Goblets started floating. Silverware rose from the tables, hovering in mid-air. The centerpieces lifted off their bases, flowers and candles suspended by invisible force.
“I CAN’T MAKE IT STOP!” He was shaking violently now, face wet with tears.
“What in the gods-”
“Portals! Multiple portals!”
“Impossible! Wolves don’t have magic!”
Kane Aurelius stood, his voice booming. “He has powers. Full magical powers!”
These portals were not like the one that opened between Earth and Lytopia, which were just a beam of bright light you had to step through to see what was on the other side. In Killian’s portals, you couldseewhat was on the other side. One of the portals showed a forest, dense and dark. Another opened into complete blackness. A third revealed someone’s kitchen, a confused servant staring through at us with a half-eaten sandwich in her hand.
Any other time, that would have been hilarious. Right now, I couldn’t process anything except my son’s face.
“Unless he’s not pure wolf,” Mortimer Goldridge said quietly.
The implication hit like a physical blow.
“Is the child even yours, King Malachar?” a representative from Ebonvale demanded. Then came the whispers of the nobility, of all dignitaries.
“The queen must have...”
“An affair! It must be an affair!”
“The human had an affair?”
“She’s bewitched the king! Passed off her bastard as his heir!”
The words kept coming from every direction, each one uglier than the last. Affair. Bastard. Witch. Every accusation designed to wound. I couldn’t focus on them, though. Because Killian wasreaching for me with those clawed hands, terror written across every feature, and nothing else in this room mattered.
“ENOUGH!” I didn’t recognize my own voice.
Mal was standing too, alpha command radiating from him. “Everyonesilence!”
But the damage was done. Killian was gasping for air, his powers spiraling completely out of control. More portals opened. A chair lifted off the ground. Someone’s plate flew across the room and shattered against the wall.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! Mama, I didn’t mean to be bad!”
I dropped to my knees beside him, ignoring the flying silverware and the accusations and the seventy pairs of eyes watching us. My hands found his face. Clawed and shifted, but still my son.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. Look at me. Just look at Mama.”
“But everyone’s scared!” His voice cracked. “I FEEL IT! I feel all of them!”
Oh god. Did he have some sort of empath abilities?How…?Though that was just one more on the list of surprises for tonight. My son was feeling everyone’s emotions, all seventy people in this room with their fear and anger and suspicion crashing into his four-year-old mind at once.
No wonder he’d gone quiet during dinner. He’d been absorbing all of it. Every whispered insult, every suspicious glare, every cold assessment of his worth. He’d felt it all.
I was going to kill every single person in this room. Later. After I saved my son.
“Nobody else matters right now. Just you and me.”
“Make them stop feeling scared! It hurts!”
People were backing away now, some reaching for weapons. Guards were trying to contain the situation but had no idea how to fight magic.
Good luck with that,I thought grimly. I don’t know how to contain it either and it’s coming out of my kid.
