“Hmm,” I hummed, glancing around the room. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Autumn and Winter Solstices all wrapped up the room in my festive masterpiece, but something was still missing.
“Um…” came an uncertain voice as Aflora inched the door open, pushing aside the faux snow I’d crammed too close to the hinges. A nearby candle flickered, and Titus twisted his fingers, sending the flame away before it lit the entire display on fire.
“Am I in the right place?” she asked, warily eyeing the candles.
“Aflora,” I greeted, excited to see the female Sol referred to as his little sister. The two of them had grown up together after Aflora’s Royal Fae parents died, and now the two of them shared access to the source of earth.
I waved my hands to beckon her to enter and immediately regretted the motion as I nearly fell off the ladder. Titus cursed and caught me, setting my feet on the ground.
Then a flame broke out across the room.
“Shit,” Titus muttered.
Aflora pulled a wand from her cloak and muttered a spell, killing the fire with a few spare breaths. Then she looked around the room with her cerulean gaze.
“Well, there are enough decorations in here to decorate a field of wildflowers,” she said. “Someone’s definitely nesting.”
Titus grunted in agreement as male voices cascaded through the open doorway. Zephyrus stepped through it while smirking at whatever Cyrus had just said.
“Wow, did Christmas and Thanksgiving have a baby?” Zephyrus asked, glancing around the room.
“Claire’s nesting,” Aflora replied.
“Yes, I see that,” he deadpanned. “Hi, Claire.” The greeting lacked affection, but that was standard from the Warrior Blood. Midnight Fae had a variety of classifications. His focused primarily on defensive magic, which echoed in his stance now as he went dutifully to Aflora’s side. “W
hy is your wand out?”
“Fire,” Aflora replied, putting the magical conduit away. “I’m fine.”
He looked her over with pensive green eyes, his features sharp and cutting as he ensured she was truly “fine.”
Cyrus arched a brow at me just as Titus jumped to take out a newly escaped flame.
“I thought nesting was supposed to help you make a safe space,” my water mate teased, walking forward to brush his fingers under my chin. Mist washed over me, giving me a tingling sensation as he instinctively protected me with a shield of water.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You don’t need to put me in a literal bubble, Cyrus.”
He smirked. “I do when you’re intent on setting rooms on fire.”
“I got this,” Titus assured him, then hissed when another flame escaped his attention.
“You missed one, Firefly,” Cyrus pointed out, earning a growl from my Fire Fae that promised vengeance.
I grinned, amused by their usual banter.
Gina poked her head through the door and glanced around the room, boasting a wry smile. “Did I miss the fireworks?”
“What fireworks—” I asked, only to be interrupted by an explosion that had me shrieking and clinging to Cyrus.
Aflora held a hand to her chest while Zephyrus narrowed his shrewd gaze. Titus’s unruly flames—spurred on by Cyrus’s “Firefly” taunt—had reached the appetizer trays of shelled nuts. Now they were exploding all over the ceiling. The life-sized nutcracker jostled next to the display, appropriately gyrating its mouth open and closed as it wobbled.
Gina clapped her hands, the only one among us who hadn’t been surprised. Well, Zephyrus didn’t look very surprised, so much as annoyed.
Cyrus doused the flames with a sweeping caress of his magic, careful not to soak my decorations in the process. However, he left the flames alight, likely to irritate Titus.
I can feel your amusement, baby, Exos murmured into my mind. Causing chaos again?
Just having fun with holiday decorations, I replied, my lips twitching.