What?
The baby’s here. Could you please go to the apartment and make sure everything’s ready for us? We came down to visit Donnal, and the baby’s here.
Are you serious? I’m going to kick Mercury’s butt. I was in labor for a hundred thousand years, and he just pops his baby out like he’s peeling a grape?
Well, I’m not sure it’s like peeling a grape. More like gravity pulling a fruit down off the vine.
Ew. I’m on my way to your place again with Reno and Triton. We’ve got your back, my friend.
Thank you.
He held Mercury during that last hard push, Mercury grunting and groaning, and there he was. Their son. Right there in Rowan’s hands.
“Look at him, hailee. He’s so beautiful.” Their sweet boy was huge considering how small Mercury was. He was going to have Talon’s size, but it looked like he was going to have Mercury’s coloring. He was a tiny, bright, shining mirror.
“Oh, he’s so pretty.” Mercury sniffed, the tears coming now that the labor was over.
Talon thought he understood. It had all happened so fast.
“I’m so proud of you, my love. You did so well.” He beamed down at his hailee while Rowan, and the attendant he hadn’t even seen until now, worked to clean up the baby and Mercury.
They allowed Talon to take care of the cord, which made him feel ten feet tall.
Mercury blinked at him, licking his lips. “Thank you, braaken.”
“You are most welcome, love. My hailee. Thank you for this gift. My son. My sokkar. I will protect you both always.” He bent to nuzzle Mercury’s cheek. “No more hunting rocks with Kami without me. That way I will be there if you slide.”
“And you can always lead us home.”
He chuckled as Rowan handed their son to Mercury. “Exactly. Shall we call him Biram?”
“Yes. We will name him Biram, but I want to call him Silver.” Mercury sounded completely sure. Firm.
“Silver it is. And if Kami makes jokes about old TV shows, I will smite him.”
Mercury raised an eyebrow. “I do not know this TV show.”
“Good. Don’t allow him to make you watch it.” He would kick Kami for that.
“It won’t matter. That’s what we’ll call him, because that’s his name.” And just like so much with his Mercury, that was that.
Chapter
Twenty-One
“Okay, he needs a bottle when he cries, and he’s kind of heavy. If he?—”
Reno stared at Mercury like he was crazy, which Mercury got because he was feeling a little crazy right now. “I have a baby. I know how to do this.”
“Yes, but you don’t know how to do it with mine, and what if I don’t come back?”
“You’re going to come back,” Reno snarled. “You’re taking Talon and Kami with you, and you’re going to come back.”
Kami shook his head. “Mercury, we don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, we do. You said somebody had a stone out there, and we needed to bring it back. Right? We’re not just doing this for fun and practice.”
They had been practicing going from one apartment to the other, and then from downstairs to upstairs, and then from right outside the mountain to places inside the mountain, so he was getting pretty good at sliding with precision.
