Page 88 of In Your Light

Hadeom turned to face Fyn, smiling, shy, and maybe a little sorry.

Fyn put his hand to Hadeom’s cheek, thumbing the hint of colour there. “You’re really here.”

“I found my way back because of you.”

Fyn’s heart felt twice its size. He couldn’t believe Hadeom was here, looking at him with love in his eyes. He even had a slight blush on his cheeks. “You’re so beautiful.”

Hadeom chuckled, shaking his head. He reached up and ran his finger along Fyn’s horn, his eyes endless pools of wonder. “You are magnificent.”

“Ah, guys,” Sawyer said, now beside them. “As happy as I am for you both right now—and I am, truly—I think we need to focus on the task at hand. We’re here to build a cohesive, trusting partnership between us, and this is not conducive to that.”

Hadeom turned his head slowly to look at Sawyer. “Detective⁠—”

“Don’t detective me,” he replied flatly. “Inspector.”

“Jesus Christ,” Ciaran mumbled from across the clearing. “Sawyer, love of my life, my shining beacon of eternal love, you gotta stop pissing the gods off.”

Pax’s eyes went comically wide. “God.... He’s a god?”

Fyn chuckled and, with his hand still on Hadeom’s cheek, he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “He’s so much more than that. But he’s also just a man.” He rested his forehead against Hadeom’s, looking into his dark, dark eyes. “A man who needs to be understood and loved.”

“And probably railed,” Sawyer added. Then he snapped his fingers. “We need to focus. I want to get off this mountain before it gets dark, thank you very much. I have human vision, remember?”

Ciaran sighed long and loud, but Zaq came over to Fyn.

Timid, unsure, perhaps a little scared, he introduced himself. “Uh, hi. I’m Zaq. Fyn’s best friend.” He swallowed hard and held his hand out. “Nice to meet you?”

Hadeom smiled and shook his hand. “Likewise. You are a good friend to him. You would run with him through the woods to the hut.”

“Yes.” Then he gave a side-glance to Pax and grimaced. “Only when we were supposed to and never when we weren’t supposed to.”

Fyn laughed, and Hadeom made a contented sound that was almost a sigh, almost a purr.

Zaq looked at Fyn then, bewildered but brave. “I’m happy for you, Fyn,” he said.

“Thank you, Zaq, it means a lot.”

He nodded, kind of smiled, and his eyes went really big. “I’m also surprised, and I have a lot of questions.”

“Yeah, we all do,” Sawyer said flatly.

Then Bre stepped toward them. She kept a safe distance, but her horns were gone now. “Hello.”

Hadeom smiled and bowed his head. “Greetings.”

Then the sprites were there, standing at the edge of the trees. “You are a god?”

Hadeom seemed surprised to see them, but he offered them a bow of his head as well. “A title I’m not sure I hold anymore,” he replied. “I asked Cern to relieve me of it.”

The sprite took another step forward. “You know Cern?”

“Yes,” Hadeom replied. “Long enough to call him a friend.”

This pleased them, obviously. “He is not here,” they said.

“No. He is looking for someone,” Hadeom replied.

“That’s what Áine said too,” Fyn added. “She said he was not at home.”