Page 116 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“Where is the idiot?” Nia asked. “He could be here cutting us time.”

Thora looked absolutely unbothered as she calmly said, “Having his ego stroked amongst many other things.”

Snow snorted and then blasted into a cough, almost choking on a breath of air when Mal strutted in, frowning exactly at her sister. He looked worn out, just not in the type of way Thora had described. So thought Snow when she turned to her sister and said, “I thought you meant—”

The younger sister lifted her head up, blinking slowly and so innocently. “Training. Men get very touchy when they fight. It’s like they can’t keep their hands off one another.”

Mal took a seat beside her, forcing her to scoot further away despite there being more space literally all around the table. “Little bird, your hands are all over me when I train you as well.”

Thora suddenly stood, looking at the entrance of the library where Neo stood, waving a shy hand over at her. She pushed the chair back, ignoring Mal’s severely inappropriate remark. “Excuse me for a moment.”

My brother grabbed onto her wrist and then quickly let go as if he had caught himself. Thora, too, hesitated a moment after before shaking her head and rushing to Neo.

Snow’s eyes jumped between her sister and my brother, and then her sister and Neo. Despite the quiet library, the two were talking in hushed tones and that was causing my wife some sort of distress because her knee bumped the table over and over until I put a hand on her thigh.

“Love.”

“Hush. That’s a boy. She is talking to a boy.”

“No,” my brother said, yawning, “she is talking to a dead man.”

“Thora likes him and you can see he likes her back,” Nia drawled, not paying attention to us. “Leave them be.”

Snow’s brows hiked up and she turned to me. “He likes her back? You knew about this?”

“Yes.”

“Knew what?” Thora asked, returning to her seat. “Did you find something?”

Nia sighed. “Nothing but a slew of boring details about the origin of their creation. And none so far are about guardians forged by Adan or any of their weaknesses or flaws.” She looked up at Snow and then me. “There are some paragraphs about her—a Caelum born.”

“Am not,” Snow cooed, continuing to cross reference letters with one another.

“There was only one family,” Nia continued, and Snow’s pen stopped moving. “The Aerin. Born from Nubil’s brother, the God of Thunder, Goltar. And a lower goddess, Theena. Goltar’s first child followed Nubil to Caelum and later swore his loyalty to him, serving as the heaven's second in command.”

“Nia,” Snow warned.

“Nubil never reinstated the spot after Zephyr surrendered his title. It still belongs to an Aerin blood. It belongs to you. It will belong to your children and theirs.”

Snow lowered her pen on the table and rolled her eyes up to her friend. “I’m a Skygard. Queen of Olympia. And that is enough.”

“Ours, too,” Mal said, leaning back.

She clicked her fingers and pointed at him. “Yeah, Adriata, too.”

“If matter comes to war,” Nia started, “would you consider asking them for help?”

“Who?”

“The god you’re supposed to serve.”

“I serve one god, my Nia. And that is my desire.”

“Yes, but what can it do to help us fight off a guardian?”

“We’re working on it,” my wife said quietly, tracing more notes down. “If I have to bow before any deity, it will have to be my own power.”

Her friend’s voice was broken when she said, “Snow, it could kill you.”