Page 28 of Iron Crown

My son laughed, his hair flying in the wind as he came back down.

“My God, he looks like a Green, doesn’t he?” Dairo said proudly, as he threw him up and caught him again.

Eoghan put his hands out to catch him, as though doubting Dairo would. But of course, he got him, then threw him back up again, with a high-pitched, “Whee!”

“I’m your Uncle Dairo,” he said proudly, smiling at my kid, before finally turning his eyes to me. “I can’t wait until the twins are old enough to be thrown about as well.”

He leaned down, kissing me on the cheek. “How are you, Kira?”

He was acting as though I’d never been gone, his easy manner no different than when I’d met him years ago.

“How was the homecoming?” Dairo put his arm around my shoulders, holding a squirming and laughing Cillian with one arm as he led me inside. “Did the old sourpuss over there give you a hard time?”

He smiled over at Eoghan, who glared back at him.

When I didn’t respond, he took his arm off of me, and looked between the two of us, letting out a low whistle, as he said, “Oh, dear.”

Cillian reached his arms out to me, opening and closing his hands in a universal sign that he wanted me to carry him. He launched himself at me, and Ioofedwhen I caught him.

“Are you alright?” Eoghan asked, and he touched me for the first time, his fingertips lightly grazing my lower back.

“Yes,” I said, with a forced smile. I was so eager to connect with him, it was maddening! I just wanted him back. I would curve myself into him, if he so much as justlet me. “He’s just getting big. Almost too heavy for me to carry.”

“Come here, lad,” Eoghan said, taking Cillian under the arms, and pulling him back into an embrace. “Come tire out your Dad for a while. Give your Mum a break.”

I looked at the two of them, Eoghan bouncing the fussy child who had way too much energy to be kept still. They looked right together. Father and son.

“Have you met my wife? I don’t think so,” Dairo said idly, as he looked up at a woman with black hair, pulled into a crown braid around her head. Her skin was as dark as my own, and she had the distinctive features of a Pacific Islander, or maybe Asian? I wasn’t sure.

Her hazel eyes turned to me and she smiled, weakly, as two babies were swaddled in her muscular arms.

“This is Rose,” Dairo proudly said, taking one of the babies from her. “This is little Jericho, and that there is sweet little Jocelyn.”

They couldn’t have been more than a year old. I thought having one child was hard, but two? The difficulties were written all over Rose’s face.

“Hello,” she said, her smile a little forced. Not because she was rude—at least, I didn’t think so—but because she was tired. That postpartum tired, that I was more than a little familiar with. “I’ve heard a lot about you from Eoghan.”

“Oh, dear,” I said, mocking Dairo’s earlier voice. “That can’t be good.”

Rose’s smile became more genuine. “They do like to tell stories, don’t they?”

She turned away, and I assumed she was leading us to where we were supposed to have lunch as we conspired to murder the Durantes.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dairo said.

Rose didn’t say anything more, as she just walked slowly down the marble hall.

Jericho stepped out of a door. When I glimpsed the small opening, it looked like he was coming out of a library or an office. As soon as he cleared the small passageway, my eyes widened at the man who followed him.

My mouth opened as I looked into two, familiar, snake-like eyes.

The man smiled politely, looking across all of us, his eyes not landing on anyone in particular. Not even me, or the man who held my son.

“Children? You let them bring children? Vasiliev, really?” Blink said, his English accent as thick as ever. “You couldn’t get a nanny or something as we plan the murder of your sworn enemies?”

Jericho approached us, coming to Rose, and picking Jocelyn out of her arms. He dipped his head and quietly said, “You need to eat first, before you start taking care of the little monsters.”

Rose simply nodded at him, as Jericho glared at her husband. Dairo rolled his eyes, lightly patting the bum of the twin in his arms.

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