Chapter 14 Get Out Of My House!
Elara's POV
I reached into my jacket pocket with deliberate slowness, my movements careful and non-threatening, and pulled out the moonstone pendant I had prepared before coming here.
"Sunny might be in danger within the next two days," I said, keeping my voice level. "I would strongly suggest she stays home during that time. No outings. No exceptions."
Vera's wolf eyes narrowed to slits. When she spoke, her voice carried the doubled resonance of both woman and beast. "Are you threatening my daughter?"
I met her eyes without flinching, without looking away, even as my heart hammered against my ribs. "If I wanted to hurt her, I wouldn't have come here to warn you."
With that, I turned and walked toward the door with measured steps.
I pulled out my phone and called for a car, grateful when it arrived within minutes. The driver was an older wolf who seemed content with silence, which suited me perfectly. I settled into the back seat with Maple curled against me, watching the Emerald territory fade behind us as we drove toward the small apartment I still kept in the city.
By the time the car pulled up to my building, I murmured my thanks to the driver and hurried inside with Maple,.
Maple immediately trotted over to her little tent fort I had set up behind a decorative screen in the living area, circling twice before curling up with a contented huff. I watched her settle, then headed into the converted bedroom that served as my workshop.
The space was lined with shelves holding jars of rare ingredients, boxes of specialty paper, and tools most people wouldn't recognize.
My phone buzzed just as I was pulling out my tools. Professor Thaddeus's name glowed on the screen, and I answered.
"Elara," his warm, scholarly voice came through immediately. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything important."
"Not at all, Professor."
"I wanted to follow up on the offer I made last month," he said, and I could hear the gentle hope in his tone. "The position for guest lecturer in Advanced Runecraft and Ancient Magical Theory is still open. The department would be honored to have someone of your expertise teaching our advanced students. The pay is excellent, and you would have complete autonomy over your curriculum."
"Professor, I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity," I said carefully. "But I just returned home. My father and brother have been wonderful to me, and I need time to adjust to being part of the family again. I'm not ready to leave right now."
There was a pause, and I could almost see him nodding in that understanding way of his. "Of course, my dear. Family must come first. But perhaps you might be interested in a different arrangement? The academy has several wealthy patrons who commission protective charms for their children. Would you be willing to craft twenty advanced protection talismans? I can offer three thousand dollars per piece, sixty thousand total."
I sat up straighter, already mentally cataloging the materials I would need. "Okay."
"Excellent. And Elara, the door remains open whenever you're ready."
After we hung up, I pulled out my specialty parchment and began laying out the materials. My hands moved with practiced efficiency as I sketched the first protective array, the silver ink flowing from my brush in geometric patterns.
Thirty minutes later, twenty perfect talismans lay drying on my workbench, their silver ink gleaming with latent power.
Then I pulled out two pieces of moonstone from my personal collection. I thought of how Damian and Sebastian had defended me without hesitation, and decided they deserved protection talismans of their own. I carved each one carefully, etching their names in ancient runes alongside symbols chosen specifically for them.
By the time I finished, evening had fallen outside my windows. I carefully wrapped each talisman in silk before tucking them into my jacket pocket, then gathered Maple from her tent.
"Come on, girl," I murmured. "Time to go home."
The walk back to the main estate took fifteen minutes, and I used the time to decompress, letting the evening air clear my head. Maple trotted beside me happily, occasionally stopping to sniff at interesting scents before bounding back to my side.
I had just reached the second-floor landing when a small body suddenly crashed into me from the side.
"This is MY room!" Sophie's high-pitched shriek filled the hallway as she shoved at my legs with surprising strength for a six-year-old. "You can't have it!"
I stumbled back a step, tightening my grip on Maple to keep from dropping her. Before I could respond, Moira appeared from around the corner, her face flushed with embarrassment as she grabbed Sophie's arm.
"Sophie! Stop that right now!" She tugged the little girl back, her voice sharp with mortification. "You apologize to Elara this instant!"
But Sophie wasn't having it. She twisted in her mother's grip, her small face red and scrunched up with fury. "No! You promised! You said that room was going to be mine! You said she wasn't going to stay!"
"Sophie, please," Moira's voice dropped to a desperate whisper as she glanced at me with something that might have been genuine regret. "I never said exactly that. I said we would see. Now apologize."
"What's going on here?" James's voice cut through the commotion as he emerged from a side hallway, his expression already hardening as he took in the scene. His eyes moved from his crying daughter to his flustered wife to me standing there with Maple in my arms, and I could practically see him deciding whose side to take.
"My mom was just trying to calm Sophie down," he said, his tone taking on that edge of criticism I was becoming all too familiar with. "She only wanted Sophie to have a nice room. There's no reason Elara should be fighting with a six-year-old over space."
I felt something cold settle in my chest. "I'm not fighting with anyone. I'm just standing here."
"You know what she means," James continued, moving to stand beside Moira in a show of united parental front. "Mom promised Sophie that room before you came back. It's not fair to disappoint a child over something so trivial."
The word 'trivial' hit me like a slap. That room, with its carefully preserved decorations and its walls that still held the ghost of my parents' hopes for me, was anything but trivial. It was the only physical space in this entire massive estate that had been created specifically for me, the only room where I didn't feel like an intruder in someone else's territory.
"Nothing about this is trivial," I said quietly, but before I could continue, Nolan's voice joined the growing crowd.
"Oh come on, Elara. Don't be so dramatic." He leaned against the wall with studied casualness, but his eyes were sharp with judgment. "It's just a room. There are plenty of others you could use."
And then Aurora appeared, because of course she did, her timing as perfect as always. She moved through the gathering crowd with that graceful concern that made her look like a Renaissance painting of compassion, her voice soft and reasonable as she addressed the group.
"Perhaps I could offer a solution," she said, her dark eyes finding mine with what looked like genuine kindness. "Elara, you could take my room. It's quite lovely, and I wouldn't mind moving to a smaller space. Then Sophie could have the room she was promised, and everyone would be happy."
The suggestion hung in the air, and I watched as heads nodded around me. Ryan muttered something under his breath about how some people caused more trouble than they were worth, and Lily whispered to Nolan that Aurora was always so thoughtful, always trying to keep the peace.
They were all looking at me now, waiting for me to be reasonable, to be the bigger person, to give up the one thing in this house that was truly mine so that a six-year-old wouldn't cry and the family's precious peace wouldn't be disturbed.
James crossed his arms, his expression hardening into something close to contempt. "Well? Are you going to let Sophie have the room or not?"
I looked at him, this cousin who had never once asked me about my life before I came here, who had never wondered what it was like to grow up believing you were unwanted, who couldn't begin to understand what that room meant to me.
That room was the one my birth parents had prepared for me before I was even born, decorated with infinite hope and expectation. Every star chart on the walls, every book on the shelves carried their love. For eighteen years, even in my absence, my father had never changed a single thing because he had been waiting for me to come home. I had already lost eighteen years with my family. I would not give up this last piece of belonging.
And these people wanted me to hand it over to a child who had dozens of other rooms to choose from, just to make things easier, just to keep the peace.
"No," I said, the word coming out clear and final. "I'm not giving up my room."
Sophie's wail reached a new pitch, and she pointed at me with a trembling finger. "You're so mean! I hate you! Get out of my house!"