Page 76 of Dragon Charmed

Tessa nodded.

“Let’s go spend some time with Lily and Bella. I left Bella in her playpen and Lily was coloring, but I don’t want to leave them alone too long.”

They headed hand in hand inside and into the large living room before jerking to a stop. Bella was laughing and clapping in the middle of her playpen while Lily was flying around the room, holding on to her stuffed dragon.

“Cheese and crackers!”

Megan frowned at her. “That’s all you’ve got to say?”

She was thinking every expletive a drunken sailor and a pissed-off trucker might say to each other during a fight, so she was proud of herself for her restraint. “It’s a good thing the ceilings are vaulted?”

Before Megan could respond—and from the expression on her face it wouldn’t have been pretty—Tessa walked into the room. “Lily, sweetheart, it’s time to come down now.”

Lily’s lip stuck out a little bit in the prettiest of pouts, and Tessa was actually proud of her for being a kid for a few minutes instead of carrying the weight of her visions on her shoulders, but she didn’t want her to get hurt. “Come on now.”

Lily landed perfectly in the middle of the room and then furled her wings. Tessa walked over and sat on the couch and patted the seat next to her. Megan had scooped up Bella from her playpen and walked over to sit in the chair next to them.

Tessa took a moment to figure out what she was going to say, which was a first for her. “That was a good job letting your dragon out. Did you want to show Bella how you could fly?”

Lily smiled and nodded.

“I know that you are so happy now that you and your dragon are friends, but you have to be careful. We need to talk about some rules, okay?”

Lily tilted her head slightly and Tessa waited for her to protest, but she signed yes.

“Okay. First, you can’t fly inside the house. You could get hurt or you could accidentally hurt someone else like Bella.” Tessa waited for any sort of protest, but when she didn’t get one, she continued. “Second, you should ask an adult before you let your dragon out. You always want someone else with you outside if you go flying. Do you understand?”

Lily nodded again and Tessa hugged her, wanting to protect her from harm after everything this little girl had been through.

Ben sat back from the paperwork he and Sienna were reviewing when Eric came back into the office. He’d gone to check on everyone when they heard a bit of a commotion.

“Is everything okay?” Sienna asked.

“Yep. I caught the tail end of things. Apparently Lily was flying around the living room.”

Ben sat up straighter. “What! Is she okay?”

Eric held up his hands. “She’s fine. When I got there, Tessa was explaining to her that she shouldn’t fly in the house.” He grinned. “I can’t remember how many times Mom yelled at us for flying in the house, especially in the foyer. We used to race from the entry to the second-floor ceiling.”

Sienna shook her head. “You two were bad.”

Eric sat across from them. “And of course, you were perfect.”

Sienna laid down her pen. “Oh no. I was far from perfect. I just made sure not to get caught.”

Ben wished he could share in the memories. A little voice inside his head kept saying he might not ever remember. But he couldn’t listen to that voice. “I take it we got in trouble a lot?”

Eric chuckled. “Oh yeah. We were outside more than not, flying across the valley. Getting into all kinds of things we shouldn’t have.”

Sienna leaned forward. “You two were inseparable until…” The smile fell from her face.

He glanced between his two siblings. “Until?”

Eric blew out a breath. “Until Father died and you took over the clan. I disagreed about how you were running things.”

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to ask, but he needed to know. “And?”

“And you banned me from the clan.”