Slowly, Cynna lowered to her knees. “Who leaves a baby all alone, anyway?” Reaching out, she touched the back of the baby’s hand. Her skin was velvety soft. The softest thing Cynna was sure she’d ever felt. A jolt of awareness rushed through her. “Did someone forget about you?”
The baby wrapped her little hand around Cynna’s finger and squeezed tight. For a tiny thing, she had an incredibly strong grip. And the way she held on made Cynna think she didn’t want to be left alone again.
“Aw, you poor thing. I bet you’re scared.” She pulled her finger from the baby’s fist, leaned forward, then slid one hand under the baby’s neck and the other under her back. Lifting her from the floor, she sat back on her heels and looked down at the little bundle in her arms.
She couldn’t be more than six or seven months old. Her hair was jet black, thick, and already curling past her ears, and her skin was like alabaster—shades lighter than Cynna’s flesh. But what slowed Cynna’s pulse were the baby’s eyes. Irises like warm chocolate with flecks of black and gold. Eyes that were eerily similar to the ones Cynna saw in the mirror every day.
Footsteps sounded somewhere close, but Cynna was so entranced, she didn’t have a chance to set the baby back down before a voice said, “Oh. I didn’t know anyone else was awake.”
Slowly she looked to her right. To where Isadora stood with one hand against an open door that looked like it led to a small kitchen, holding a bottle in the other.
Cynna’s heart rate kicked up, and her face grew hot. Quickly, she looked away, laid the baby back down on the blanket, but didn’t push to her feet and run. Which was weird, because…she didn’t want to be anywhere near this female.
The baby kicked out her little legs and blew another raspberry. Then reached for Cynna’s hand again. And she didn’t know why, but Cynna gave the baby her index finger and let the infant close her fist around the digit.
“Let me guess,” Isadora said, her bare feet crossing the floor to stop next to Cynna near the blanket. “You couldn’t stop yourself from picking her up.”
“Um.” Cynna ran her free hand down the thigh of her jeans, not sure how to respond because…yeah, that was exactly how she felt. And why the hell wasn’t she splitting right this very moment?
“Don’t worry, you’re not the first.” Isadora sighed. “People gravitate toward Elysia, even those who don’t like babies. I’ve suspected for a while that she has the gift of psychokinesis, but I haven’t had the heart to tell her father that she’s not just cute, she’s a master manipulator. He thinks she can do no wrong.” She knelt on the floor beside Cynna and held out the bottle. “Here. Something tells me she wants you to do this, not me.”
The baby squeezed Cynna’s hand tight, and before Cynna could say no, her own fingers were reaching for the bottle. Elysia gurgled a happy, excited sound.
Isadora leaned forward, scooped Elysia into her arms, then handed her to Cynna. “Tip her up just a little.”
Cynna felt more awkward than she had in her whole life, but she sat back cross-legged, cradled Elysia in the crook of her arm, then held the bottle to her lips. Not missing a beat, Elysia grabbed the bottle with both hands and started noisily sucking down the milk as if a total stranger feeding her was no big deal.
“She likes you.” Isadora rested her hands on her thighs. “She only lets a few people feed her. I’m hoping that’s a good sign.”
Somewhere in the back of Cynna’s mind, she knew they made a bizarre scene and that she needed to get up and leave, but she couldn’t seem to make her body obey her mind’s commands. Watching as the baby drained a quarter of the bottle, she found herself amazed at the way Elysia’s little lips moved and her tiny fingers gripped the bottle so fiercely.
“Nick said you helped him escape from Zagreus’s lair.”
The sound of Isadora’s voice seemed to snap Cynna from whatever trance the baby was putting her in, and she glanced toward the queen. Isadora’s white-blonde hair was rumpled, dark circles bruised the skin beneath her bottom lashes, and her light-blue pajama set looked a full size too big. But it was her eyes Cynna focused on. The same eyes Elysia shared. The same ones Cynna knew so well.
The awe and calmness she’d felt earlier, when she’d picked up the baby, trickled away, bringing back that agitation that had pushed her out of Nick’s bed. “Yeah, I did. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No. No problem. In fact, I want to thank you. For bringing him back to us.”
Cynna looked back down at the baby, hating the little wedge of jealousy pushing its way between her ribs. “It’s my understanding here isn’t somewhere he especially likes to be.”
“No.” Isadora’s gaze drifted to Elysia as well. “No, it’s not. I meant here to his family.”
“I thought his people were his family.”
“They are. But so are we. More his family than anyone else. And we protect those we care about. Fiercely.”