Page 105 of In Your Light

Everyone gasped, stunned into silence.

Cern turned and grinned at them. “We have a party to plan!”

Fray shook his head. “What the fuck?” His jaw worked a few times, but he still could not comprehend what he’d just seen. “I mean, respectfully, and all that, but what the actual fuck?”

“Dadda,” little Nyx said, pulling at Aurin’s shirt. “He said fuck.”

“I know, baby,” Aurin said. But his eyes were wide as well.

Everyone’s were.

“I think what Fray meant to ask,” Kellan began.

“Was what the fuck?” Hendrix supplied.

Cern laughed out a whispery sound, and the wind swirled around them. “They’ll be back soon,” Cern said. Then he took the pipe out of his mouth. “And I need you all to understand that Sawyer will be just fine.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Fray asked.

Cern wasn’t answering any questions, apparently. He turned to the four godlings. “Now, who do we have here?” Cern said. “Let me see my newest babies. You’ve all grown so fast!”

The kids all rushed to him, and he laughed.

“You have big horns,” Áine said, putting her hands on her own head, right where Cern’s horns would be. If he was in his true form.

Which he wasn’t.

“And hooves like Fyn,” Áine added, her eyes big and excited. “I can see them.”

He looked up at Salem and Aurin. “We have a gifted one, I see.”

“We have four gifted ones,” Aurin said politely.

Cern nodded. “Ah, yes. Of course.”

Then Llyr shrank into his clothes, and a black kitten leapt out. He ran and jumped, showing off, and then Nyx and Ukko joined him.

Cern laughed again, holding his pipe up with a cheer.

But Salem’s mother gasped when she saw them. Her hand trembled, and she looked up at Salem. “Oh, my boy, they are like you,” she said with tears in her eyes. She had a Scottish accent. Her long hair was jet black, and her eyes were dark. Not like Salem’s cat eyes, which Fray now realised he must have gotten from his dad.

Who was the Cat Sidhe. Which made total sense.

Anyway...

“Ah, hi,” Fray said. “Can we just go back to the part where Ciaran and Sawyer and Fyn just disappeared into thin air?” He pointed to the spot where they’d been standing. “How the god of the freaking underworld just teleported them to the fucking underworld.” He turned to face Cern. He put his hand to his forehead. “Oh my god, is that where they went?”

Tobin stepped in and took Fray’s hand. “Hey. I’m sure they’re okay. Cern said they’ll be fine.”

“No, he said Sawyer will be fine.”

“They’re coming back now, Uncle Fray,” Áine said with a smile on her little cherub face. “You’ll see.”

And then, just like she said, they were back. The air popped, and Hadeom and Fyn appeared, their arms full of metal suitcases, and Ciaran... was carrying Sawyer bridal style, which Fray probably would have found funny if Ciaran’s face wasn’t etched with horror and if Sawyer didn’t look mostly dead...

Kellan started running toward them, in instant doctor mode. “What happened?”

Hadeom dropped the suitcases. “Ciaran, get him into the water,” he barked. “Now.”