“Away.Twenty-three years later, I am back.”
“You look the same.”
“I know.”She looked at Breen.“So, where is my son?”
Breen smiled.“This way.They are in one of the private rooms because of the kids.”
Breen glided through the hall that divided the different spaces filled with diners so that no one felt overwhelmed or neglected.The private rooms were just that.Private.
One of the doors flew opened, and Ithal raced toward her.He jumped up, and she held him as he wrapped himself around her.“Mom.You came.”
He didn’t mean the restaurant.He meant the bus.“I said I would always come, and I always will.You are my most necessary thing.”She murmured it against his ear.
He looked at her with tears in his eyes.“We were scared.”
“I know.I can’t do anything about the scared, but I could make it stop as soon as I could.”
Vaken was standing behind him.“He wasn’t scared when we went into the water because he could manage it, but the rest of us couldn’t.He was scared when he saw we couldn’t get out, and he was scared when it took three times to get through to you.”
“I am sorry, bug.Next time, the moment you are out of my sight, the com stays on.”
“Yes, please.But I appreciate the save,” he murmured into her neck.
She kissed his cheek and ignored the diners around them.Breen touched her and steered her toward the private room.“Subtle.”
“That’s what I do.”
When they had been shepherded into the room and the door was closed, she kept kissing Ithal’s temple until she felt him relax.“Did you have dessert?”
“Mr.Klauz kept trying, but I was worried they would take you away.”
“Aw, honey.I just went with them to be polite.If I needed to be loose, I would be loose, and we would be travelling to find you a new place to go to school.”
Ithal leaned back in her arms and grinned.“Yeah.Nothing stops you.”
“Nope.Nothing stops me.”
Drin smiled.“You can take a seat.The clips from the riverside are being shared online, as well as the ones where you flew through the city.”
Ekron nodded.“You have done that before.”
“I can assure you, I have not.I have never lifted a bus before.”
Techor said, “What are you using?”
She sat and held Ithal on her lap.“Energy tethers.I looped as many of them under the bus as I could, and then I started lifting.”
Vaken smiled.“You told me to make holes.”
“And you did an amazing job.It lowered the lift weight by a few hundred pounds and let me get you above the building when I flew.Thank you, Vaken.You made it all possible.”
Ithal sighed.“All I did was call.”
“And you held the signal, which kept everything necessary.Without that open com, I might have lost power.”
Ithal looked up.“Really?Miaette was talking to you.”
“Miaette activated due to panic, and I was keeping her busy by getting her to translate.You know what happens when I talk to a psychic who catches me by surprise.”
