The Blessed Curse (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #4)(54)

The hall above was as silent and dark as the downstairs had been. Zoelyn glanced toward Jala and Valor’s door as she passed and quickly made her way farther down the hall. A faint scuffle from the next door gave her pause and she lingered outside the door listening closely. It was silent for a long moment and then the noise was repeated, a faint scuffle of little feet. Slowly, Zoelyn lowered her heavy boots to the floor and pushed Legacy’s door open just far enough to look inside. The boy was usually sound asleep by this time. Legacy looked up at her with wide violet eyes from a perch near his bed. A tiny wooden knight was clutched in one hand, and by the scattering of other toys on the floor he had been playing for a while. He waved at her with his free hand and offered a smile before returning to his play.

Smiling faintly, Zoelyn slid inside the room and closed the door as quietly as she could behind her. “You are supposed to be asleep now.

Do you know how late it is?” she whispered to him. Honestly, she was amazed the child wasn’t red-eyed and wobbling. It was close to midnight by her best guess.

Legacy smiled at her again and set the knight aside as he shifted to sit cross-legged on the floor. “Being quiet,” he offered with a shrug of one tiny shoulder.

Zoelyn grinned at him and nodded her agreement. “You were being very quiet. I almost didn’t notice you were awake. If you don’t sleep now, though, you will fall asleep at breakfast tomorrow and land face down in your oatmeal,” she informed him gently.

“Eew,” Legacy responded, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “Momma never gives me oatmeal,” he added with a quick shake of his head.

Chuckling quietly, Zoelyn shook her head at him. “You are so smart for your age, Legacy. I shudder to think of trying to outwit you later,” Her gaze traveled around the room and settled on a small bookshelf. Moving forward slowly she tilted her head quickly scanning over the titles. “How about a story?” she asked, glancing back at him. His expression lightened at once and he nodded quickly. She knew how well he loved stories from listening to Jala nightly. She also knew they always put him to sleep before the end. She doubted the poor kid knew how a single one of his books ended. “Crawl into bed then and tell me which one you want to hear.”

“A knight story,” Legacy responded quickly as he picked his wooden knight up once more and crawled into his bed. Within a breath he was tucked under his blankets with only his small face showing as he watched her select a book from the shelf.

Carefully, she scooted the majority of the toys from beside the bed and sat down close enough that he could hear her clearly if she spoke quietly, but not close enough that he could reach her. The idea of Legacy accidently touching her was almost enough to keep her from going near the child. In all honesty, though, he was the single person in the house that she felt comfortable around. Legacy wasn’t a typical child. He was quiet and thoughtful, with more intelligence than most adults she had met. He was always smiling and she never felt out of place around him. There was no judgment in his eyes, simply acceptance and kindness. It wasn’t that the others in the house were judgmental or cruel, well, aside from Neph. It was that they were all intimidating in their various ways. Legacy wasn’t.

Legacy shifted in the bed and propped his head up on the pillow, more to peer over her shoulder to look at the cover of the book. Smiling, she held it up so he could see the picture. With a grin, he snuggled farther down into his blankets with his toy clutched close to his chest.

“You are going to regret choosing to sleep with that if you roll on it tonight,” Zoelyn informed him with a grin as she opened the book and began to read in a soft voice. She heard him toss and turn a few times behind her, but by the time she had read five pages into the story, it was silent behind her. Closing the book partway, she glanced behind her to find him sound asleep.

Smiling, she leaned back against the end of the bed and opened the book once more. The artwork inside was beautiful and she skipped through the pages admiring each of the carefully inked illustrations. She couldn’t remember if she had ever owned books such as this as a child. All memories before Dominic were lost in a fog.

A scratch at the window drew her attention from the pages and she froze, listening carefully. There were no trees near Legacy’s room, so it hadn’t been a branch against the glass. The noise came again and the window creaked open slowly. Breath held, Zoelyn stared hard into the inky darkness, desperately trying to locate the intruder. A ruffle of feathers sounded and she stared in confusion as a crow hopped off the window ledge and into the room. It settled on the floor quietly and stretched its wings as its form slowly shifted to a man. Hearth-stories flooded her mind as she realized who she was seeing. The black feathered cloak was unmistakable. It was what he wrapped around the children before he carried them off to the Darklands. Zoelyn swallowed heavily as she tried to rationalize what she was seeing. He wasn’t supposed to be real. He was a figure from the stories to frighten the children of Glis into behaving. Slowly she stood on legs that didn’t want to support her and straightened her back as she turned to face the Crow King.

He had been distracted with closing the window, but at the sound of her movement he turned and stared at her with curiosity. His gold eyes trailed across her and then to the door. With a sigh, he smiled and raised a slender dark eyebrow at her in question.

“You can’t have him,” Zoelyn whispered, the words tight in her throat.