Three weeks later.
It had been three weeks since the mermaid Nimue had vanished back into the river, leaving the Beast Kings with a letter, a lock of hair, and a fragile hope that Roxy was safe.
Inside the Iron-Wood Manor, a different kind of war was being waged. And the mighty Beast Kings were losing.
The living room, once a pristine space, looked like it had been raided.
Ren sat on the rug, his silk robes rumpled and stained with what looked like berry juice. His nine tails were spread out behind him, now serving as a soft barrier to keep the twins, Axel and Onyx, from running into the fireplace.
But Ren’s focus wasn’t on the twins. It was on the little girl sitting in his lap.
Iris was clutching a stuffed rabbit Roxy had sewn for her months ago. The fabric was worn, the ear chewed on, but Iris held it like it was a lifeline.
"Do the blue one again, Ren," Iris whispered, her voice small and trembling.
Ren forced a smile. He raised a finger, channeling a tiny thread of illusion magic. A shimmering blue butterfly materialized in the air, flapping its wings of light.
"Like this, Little Flower?" Ren asked softly.
Iris watched the butterfly, but her eyes didn’t light up. They remained dull, filled with a grief that was too big for a child so young.
"Mama liked the blue ones," Iris said, hugging the rabbit tighter. "She said they remind her of the sky."
Ren’s heart shattered for the hundredth time that morning. "I know, sweetling. I know."
"Is she coming back today?" Iris looked up at him, her large, violet eyes searching his face for a lie he couldn’t tell. "Drax said Daddy Syris is building a boat. Is the boat done?"
Ren swallowed the lump in his throat. "Not yet, Iris. The boat has to be very strong. The water is deep."
"I hate the water," Iris stated, burying her face in Ren’s chest. "It took her. It’s mean."
Ren stroked her hair, looking helplessly across the room at the chaos. He didn’t know how to fix the hole in a four-year-old’s heart.
Out of the five children, the female children were having it harder than the males.
Over near the window, a group of female wolves from the pack, Mara, and two other female wolves were huddled together. They were the only reason the manor hadn’t burned down yet.
In Mara’s arms was Tanith.
Tanith was the only true baby left. The basilisk blood in her slowed her aging compared to the wolves, keeping her in the infant stage longer. But she was a handful. Her scales were hardening, shimmering like opals.
"She refuses the bottle," Mara whispered frantically to the other nurse. "She wants her mother..."
Tanith let out a wail; she had not really been eating. After a week, she had a fever that ran for days until Ren had figured out a solution for her.
"Shh, shh, Little Viper," Mara cooed, bouncing the baby terrifiedly. "Please eat."
Tanith screamed louder, her little face turning purple, her tail thrashing against Mara’s arm.
"Dad!"
The voice came from the hallway. Drax walked in.
He looked fourteen now, a lanky, brooding teenager with horns poking through his messy black hair. He was carrying a basket of laundry that was overflowing.
"Dad!" Drax yelled again, looking at Zarek, who was standing by the hearth, staring into the flames. "The washing machine is making a weird noise. I think Axel threw a rock in it again."
Zarek didn’t turn around.
The Dragon King looked like a man holding onto sanity by a single, fraying thread. His shirt was half-unbuttoned, his hair was a disaster, and there were dark circles under his eyes that looked like bruises.
"I told them..." Zarek muttered to the fire. "I told them no rocks."
"Well, there’s a rock," Drax sighed, dropping the basket. "And Kaelen is out hunting because we ran out of meat, so you have to fix it."
Just then, the front door burst open.
Torian, the Tiger King, stumbled in. He was covered in mud. Literally covered. From head to toe.
And trailing behind him were the twins, Axel and Onyx. They looked four years old, too, sturdy and chaotic, and they were also caked in mud. They were laughing maniacally, chasing a terrified chicken they had somehow caught.
"I surrender!" Torian roared, collapsing onto the sofa, ruining it. "They are too fast!"
"Chicken!" Axel screamed, diving over the coffee table.
A vase shattered.
"Onyx, no!" Ren yelled, trying to stand up, but Iris clung to him. "Don’t eat the chicken inside the house!"
"Mine!" Onyx growled, his little wolf fangs bared.
The noise level in the room skyrocketed.
Tanith was screaming in Mara’s arms. Axel and Onyx were barking and chasing the chicken, knocking over chairs. Drax was yelling about the washing machine. Torian was groaning on the sofa. Iris buried her head in Ren’s robes and started to sob quietly. "It’s too loud! I want Mama! Tell them to stop!"
Zarek turned from the fire.
He watched the chicken fly past his face. He watched the mud splatter onto the portrait of Roxy hanging on the wall. He heard Tanith’s ear-piercing shrieks and Iris’s heartbroken sobs.
He snapped.
"ENOUGH!" Zarek roared.
A wave of concussive force and pure, unfiltered rage that blasted through the living room.
The windows rattled in their frames. The fire in the hearth flared up, tongues of flame licking the ceiling. The pressure in the room dropped instantly, terrifyingly heavy.
The chicken froze. Axel and Onyx stopped mid-tackle. Torian sat up. Mara clutched Tanith to her chest, her ears flat against her head.
Zarek stood there, chest heaving, his golden eyes burning with vertical slits. He was at the edge of shifting.
"Look at this!" Zarek shouted, gesturing wildly at the room. "Look at this filth! Look at this chaos! She has been gone for three weeks, and we have turned her home into a pigsty!"
He kicked a muddy boot that Torian had discarded.
"We are Kings!" Zarek bellowed, his voice cracking with exhaustion and grief. "And we cannot keep five children from destroying the furniture?!"
He glared at Drax. He glared at Torian.
"She is down there," Zarek growled, pointing at the floor, towards the deep earth. "She is with the sea creatures, trying to survive. And she is going to come back to this? She will think we are useless! She will think we cannot survive without her!"
He ran a hand through his hair, pulling at the roots.
"And she would be right!" Zarek roared, "We are useless! I can’t fix this! I can’t stop the baby from crying! I can’t even look at my daughter without seeing her face and wanting to burn the world down!"
He stood there, panting, the echo of his rage hanging in the air. For a second, it was quiet.
Then, Iris’s bottom lip trembled.
"Daddy’s scary," she whispered.
Then, she started crying, and that was the spark. Axel and Onyx, seeing their sister cry and sensing their father’s terrifying aura, threw their heads back and started crying too.
Tanith had already joined her sister.
Zarek stood in the center of it all, the rage draining out of him, replaced by horror. He looked at his weeping children. He looked at the terror in their eyes.
He ran out of the manor, slamming the door behind him with a gruff, "I am sorry."