Khaat was exhausted. She hadn't held her children yet. Not like that. Not like she had thought she might. She had pictured it differently, picture enough friendly faces that she might have savored the moment of their first breath along with them. Instead, their first breaths were terrifying for her, afraid theyd' cry, afraid James would hear them and they'd be caught. The thought of having to actually hide them in a hole in the ground under a rock was repulsive to her. And it left her physically and emotionally exhausted.
"Drink your tea," Marcus said to her, passing the mug to her. She figured he had used a wee bit of his slight of hand skills to perhaps slip another drop or two of calming potion into her cup. She didn't fight him, drinking a few more sips, yawning. She watched her father with Abbey.
Abbey used a simple hand signal with her grandfather, who picked up a storybook from the end table near his chair. He used a simple signal with her, and her eyes seemed to light up as she understood. He opened the book and laid it on the floor. Khaat liked watching her father do this sort of magic. These simple charms, all ones she remembered from her own childhood, were designed merely to delight a child. Nothing more. And now, he was so accomplished at them that he made them look ridiculously easy.
He made one easy, flowing motion with his hand, as if he were simply reaching into the book to snatch the story out of it, tossing the story up onto the ceiling. Abbey laughed in delight, tossing herself down on the floor to lay on the floor and simply look up. He tossed her the throw pillow from his chair and she put it behind her head, watching the illustrations from the book play out the story for her in a colorful, watercolor mime on the ceiling.
Marcus smiled, always enjoying how much like music the laugh of a child sounded like in his ears. He was satisfied with Khaat's tea consumption now and saw she was sleepy. He took the mug from her and saw Robert and the hand signal he made now.
"Hallie," Marcus said. "He'd like to talk to you. Michael will go with you to translate." Robert stood up and headed down the hallway to one of the doorways on the left, the door to Brian's office.
"It'll be fine," Michael Tremaine said to her. "He doesn't bite, and I'm just the messenger. This way." He motioned her come with him to follow Robert.
by 
