger, edgier version of her brother Collin.
“Ellisandre!” She grinned widely. “You’re maybe a little early. I’ve never made meatballs before. But they’re made.”
Ellisandre peered into the various pots on the stove. There were noodles draining through a strainer, meatballs sitting by themselves on a tray, and a cast iron caldron full of herbs with hints of red sauce. “Your spaghetti is green.”
“Yeah!” Alice’s grin moved sideways on her face and she lifted one shoulder. “Ash eats vegetables if they’re in something and don’t taste like vegetables. So does Dana.”
“So the salad is in the spaghetti.”
