His fingers trembled slightly as they curled against the table’s edge. Memories assailed him.
His son. The boy who had once clung to his leg to avoid his first bath, who had asked a thousand questions about the stars, who still grouchily complained that Zoran was being too strict.
Gone. To a place where Zoran couldn’t protect him.
The fear twisted in his chest like a vise.
Zoran lifted a shaking hand and rubbed the thick gold band around his wrist, releasing a long breath. The band of living gold felt warm. Too warm. He frowned, his breath catching as the heat pulsed stronger.
The low murmur of his dragon stirred from deep within him.
She here. The Goddess. She here.
He straightened sharply.
A golden shimmer spread across the far side of the chamber like sunlight breaking through morning fog. The air shifted. Thickened. His breath hissed out when a tall, radiant figure stepped out of the light—graceful, ageless, glowing from within.
“Goddess,” Zoran breathed, his voice cracking. “Please,” he choked out. “Please help us. I’ll do anything—anything. Just help us bring Zohar, the others— Please help us bring them home.”
Aminta's eyes softened. “They are on a grand adventure. One that will shape who they are to become. I don’t think they are quite ready to return yet.”
“Adventure? They—” Zoran released a low, strangled curse. “Those kids have had enough adventures to last me a dozen lifetimes. What were they thinking, jumping into a portal like that? Didn't they understand what could happen?”
A laugh, rich and knowing, escaped her. “Zoran… do you not remember the time you and your brothers hijacked a freighter to explore a storm vortex?”
He flushed, his mouth opening, then closing again. “That… was different.”
She arched a golden brow. “Was it? I seem to remember Morian and your father not being too impressed with your little adventure, but think how much you and your brothers learned from it.”
He pursed his lips and glared back at her.
She chuckled. “Be proud of Zohar. Your son is becoming exactly who he is meant to be. He isn’t alone.”
Zoran gasped and reached outward as images flared to life in the air between them—Zohar’s face, wide-eyed and frightened as he tumbled through a broken portal thread. His desperate flight. Meeting Dolph and Juno. The moment they saved the lonely sea creature. And then—Zohar’s words under the stars, spoken with an honesty that pierced Zoran’s soul.
"Small… in some ways. But more connected in others."
“If we hadn’t come through that portal, I never would’ve known this world even existed.”
"Maybe you can tell my dad that. He’s probably pacing a hole in the floor—or planning to ground me until I’m a hundred."
Tears burned Zoran’s eyes as pride swelled in his chest, so fierce it nearly knocked him to his knees. His son wasn’t just surviving.
He was becoming.
A good, strong, kind young man.
Zoran closed his eyes, a shuddering breath escaping him. He wiped the back of his hand across his eyes and straightened when he heard the door open.
Ha’ven entered, followed closely by Adalard, Vox, Mandra, Kelan, Creon, and Trelon. All wore the same expression he had carried only moments before—strained, desperate, brittle with hope.
They paused when they saw him.
Zoran drew in a steadying breath and turned to face them.
“I just spoke to the Goddess,” he said. “She said the kids are safe. They’re on a journey—an adventure.”
Ha’ven raised an eyebrow. “You spoke to a Goddess? Did you tell her to bring them back?”
