Page 78 of In Your Light

Salem’s face darkened, saddened.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Fray asked, looking between them.

Salem shook his head. “It puts another target on her life. She’s a girl, for a start. That’s the reason Pania was abandoned by her birth family and was hidden away all her life. And she’s a mimic. The very reason my mother was killed and the reason why I was in hiding for centuries. And she’s a descendant of the Cat Sidhe. A trickster god.” He looked at where Áine was sound asleep, peaceful, without a care in the world. “And now this.”

“She will be protected,” Ciaran said. “They all will. By all of us. No one will get close to them, I promise.”

Salem gestured to where all four of them were currently asleep on Hadeom. “They’re sleeping on Hades right now.”

Fray laughed, and Sawyer snorted. Aurin began to pick up kids’ clothes, folding them neatly.

Kellan picked up a pair of little boots and handed them to Salem with a smile. “I’ll be back to check on him. Yell if anything changes.”

He left, with Tobin and Fray following him.

“We’ll leave you be,” Ciaran said. He looked at Fyn. “We won’t be far away. If you need anything at all, just ask.”

“Thank you,” Fyn said. Then it was just him, Aurin, and Salem.

Salem sat on the floor next to the mattress, as close to the kittens as possible. He glared at Hadeom at first, then as he watched his babies, his frown smoothed out into a fond smile.

Aurin sat on the sofa and smiled more easily. “Remember when the three of us sat around the campfire that night of the festival, drinking honey mead? Who could have ever predicted this is where we’d be today?”

“Everything is different now,” Salem said. “So much better.”

Fyn nodded, despite how sad he was feeling for Hadeom. He sat on the end of the mattress by Hadeom’s feet and picked up his flute.

“I should keep playing,” he said. “If he can hear me, if he’s looking for the music, it just might bring him home.”

Chapter

Eighteen

SAWYER

Fyn didn’t want to leave Hadeom, Sawyer understood that, but he didn’t really have a choice. Fyn needed to take Ciaran to the boundary to meet with Pax and Zaq.

“He’ll be okay,” Kellan said, giving Fyn a reassuring pat on the arm. “We’ll stay with him to monitor any changes.”

The “we” to whom he referred was himself and, of course, Dylan and Hendrix. But also Salem and Aurin and their four little ones. For whatever reason, the kittens were drawn to him. Much to Salem’s dismay. Whether their purring had healing effects was anyone’s guess. Kellan said that the frequency of purring was known to help in the healing process, and at this stage, Sawyer wasn’t surprised by anything.

Kellan had also said that while Hadeom was still unresponsive, his catatonia had passed, and now he seemed to be... well, asleep. But he still wasn’t responding to stimuli or pain, like being pinched. He also had no response to the four kittens, who were either curled up asleep with him or using him as a parkour launching pad.

It was kinda funny and probably the only satisfaction Salem could get out of the whole ordeal. But Áine had seen Hadeom again, in the dark place, as she called it, and she giggled and played with his shadows.

Salem had just about lost his mind, but Áine was certain.

“They won’t ever hurt me, Pappa,” she said. Then she giggled some more, lifting her hands as if she was dancing with the shadows only she could see.

Out of all the weird shit Sawyer had seen in Tenebrae, that was probably the weirdest.

“We’ve always thought she was special,” Aurin said. “That she has powers we hadn’t realised yet.”

“That she can see the gods?” Salem asked, eyes wide. “We never thought that.”

“Is that what it is?” Ciaran asked. “She can see gods? Can she see Cern? Where the hell is he? Is he home yet?”

“Cern is not home,” Áine said. “He is busy looking.”