Page 89 of Bright Soul

He cracked open one eye to squint at me. “He wasn’t making that up?”

“No, he just explained it really badly,” I said, muffling a laugh at his disbelief. “They’re folded around a slip of paper that holds a generic statement about the future.”

“Hmm. Would I do a good job making fortune statements, bright soul?”

“I think so.”

“David also thought most of the things I told him about my past were from video games.” I got the distinct feeling his thought at the moment waswhatever those areand had another chuckle over that. “Thank you for reminding me of him. I’ll have to check on him when we return.”

“Maybe he’s moved on to Aurora Heights,” I said.

He shook his head. “Wanting your family to wake up and see how they’ve wronged you is one of the strongest desires one can have.”

“Spoken from experience.” At this point, I was exploring the curl of his horn. It was hard and smooth.

“They never saw me, bright soul. I found more fulfillment in moving on and being the father I’d never had.” He took my wrist and placed my hand on his cheek again, nuzzling against my palm affectionately.

“Speaking of which,” we said at the same time.

“Jinx. You go first,” I said.

He already had that uncanny way of looking right through me, and now he had insider knowledge of the depths of my soul. “I think you will make a great mother one day, when you’re ready. Your circumstances are going to be much different from your own childhood.”

“You know I want kids.” I definitely wasn’t ready to get pregnant, to the point where acquiring the pill had been a hugerelief, but it went a lot deeper than that. “I’ve had a strong role model. My adopted mother is my hero.”

“But you haven’t known a positive father figure. You’ve been afraid of marrying a male like her ex-mate?” The concept seemed to puzzle him.

“It’s a human thing. I don’t want to give any kids of mine a father like that. And”—I held up a finger—“I realize it’s a silly fear when I know now that I’d make a dad of Ben, Geo, or you. None of you are like that.”

“The babe would have three fathers. Practically tripping over us.” He stole a wistful rub of my belly.

“I have a little gift for you,” I said, seeing that it was time to show him. Nerves fluttered in my belly at my last-second doubts that he’d find it a meaningful mating gift.

He reassured those nerves. “You don’t have to give me anything. You are gift enough.”

“It’s in the sketchbook. There was a memory… You looked into the Void,” I said clumsily.

His pupils narrowed. “I have only done that willingly a handful of times. Was Auric there?” Shifting to lie on his back, he reached for the sketchbook.

“Yeah. It was the first time, I think,” I supplied. That meant, to him, that the Void had been honest with what it’d shown.

He flipped up the front cover and looked at the portrait I’d made. The kid was unmistakably Phaeron’s son, I thought, if a shade like his mother too. Lighter gray skin; straight, dark brown hair, and slitted dimensional eyes cooled to orange embers. He could’ve been ten, with the points of his horns starting to emerge from his crown and baby fat that could give way to high cheekbones one day.

Maybe I was wrong and Phaeron had already met this boy and said goodbye to him without it appearing in his memories or regrets. But the way he froze with a sharp inhale, the phantom ofhis emotions cycling between surprise, realization, and yearning erased my doubts.

“Is this…?” He reached out to touch the paper.

“I think so,” I answered in the same hush.

He set the sketchbook aside and rolled onto me, framing my face and peppering it with kisses. I felt his joy like my own but winced when he put me on my back. My neck was still quite tender. “Thank you,” he said, touching foreheads with me. “I don’t know how, but…it must be possible.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I promised.

“Someday.” He went for the mating mark next, licking the tender space and blowing another cool, soothing breath over it. “Would you like to try my animaris? It might overtake the pain of this setting.”

“Sure,” I said but swatted him when he bit me none too gently.Ow.

The new wound stung for a few seconds. “You’re responding to it fast.” He gave my hip a squeeze, watching my reaction closely.

---