Sobbing openly, Cya gazed at him pleadingly. “Why can’t you love me? I just want you to love me.”
From his place several yards away, he lowered himself to be almost eye-level with them, expression unreadable as he echoed Cya’s earlier words, almost verbatim. “You act like love is owed to you, yet you’ve done nothing to deserve it.”
And that was it. Whatever hope Cya had left died right there on the veranda. Dex watched it gasp and struggle; he heard its death rattle. Then Cya slumped back against him with a heartbreaking nod of acceptance.
“I see. How disappointing,” they whispered, more to themself than their parents. They gazed down at their hands in their lap, tears pooling in their palms. Their chest hitched, even as they nodded again in resignation.
With a whine, Dex rubbed his face into the nape of their neck. He tightened his arms around them as their despair burned his nose and flooded his own eyes with tears.
Before either Dex or Cya could do or say anything else, Hemersyn’s flinty voice cut through the early evening, sharp as a knife. “That is quite enough.”
As one, Dex, Cya, and their parents turned toward the house where the Avia stood in the patio doorway, flanked by Toni and Quin. Quin’s normally dark red complexion was pasty and pale, but she stood tall beside Toni, who looked ready to throw down at a moment’s notice.
Relief and hope had Dex sagging against Cya’s back. “Unholy shit, you guys came.”
Quin offered him a tight smile. “You called, didn’t you?”
“Cavalry’s here, motherfuckers,” the Elas said with a jagged smile that was far more threatening than it was friendly.
“What is the meaning of this?” Mr. Vysov demanded as Cya’s mother cowered behind him. “Who are you?”
Toni swaggered forward, porcelain shattering under his shitkicker boots. “I’m Toni fucking Maryno, baby. Are you the guy I’m supposed to punch?”
“Let’s avoid violence, if we can.” Placing a cautionary hand on Toni’s arm below his biceps fin, Quin scrutinized Cya’s parents coolly. “I’m Quin Duboi, and we’re here to collect the kids.”
“Duboi?” Mrs. Vysov squeaked, and Dex swore Cya’s father paled a shade or two.
Ignoring the confrontation entirely, Hemersyn strode purposefully across the veranda, crouching down to cup Cya’s face in his taloned hands. “Forgive me, my dear. I didn’t know of their arrival until it was too late.”
“Hemersyn,” they sobbed out his name, and he cooed comfortingly, kissing their forehead.
“I’m here now.” Above their head, he met Dex’s gaze. “Are either of you hurt?”
Dex shook his head.
“Good. Come, Cya.”
The Avia encouraged them to stand, and Dex climbed to his feet as well once Cya was stable. They leaned heavily against Hemersyn, blubbering half-formed apologies as he ran a palm over their wet hair. Reaching back with one hand, they grabbed Dex’s wrist, and he twined their fingers firmly.
“This is not to be borne,” Cya’s father was saying, attention jumping from Toni and Quin to Hemersyn. “Hemersyn, explain yourself.”
“No, I don’t think I will,” Hemersyn said as he wrapped an arm around Cya’s shoulders. “You, however, have a great deal of explaining to do.”
The Sypent reared back as if struck. “I beg your pardon.”
“I shall not grant you that either.” Hemersyn’s crest was high, feathers puffy with outrage. “I have held my tongue for far too long, much to Cya’s detriment, and it will remain one of my greatest regrets. But no longer.
“You, Róbyr, are as meretricious as you are cruel, and your manipulative shrew of a wife is no better. Cya deserves so much more than you ever gave them, and it isyourfailures, not theirs, that has led us to this point.” The Avia tightened his arm around Cya as they hung on his every word. “Only a coward wields love as a weapon, and against their own child, no less. There is no greater shame.”
“You forget your place, McKhaw,” Cya’s father fumed, and Hemersyn smiled icily.
“No, Róbyr, you forgot yours. No child should have to earn a parent’s love. If the gods could grant me one request, it would be that you both understand, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the gravity of all you have done and all you are about to lose.
“It should go without saying, but for clarity’s sake”—Hemersyn drew himself up to his full height, feathers ruffling—“consider this my formal resignation, you pretentious nincompoop.”
He finished his epic speech with a jerky nod, as if to say,“So there,”and Cya’s parents both gaped at him in outraged astonishment. Toni snorted in amusement, though he attempted to cover it with a cough, as Quin hid her smile behind a hand. More hyped than he had any right to be, Dex bounced on the balls of his feet and jock-snapped obnoxiously.
“Alright, Hemersyn, let’s go!” He held up his palm, reaching over Cya’s head. “Mic drop moment high-five.”
