Page 55 of In Your Light

“Yes.” Tobin nodded. “I gotta say, he looked a bit different. Unkempt, not his usual sharp self. He looked kinda haggard, if I’m being honest. But it was definitely him.”

Sawyer blinked as if his brain was lagging. “Hadeom? Staying at the hut? So, he’s Cern’s friend who needed a place to heal, or something.”

Tobin nodded. “And that might not be the weirdest part,” he said, the corner of his mouth pulling down. “I’m pretty sure Fyn’s in love with him.”

Chapter

Thirteen

FYN

Fyn sat on the floor mat with the four little godlings, helping them match colours and shapes, counting beads, and learning letters and words.

Fyn couldn’t believe it.

“I think they’re smarter than me,” he said with a laugh. He was hardly surprised, though, considering their lineage.

But, yeah, they were smart. For their age, yes, but Fyn thought it went further than that. They were growing so fast, their brains absorbing everything around them. Not only in human form either. They were also learning about the world around them as cats and as cephamorphs.

Human-form was the hardest for them, apparently. Or so Aurin explained. They weren’t as agile, or physically capable, in their human forms, but learning how to adapt was critical, and learning how to pass as human was paramount.

Fyn guessed they’d be subjected to all kinds of scrutiny and possibly danger.

When Ciaran and Sawyer came in, Ukko was sitting on Fyn’s lap, and they were reading a book about gumnut babies. Nyx was climbing on Fray while he read a book to Llyr, and Áine was colouring in.

“Ah, Fyn and Fray are getting reading lessons, I see,” Ciaran said with a smile.

“Feels like it,” Fray said.

Fyn chuckled. “Glad you didn’t see me trying to do maths.”

Sawyer laughed, and then the others filed in too. Tobin, Kellan, Hendrix, Dylan, Beau, and Hudson all came in as if a meeting was called. So Fyn knew there’d been some kind of development.

Hendrix and Dylan sat with Áine while Kellan looked at them fondly. Tobin sat down next to Fray, and Nyx quickly planted himself in Tobin’s lap.

The godlings were so loved, Fyn couldn’t help but miss Voh and Cyd, the younglings of his herd. And soon Zaq would be having his own baby. His heart squeezed at knowing he’d miss all the important milestones.

He had to find a way to fix his relationship with Pax....

There had to be a compromise where Fyn didn’t have to be the one to concede everything.

“Thanks for coming, guys,” Ciaran began. “Sorry for interrupting class time,” he said to Salem and Aurin. “Otis and Pania are on patrol right now, so I’ll catch them up later. But there’s been some developments we need to be aware of.” Then Ciaran smiled at Fyn. “Fyn was on a run earlier near the gorge and saw some humans there. He came back and showed Tobin what he saw, then Tobin showed us. They were workmen from a mining company inspecting the old bridge site.”

“Oh,” Aurin whispered, as if he could guess where this was going.

Salem went to him and put a protective arm around him. Fyn wished he had someone like that. His mind went to Hadeom, but it was foolish thinking that he would ever look at Fyn the way the Tenebrae men looked at their mates.

“What are you saying, Ciaran?” Salem asked. “Do we need to leave?”

Ciaran’s gaze went to the four godlings before he looked at Salem. “No. Never. This is our home. Salem, this is your cove.” Then his voice dropped to a murmur. “We’ll do whatever it takes to keep them safe, okay?”

Salem gave Aurin a squeeze before he nodded.

Then Sawyer spoke. “They have approval for exploratory mining, and they’ll obviously need to build a new bridge to get trucks to this side of the gorge because there is no other access. I think it’s safe to say this may begin to happen pretty quickly. Once these mining giants get a green light...”

“And they’ve gotten the environmental approval already?” Kellan asked.

Sawyer nodded. “Expedited.”