Page 38 of Sky’s Edge

“As frequently as I can manage it.”

“Why?”

He appeared confused before he said, “Because it’s home.” He then set his glass aside, pushed up from his chair and announced, “I’ll go ask Zyra to program the Cook-Companion. It’ll take at least half an hour for it to make the meal that’s been planned.”

With that, he strode out.

Hurley watched him go, looked to me, then scooted after his dad.

I stared into the shadowy area, which was the space beyond the door through which he’d disappeared.

Something wasn’t right.

Contemplating this, I went back to my drink, only on the way to see an oddity in this old-fashioned room sitting on a narrow table against the back wall.

A digi-frame.

I got up, and me and my martini walked to it.

The pics in it were cycling, but the one I saw when I got there was of a much younger Tanyn, standing all bound up warm in the snow, the Borea Sea behind him, huge chunks of ice floating on top of it. He was holding up a stringer of fish, a broad smile on his already handsome little-boy face.

I’d never seen him smile or appear even remotely carefree.

But in that pic, it was clear he was happy.

This cycled to another pic of him, younger, grinning so huge it contorted his face, and he did this in an obvious effort to show off the fact he’d lost his front tooth.

Okay.

I needed to stop looking at these pics.

I needed to.

I did not, or maybe I simply could not, and the next one cycled in.

Adolescent, maybe twelve, thirteen, wearing weird, long net things on his feet, out in the snow on a blinding, bright day. He was facing forward but twisted to smile behind him at whoever snapped the pic. His burgeoning extreme good looks were already coming to the fore.

And that was when the pic cycled to a female on a couch under a throw. She was ducking her head and lifting a hand in an effort to hide from the lens.

But her gloriousness had been captured.

Queen Darynda, Tanyn’s mother.

“By Lilith,” I breathed, reaching out to touch the frame so the pic wouldn’t slide away.

I’d seen photos of her, of course. Official ones or others when she was doing official duties. I knew she was beautiful.

But that casual candid shot, her easy, dazzling smile.

She was, put simply, staggeringly stunning.

Tatra, on the other hand, was not.

How that other female won over Riland had long since been a matter of discussion, because it was a mystery to everyone. Not just because she was nowhere near as gorgeous as Darynda, but because it was known Darynda had a kindly heart and managed the impossible: being both regal and approachable, two things Tatra was not (she wasn’t regal, she was imperious, and that was a very different thing).

It was not the first time I noticed Tanyn took after his mother. They had the same gorgeous dark hair, the same intense blue eyes, the same classic bone structure.

But these pics…