Darak pointed a shaking finger at him. “I’ll embrace the tranquilizer gun you promised me, asshole.”
Pen covered Lira’s ears. “Language!”
Krusk gently guided the baby away from Darak’s meltdown radius. “He’ll be fine.”
“He won’t,” Enka said cheerfully. “He’s unraveling.”
Darak snapped. “I amfine.”
Ribbon croaked—clearly implying he was not.
I leaned closer to Hanna. She was glowing in the afternoon sun, hair catching little threads of light. It made something in my chest flutter—soft and stupid and entirely out of my control.
I murmured, “We should… probably pick a place for Ribbon’s pond before he decides it himself.”
Hanna grinned up at me. “Yeah. And maybe a place for another little garden. And space for—oh Goddess Mother, look how cute!” She pointed at a spot where Darak had sketched a tiny square labeledfuture expansion.
She smiled at me, shy and soft. “Like… in case we ever need more rooms.”
My brain did something strange, that I was entirely unused to. It filled in possibilities of the future. Something that it had avoided for much too long.
And what I saw astounded me. A tiny hand reaching out for mine. A child with her hair and my eyes. Little footsteps running across the wooden floor. Hanna laughing in the doorway as she watched us, stomach swollen with our next youngling.
My heart slammed like it wanted out and the bond pulsed—warm, deep and full. Hanna’s eyes widened almost the same second.
“You’re imagining something,” she whispered.
I choked. “No.”
“Youare,” she said, voice pitchy.
“I’m not.”
“You are,” she hissed, pressing a light kiss to my lips. “You can tell me anything.”
The bond betrayed me completely by projecting a soft, sweet warmth that basically screamed what I was thinking of. The family I was dreaming of.
I groaned. “Gods. Just ignore that.”
She didn’t even try, pressing a harder kiss against my lips, slipping her tongue into my mouth and rewarding me with a kiss that spoke of her own dreams. Her own hopes.
A tiny smile tugged at her lips, shy, terrified and adorable. “What… what did you picture?”
I shook my head. “A... tiny witchling running through the house.”
The bond blazed while I pictured it and her eyes widened. She blinked up at me with a soft, sweet expression. “Savla.”
“I can’t control it,” I muttered. “It’s involuntary.”
She laughed under her breath. “You’re imagining our younglings?”
“I’m not—!” I hissed, voice cracking. “I mean—I wasn’t trying to—I wouldn’t want you to think—only whenyou’reready, and—”
She touched my hand, stopping my meaningless tirade. I froze, terror filling me to my core. I hoped that I hadn’t messed anything up by just announcing my dreams to her.
“It wasn’t a bad thought,” she whispered, cheeks flaming but eyes warm. “Just… surprising.”
My heart nearly stopped. Before I could answer, Krusk stomped over.
