The Spirit Guardians Book 3: Fated

Chapter 12

"When's Mommy coming back?" Elijah asked as she raced his toy car alongside Marc's on the living room carpet. Marc made vroom vroom sounds as he raced his blue car alongside Elijah's.

"Not until tomorrow," Marc answered, trying to distract the child by racing his car faster.

"I want her to eat dinner with us," Elijah said.

"She won't tonight. But she'll be back tomorrow," Marc assured him.

Elijah was beginning to frown until Lillian announced that it was time to eat. The toddler's face lit up, and he jolted up, beginning to rush over to the kitchen. Marc rolled his eyes and followed the child, beginning to shove food on his plate.

"I don't like green beans," Elijah complained.

"Yeah, but you have to eat them," Marc said as he piled on another scoop.

Elijah began to scream. "No! I don't want them!"

"Come on, Elijah, I already let you have a cookie earlier. Cassie's going to be mad if I don't make you eat—"

Lillian slowly pushed Marc away and stared at Elijah. "Elijah, who's your favorite superhero?"

"Batman!" he answered enthusiastically.

"Why do you like Batman?"

"He strong!"

"And you know what made him super strong? He ate his vegetables, all of them. Don't you want to save the day and be like Batman?" Lillian asked.

Elijah frowned.

"Just eat a little bit. But...psst...I heard if you finish your whole plate you may have super strength by tomorrow," Lillian said, wandering away.

Marc watched in disbelief as the child shoved his small fork into one of the green beans and began chewing. Marc wasn't sure how Lillian managed to be so good with children. Or Cassie. Elijah was easy to play with, but Marc wasn't so good at the parenting aspect.

Wyatt and Conny slowly took a seat, beginning to pile food onto their own plates. Mitsuki wandered in after them, and while standing, filled up her plate and walked away.

"You're not going to eat here?" Lillian asked from the stove.

"No," Mitsuki answered, disappearing just as quickly as she had entered.

Marc sat awkwardly, noticing the tension in the room. What had happened between those two? They had been acting strange ever since Cassie's parents had visited a week prior. There was always high tension anytime the two of them were in the same room these days.

Marc sighed, guessing it wasn't his problem, and watched as Elijah gobbled up the rest of his food.

"Can I go play?" Elijah asked innocently.

"Not just yet," Marc said as he took another bite. "Everyone else is still eating."

"Just let him go play," Lillian murmured. "Cassie's not here."

"All right. You have to stay by the couches right over there," Marc said, pointing to the small living area across from his seat.

Elijah nodded and scooted down his chair, running over to go play with his toy cars again. Marc leaned back and let out a sigh as he finished his plate of food.

"Having trouble parenting?" Conny teased.

"Shut up," Marc grumbled.

"I can help you, Marc," Lillian offered.