all left to change. The men had each wanted to be alone with their own thoughts for a while and consider the questions they wanted to ask.
Chapter 5
Dinner was late being served because as the staff had come to escort Hunter and Brexley to dinner, they found out neither girl had appropriate dinner attire. The staff escorted the four men and Cassia to the library, and they were offered brandy and cigars, while they scrambled to find the girls something to wear.
When they were all finally seated at the large dining room table with both camps sitting on opposite sides, Sawyer walked in and sat down at the head of the table.
Sawyer noticed that the girls looked a little uncomfortable in their modest clothes, but she certainly wasn’t going to allow shorts or tank tops at her dinner table.
She smiled at everyone and spoke. “Good evening, everyone, I trust your rooms are satisfactory?”
They all smiled and nodded. Cassia had taken an immediate liking to Sawyer. She liked how the young woman held herself in a regal manner. She was the first to speak.
“Our rooms are wonderful! Have you lived in this house your whole life?” she asked.
“Yes, I have spent my entire life here,” Sawyer answered and smiled back at her. She was relieved that someone was finally speaking.
“Well, I hope one of my brothers is chosen then, I won’t mind coming to visit,” she said.
“Cassia! You are bordering on rudeness,” Marcus rebuked.
“It’s fine, I appreciate her candor and honesty. Tonight I am here to answer any and all questions any of you might have. So please speak freely and ask anything you want, nothing is off-limits,” Sawyer told them all.
“I’m sure we will all try to behave accordingly,” stated Marcus and gave his sister a side glance.
“Where is Astrid?” Lucas inquired.
“She has gone to the fae realm, her job is done,” answered Sawyer.
“What was her job?” asked Liam.
“To keep you four safe until it was time for you to come here. Now that you are here, I will keep you safe until my soul sings,” Sawyer answered.
Liam laughed at this. “I’m pretty sure we don’t need you to keep us safe. In fact, the only people who have kidnapped us lately are you and your band of fairies,” he answered rudely.
She turned to look at him directly for a moment, and her eyes never wavered. “I know this is an uncomfortable situation for everyone, but I think if we all try to keep it civil, it will go more smoothly for everyone. As for keeping you safe, I’m sure you believe you are invincible, but I assure you that you are not. I know it must hurt the ego to hear a woman say she will protect you, and if it causes you to lose sleep, please pretend that I never said it. I will, however, protect you, even if your attitude makes me upset.” She then smiled and waited to see if he would respond.
He only smirked in response. He thought this frail-looking girl was the one who would need protecting if she continued to speak to him that way. It was Hunter who responded.
“Well, I have some questions for you,” she said challengingly.
“Oh, Hunter, please don’t start.” Lucas groaned.
“It’s fine, let her speak,” Sawyer said.
“Okay, well, couple of things. Why do you think I’m supposed to sit back and let you try to steal my boyfriend? What makes you so special that we all have to drop everything and come wait here for you to have your birthday? And why are you having us dress up for a dinner that only you can eat, it seems pretty stupid.” She was seething by the time she finished.
Sawyer remained calm after the outburst and waited while the staff poured wine for the table and served her a bowl of soup. When they left, she took a sip of wine and tried to answer the questions.
“The reason for the dining room is simply so we can all sit and talk. You obviously won’t eat, but you can sit and talk. As for why we dress for dinner, that is a simple answer really. We are not at a county fair eating hotdogs on sticks. If we were, then your earlier attire would have been just fine. We, however, are in my home, and in my formal dining room, we dress for dinner here. If you don’t like it, don’t come next time. I don’t need you here.
“The answer to your other question is more complicated. This decision to have these four men here was made before I was ever born. One of them and I are fated together. It can be hard to accept that your fate has been decided without anyone asking your permission. To accept the fact that your fate was written long before you were born. I understand this better than most. One of these men is my soul mate, and I have no choice in the matter, and neither will he. If it happens to be Liam, then you must come to accept that he was never meant to be your fate and a different life awaits you. That is the basis of why everyone is here now. Two of us are connected, and we must find out who it is,” she answered.
“How will we know who this person is?” Lucas asked.
“My birthday is in two months. On the full moon after my birthday, I will sing a song. When I sing on that night, our ethereal energies will seek one another out and combine,” she said.
“Why don’t you just sing now then and get it over with?” Julius asked fascinated by what she was describing.
“I can’t. I won’t know the song until the moment I start to sing it, and it won’t fill my soul until the full moon, after my powers have come to me fully. If I could have sang it before, believe me, I would have. It will come when the full moon shines at its fullest, and only then will my voice know how to sing my soul song,” she said, looking at him.
“What will you do if on that night no song fills your soul?” he asked her, and their eyes locked for a moment. She thought his brown eyes looked so familiar, and she knew she had seen them before, but she couldn’t place them.
“I have a song, Julius, it has always been there, and I can feel it just under the surface of everything. When I sing, one of you will connect to me in a way that will be a perfect love, and we will share eternity together,” she answered.
“So why won’t this Mother person just tell you who he is? Why do all of them have to be here?” asked Brexley.
Sawyer looked at the young vapid blonde. She knew Hunter had brought her along as moral support for the coming days. She also knew that even though she and Hunter and Brexley were the closest in age, they all had nothing in common. Brexley and Hunter had gone off to college together. Their lives had been an endless cycle of popularity and a good time. Neither had any real concern for their futures or what it might hold. Even their change had been done on whim. They refused to hold anything of substance in their personalities and were never concerned with anyone else but themselves. They remained immature and still clung to human ideals. She knew she needed to exercise patience when dealing with either of them, because while they were all the same age, they had different priorities. She chastised herself for speaking harshly to Hunter earlier. She would have to try to be more understanding to these two. If they made it past a century in the change, she would be very surprised.
“She won’t say because she will not speak of a future
