Chapter 204

At midnight, we all stand around while I light the fire with great ceremony, and there are a good number of Ooohs and Ahhhs that go around the room – mostly from the kids, but also Jesse – even though it is a small, unremarkable fire – especially after the bonfire I saw this evening.

As soon as it’s lit, though, people begin to turn in – hugging and kissing their loved ones before heading off to their respective rooms. Even Jesse’s family will stay here tonight – there’s no point in going home when we’ll all be together again for breakfast.

Jackson frowns at me a little, though, when I stay in place.

“What,” he asks, giving me a nudge with his elbow. “No bed for you?”

“Nah,” I say, smiling at him and tilting my head towards the fire. “Ceremonial duties, after all. Has to keep burning. I’ll sleep here,” I say, lifting my chin towards the hearth. “I do it every year. Quite cozy and warm.”

“None of us make her do this,” my mom says, coming over and giving me a kiss on the cheek as she presses some pillows and blankets into my arms. “Her own insanity and superstition is all that keeps it going.”

Jackson laughs but just nods, buying into it, letting me have my little tradition. But when the final door shuts, my last family member disappearing behind it, he’s still here.

“What,” I say, spreading my blankets out in front of the fire. “Your beds not calling you tonight?”

And I have to admit, I’m not really surprised when he grabs another pillow off the couch and comes to sit with me on the hard stone of the hearth. “Like I said, trouble,” he murmurs, smirking at me in the firelight. “Where you sleep, I sleep. So if you’re in front of the fire? So am I.”

I grin and lean forward to kiss my mate, tugging off his suit jacket and letting him lay me out in front of the flames.

I wake up a few hours later in the very early light of dawn, blinking and sniffing. Groggy, I turn my head towards the fire and scowl when I see that it’s smoldering low – that it hasn’t quite gone out, but it’s well on its way to doing that.

Sighing, I start to press myself up from my very cozy spot sprawled out over Jackson’s chest, frowning with dismay when I realize that I drooled a bit on the black t-shirt he changed into to sleep in, but I go very, very still when I notice something…quite strange.

Jackson is sleeping flat on his back, as he always does, with one arm curved up over me. But his other arm, to my shock, is not flung out to the side as usual –

It is, instead, curled around a little tiny girl. I burst into a surprised and delighted grin when I realize that it’s Seraphina – that she snuck in here and is now dead asleep, snuggled up to Jackson’s side.

I mean, as one of the eldest cousins in a batch of ten kids, I’m no stranger to the kinds of sneaking from room to room that kids do at sleepover events. But this!? It’s one for the books.

I go absolutely still as I look between the two of them, not wanting to wake either of them, because it’s so cute –– the gigantic terrifying Alpha next to the tiny little baby girl.

But Jackson, as he always does, senses somehow that I’m awake. His eyes flutter open.

“Jackson,” I whisper, my voice almost shaking with glee, “did you know about this?”

“Hmm?” he says, frowning at me, and then he looks down to where his arm is curled protectively around Sera. “Oh, yeah,” he says, laughing a little. “You mean our midnight wraith? She who creeps in and stares at me until I wake up, scaring the crap out of me in the middle of the night? Honestly, I don’t know how you slept through it, Ari.”

I laugh lightly at his description, and he grins, beginning to slowly stroke my back.

“Yeah, she came in about three hours ago,” he says with a sigh, glancing down at her. “She shushed me, and told me not to wake you, and then just…laid down and went to sleep. I…didn’t want her to roll over and get burned or anything, so…” he shrugs and nods down at his arm, still protecting the little girl.

“You are so cute,” I whisper, my eyes shining.

He frowns. “Why is that cute? It’s…practical.”

But I just laugh, and tuck my head down against his chest, and press a kiss there.

Seraphina gives a little mew and a yawn, stretching out and then lifting her head to frown at us. “Is it breakfast?” she asks, rubbing at her eye and speaking in a whisper like we are.

“No, Fifi, it’s very early,” I whisper, reaching out to drift a hand over her soft honey-brown hair. “Why are you here?”

“Because,” she murmurs, blinking the sleep away and pointing at Jacks. “I said I’d be nice to him. He is my big puppy dog and I have to take care of him.”

I laugh, delighted, and snuggle closer to Jacks. He growls vaguely, clearly not as charmed by this description as I am.

“Why are we up?” Sera asks, yawning. “If it’s not breakfast time?”

“I just woke up because the fire is going out,” I reply, nodding towards it. “I have to get it going again.”

Sera nods at me very seriously like she hears this sort of thing all the time. But then she turns her head to the side. “Well, maybe we can have a treat,” she whispers, nodding wisely. “Before breakfast.”

I laugh at her and nod, leaning close and whispering like it’s a great secret. “Why don’t you show Jackson where Aunt Ella keeps the snacks? He’s tall enough to reach.”

“Wait, why am I involved in this –“ Jackson murmurs, going stiff with anxiety. But Seraphina and I ignore his protest and she grins at me, grabbing Jackson’s hand as I slide off of him and tugging him hard towards the cabinet above the bar, where mom keeps all the best treats.

Jackson groans, sending me a terrified look over his shoulder, but he bends down so as not to take his hand from Sera’s and follows the tiny duchess, ready to do her bidding.

I grin, shaking my head at my mate as I start to restack logs in the fire, yawning as I set them up on top of each other in the smoking embers, making a vague pyramid shape. Jacks and Seraphina come back over a few minutes later, their arms filled with treats, and they settle down next to me, Seraphina bosses Jacks, telling him which snack packages to open and how to lay them out on the blanket. Jackson does everything she says without complaint, opening way too much food. But I just smile and don’t stop them, letting them have their fun. It’s Midwinter, after all.

When I reach for the matches, though, Jackson reaches out a hand to stop me.

“What are you doing?” he asks, frowning. Sera, leaning against Jackson and stuffing gummy candies in her mouth, frowns too, instantly taking his side.

I narrow my eyes at my mate. “Jackson,” I murmur, “Of all the things that I thought would need explanation today…the connection between matches and a live flame is not something I thought would crop up.”

He smirks at me, and Sera looks up at him and then mimics his expression, smirking too. “Ariel, you’re a goddess-blessed sorceress who can melt glass just by staring at it. And you don’t think you can start a fire without matches?”