My son.
I smiled, wishing there wasn’t so much grief and sadness attached to it, as I ran my fingers over the jewelry-making station in the special little house Vaxan had created for the four of them. It was a perfect add-in for Winter. He loved to make his wire creatures. From what I knew about his life at Loxley Academy, he hadn’t done much of that since being there. Mostly because of all this insanity.
I shoved a hand through my hair.
It wasn’t right.
None of this was.
It wasn’t what we’d wanted for our son.
We’d wanted him to have more than us, to be without persecution, and so much pressure bearing down on him.
Instead, now there was…this.
“Love?”
I spun at the sound of Lazriel’s whisper.
“Sweets,” I returned, walking to him.
He threw his arms around me and we gave each other a much-needed squeeze.
When we eased back, he still held onto my hands, stroking my fingers. “Saw Sylas on my way up. Asleep on a fluffy white couch all tucked in with a blue throw.”
“The tucking was Cassius,” I said, with a chuckle. “I was outside at the edge of the perimeter casting an illusion over the house for them as added protection for when they all return here.”
“Aww. So much sweetness baked into all of that.” He arched an eyebrow then looked to the side of me into the room, taking it all in. “So it’s true what I heard from my dad? Win is moving in with his loves?”
“That’s what this house is meant to be for, yeah. He doesn’t even know about it yet, though, because… because of Ruxnoth taking him.”
He grimaced, just like me.
“How did the wolf run go?”
“Good. Should hold me over for a while. Cas called me here so I could vamp-speed Sylas back to our place. Something about teleportation with the magic aspect risking touching him and waking him up when he needs to definitely stay down and rest as much as possible?”
“That’s right. And Cassius will be back any minute. He left to grab some pastries from Vantiqe.”
His eyes sparkled. “Of course he did.” He swung his head back toward the landing, then asked me, “Hey, you think it’s okay if I check out some other rooms?”
“No.”
“Come on, I want to see what Win’s life is like with them.”
“I only came in here because the door was wide open. All the rest up here are magically locked—Vaxan’s magic.”
“He prepared for this?”
“No doubt. He’s very protective of them. You can look at the kitchen. It’s open. Same with the living room, but you already saw that.”
“Huh. Well, I guess the boundary thing when it comes to Win is something the four of us need to work on, be better at.”
“Yeah, we really do need to do much better with it.”
“Cas was on board with that from the beginning. It’s been me, you, and Sylas. But even if you and I agree to be better with it, how the fuck are we gonna convince our necromantic heartthrob to do the same after everything that’s happened?”
“Actually, I think he’s gonna be the best at doing it going forward precisely because of what’s happened.”
