“Trying to get them to eat,” she explained in a hushed voice. “The legend says if you can be the first to feed a chimeling, you will have a companion for life.”
“But I thought they only ate insects,” Megan said doubtfully.
Indeed, many of the tiny creatures—which looked like miniature glowing seahorses, when any of them held still long enough to look at—were already making a meal of the mosquitoes buzzing around our heads. Tiny tongues of flame—almost too little to see—were zapping out and frying the blood suckers as the spawnlings had their first hunt.
But there were a few who seemed more interested in Jalli’s handful of jellybeans than the mosquitoes. At least three chimeling babies—or spawnlings as Jalli had called them—were sniffing at her palm. After a moment, one of them shot out a tiny tongue of flame and melted the end of one of the jellybeans. Darting forward, he gobbled up the gooey treat. Then, apparently deciding he liked it, he came back for more.
The other two miniature chimelings did the same and soon the three of them were gobbling jellybeans as fast as their tiny jaws could bite into them.
“Wow, look at them go,” Avery said doubtfully. “An all-sugar diet. These are going to be the first chimelings in the history of the realms with diabetes.”
“Avery, don’t say that,” I exclaimed. “I’m sure they’ll be just fine,” I added, for Jalli’s benefit.
“Well, I’m mostly still worried about Mr. Seahorse.” Kaitlyn was still watching her pet anxiously.
He was still perched on the tree branch by her head, but he had stopped holding his pouch open. Instead, his little arms were folded neatly by his sides again. I thought he looked normal, though his rounded tummy was sadly deflated.
“Will he be okay?” Kaitlyn asked Jalli. “I mean, chimelings aren’t one of those animals that, uh, die after they give birth, are they?”
I could see the tears glimmering in her eyes as she spoke and knew how very worried she was.
Suddenly the door to the castle opened again and Ari came rushing out.
“L’lorna, what’s wrong?” he murmured, coming to put an arm around Kaitlyn. “I felt your distress through our bond.”
“I felt your worry as well, my Witch Queen.” Suddenly Griffin was there also—he seemed to slide out of the shadows as silently as though he was a shadow himself to stand at Megan’s side.
“Hail, hail, the gang’s all here,” Avery said dryly before either Kaitlyn or Megan could answer. “For all you Blood-bonded lovers, just calm down. Nothing bad has happened. It’s just Mr. Seahorse giving birth to about a hundred babies.”
“He what?” Griffin asked blankly. “But I was under the impression that Mr. Seahorse was male.”
Of course, then we all had to explain all over again what Jalli had said about chimelings all being male and being born pregnant.
“And I’m so worried that now that he’s had his babies he’ll…he’ll die.” Kaitlyn’s voice broke on the last word and I saw Ari’s arms tighten around her.
“Dios, sweetheart—you don’t have to worry about that,” he reassured her. Chimelings live a long time—years and years.”
“But they only spawn once—so it’s a big deal. Look, Ari!” Jalli held out her hand triumphantly where the three spawnlings were still contentedly eating jellybeans. “Aren’t they adorable?” she asked him. “I’m going to name them Jelly Belly, Sweet Tooth, and Spike.”
Ari grinned at his little sister.
“Excellent names. And with three chimelings of your own, your luck will be second to none.”
“I don’t even care that they’re lucky—they’re just so cute.” Jalli peered into the palm of her hand at the tiny creatures—who already looked a bit bigger, I thought. They had started out being about the size of unshelled sunflower seeds. Now they were at least as large as plump raisins. I wondered how long it would take them to reach their full adult size—which was about the size of a woman’s hand, not counting their large, diaphanous wings.
“Darling, don’t you think you ought to be getting back to the dorm if the show is over here?” Griffin asked Megan. “You wouldn’t want to be caught out after curfew.”
“You’re right.” Megan yawned. “It’s getting late.”
“Especially for those of us not lucky enough to be Blood-Bonded to the man of our dreams” Avery put in. “Guys, are we ready to go?”
We all murmured that we were—except for Jalli, who was still locked in rapt contemplation of her three new pets. I kind of wished that I had thought to bring a treat so I could have caught one myself. But really, what would I have done with it? I still lived half my life in the human world, thanks to my job at the I Scream diner. How could I have explained a flying seahorse sitting on my shoulder to my boss or the customers?
“Come on, guys—let’s go,” I said, and yawned also.