Book 16: Just Aris

Aris

Maddy and Isaac’s home in Maatua is shockingly cozy in comparison to the castles and palaces each side of the family calls home. Myself included, seeing as I still haunt the ancestral, gloomy castle older than the dawn of time itself in Veiled Valley. Here, in Maatua, it’s nothing but wide, open skies and the softest turquoise water, with sand like butter, so light it falls like snow through my fingers while I watch the tide roll in.

A dark-haired, violet-eyed little girl kneels a few feet from the tide line, dutifully dusting sand from a massive clam shell Kieran gave her, while my three-year-old nephew is a few yards away, squealing against the gentle waves lapping his toes while he hunts for more shells.

I’m not sure how long I’ve been out here with them–Skye, Kieran, and Fallon, who’s currently seated in my lap, double chins and chubby cheeks rosy as she watches the bigger kids play. An hour, maybe? Maybe more?

The private beach stre