Moonlight in your eyes- The prince's Selkie mate

A big night

Greer

“Emmi!”

I shake my head again, smiling as I watch Khai bound down the stairs toward our sister and her husband. They are a little late, as always, but we'll be okay. With the royal fleet drivers hoking everyone off the road on our way over to the event location.

Not all of us are as excited about this evening as Khai though, who always liked to dress up. I can’t say the same about the rest of us. Jordan fuzzes with his collar, and the unusually ‘fancy’ man bun is just ... not my brother.

There were literal strategy meetings over the fact that he refused to cut off his hair since he was about 10. All the royal consorts made it sound like the worst possible thing that could happen to shifter monarchy. 'An 'unkept' King is simply alarming.' Well, they got it their way when, a few years ago, it became clear that my oldest brother would not be taking over from our parents. Now the just have Luca and his wardrobe to deal with.

I see him stretch a leg and shake his head at the tight fit of the pants some well-meaning person picks for him to wear tonight. My youngest brother in anything other than his workout shorts is cause for celebration. The same goes for Jade- the baby of the family is still fuzzing with her dress when we reach the stairs going down to the palace entrance hall

I do get it, though. I’d rather be in my scrubs right now administering dewormer. But: It’s the first time for the whole family to show up anywhere in what..? About a year? And it’s important to our parents… OK, probably more important to Mom. She used to hate those kinds of functions... that hasn't changed.

Now, however, they are her way of getting us all in one place. Which makes it worth it, according to her.

Since most of us have started college or have a career we’re pursuing, the time we spend as a family is practically none existent. It’s never all of us together. There is always someone missing. So this is an important event. Ergo: suck it up and play the part!

I have to turn all my attention to my sibling’s banter to separate it from the loud humming sound that started its way through me a few minutes ago. My heart thunders in my ears, and I feel my stomach doing double axels. The aura of a vision coming on. It has been looming all afternoon, but now it’s getting stronger and stronger, as I walk down the stairs. Until it hits.

A small room, dark. And there are girls. Several of them are lined up in a room with a one-way mirror. Those images mix with the ones of a shipping container, the girls bound together and…

I swallow hard, hearing my Mom call my name, but there is nothing I can do. The images flash a few more times, like lightning bolts behind my eyelids, until my vision blurs. It takes several minutes for it to clear again in a way that I can make out my siblings staring up at me and place the pressure on my forearm as Dad closing his hand around it.

“Are you OK?” Mom looks at me worriedly, her brows pulling together over the heterochromatic eyes I've found comfort in since I was little. When Dad lets go of my arm, I take a step further down the stairs, as she reacher out and grabs my hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just an... intense vision. I think I have never felt like one of them was this close. Urgent almost.” She nods up at me. The height difference between her and most of us is still amusing. No matter how you look at it.

“Anything specific?”

“Several... young woman... I think it was more the atmosphere that got to me. So dark.”

I see Silas shut Khai up, who is getting ready to hoot or make some other inappropriate comment by ramming his elbow in his twin's ribs.

“ It was weird. Someone was watching them. And then there was … I think I saw people bidding on them."

My thoughts muddle with the images, trying to describe what I just saw. It's difficult, though. This feeling of dread is still looming, twisting my stomach into a nod, and it's entirely new to me. Sure, I feel the intense emotions others are going through while I have a vision, but they usually don't last well after it has passed.

" Sounds ...dark.”

Even Khai’s usual smirk is wiped off his face for now. They all look at me with somber expressions. This is new to them as well. I don't usually share what I see if it doesn't directly affect them. So, the consensus of confusion is understandable.

Silas is the only one who seems a little angry. The urge to right any wrong done is unbelievably strong in this one. His integrity is close to terrifying sometimes. Polar opposite of his twin, who doesn’t ever seem to take anything seriously. Except maybe his work.

“Do…you want to stay here?”

Mom examines my face, scrutinizing my expression. She has the same gift as me, so she knew what was going on when my visions started at age four. She'd lived through it herself. But it also means I have been doing those for more than 18 years now.

And still, this one was different. They usually don’t leave me with so much… dread. I can’t really describe it. Even when I see something dark, it usually doesn’t affect me much. Because I know that this isn't necessarily something terrible to come for me or a loved one. Usually it's totally within the realm of possibility to change the outcome of the situation. The Vision is merely a different thread of reality.

But right now, I feel like someone is squeezing my stomach, and ice increases a significant part of my perivascular system. I can’t burden the others, though. Not with this and not minutes before a big obligation most of us have been dreading for days. I’ll deal with it. Be a team player!

“No, I want to come. I’m fine.”

Giving Mom a warm smile, I squeeze her hand reassuringly. Then, pushing all my calm toward her, I widen it, and sure enough, she relaxes and smiles back.

“Alright. Então vamos, pessoal!” (Then let’s go, people!”)

Waving his big hands in the air like he’s directing airplanes on the tarmac, Dad ushers us toward the waiting cars.

It’s a short drive, but I spent it reviewing the visions repeatedly and struggling to wrap my head around what I saw and the feelings it evoked. Everyone says that NOTHING usually upsets me. Or at least it’s hard to do so in their eyes. Right now I wish for that to be true.

This vision still has my insides in knots almost an hour later, and it feels like a swarm of bees invaded the muscles in my legs. It takes everything in me not to bop my knee up and down the whole time, especially since Silas, next to me, does just that.

Once we pull up and I get out, my stomach sinks again. This seems… familiar. My gut feeling tells me to take note of everything, and my fires start pulsing in the back of my mind. That is never a good sign. As a dragon shifter, I got my fires and the ability to change/shift when I was about six, but I never felt it that strongly trying to push me a certain way.

And more alarming: It doesn’t ebb off. Everyone around me appreciates the opulence as we enter the manor. But my eyes focus on the stairs leading down to what I assume is a basement, and a light flashes in front of them, rendering me blind for a second.

“Something’s off here.”, I mutter. I see Jade looking up at me, but we’re already shown to the hall where they are hosting tonight’s event. The Carters went all out with this. It's their annual reminder to the masses that they are still here. And that their wealth and bloodline could match that of my family. A reminder that they are options to 'enduring' my parents as leaders... So far, no one was ever serious about taking them up on that offer.

As soon as the first person registers our parents, they’re surrounded, and it takes us a few minutes to step away from that. Great start to this evening.