Chapter 3 #2
“They’re all interested and angry and it HURTS, Mama.” Tears started streaming down his face.
Mal was beside us now. “Killian, your eyes-”
“What about his...” I looked, and the words died in my throat.
Killian’s eyes were glowing. Bright gold, like molten metal, nothing human or wolf about them.
Before I could react, Valerius Crescentborn reached across the table toward Killian. “What’s wrong? Let me see the boy’s face.”
The moment his hand came close, everything exploded.
A portal ripped open behind Killian, the air literally tearing apart with a sound like fabric shredding. The entire room gasped. Another portal opened to his left. Then his right. Then above the table.
Killian screamed, looking at his hands in horror. His fingers were shifting, not just the tips like we’d seen before, but full claws. And his ears weren’t just fuzzy. They were completely wolf ears, standing up from his head. A tail had sprouted, knocking over his water glass.
“MAMA, WHAT’S HAPPENING?!”
Goblets started floating. Silverware rose from the tables, hovering in mid-air. The centerpieces lifted off their bases, flowers and candles suspended by invisible force.
“I CAN’T MAKE IT STOP!” He was shaking violently now, face wet with tears.
“What in the gods-”
“Portals! Multiple portals!”
“Impossible! Wolves don’t have magic!”
Kane Aurelius stood, his voice booming. “He has powers. Full magical powers!”
These portals were not like the one that opened between Earth and Lytopia, which were just a beam of bright light you had to step through to see what was on the other side.
In Killian’s portals, you could see what was on the other side.
One of the portals showed a forest, dense and dark.
Another opened into complete blackness. A third revealed someone’s kitchen, a confused servant staring through at us with a half-eaten sandwich in her hand.
Any other time, that would have been hilarious. Right now, I couldn’t process anything except my son’s face.
“Unless he’s not pure wolf,” Mortimer Goldridge said quietly.
The implication hit like a physical blow.
“Is the child even yours, King Malachar?” a representative from Ebonvale demanded. Then came the whispers of the nobility, of all dignitaries.
“The queen must have...”
“An affair! It must be an affair!”
“The human had an affair?”
“She’s bewitched the king! Passed off her bastard as his heir!”
The words kept coming from every direction, each one uglier than the last. Affair.
Bastard. Witch. Every accusation designed to wound.
I couldn’t focus on them, though. Because Killian was reaching for me with those clawed hands, terror written across every feature, and nothing else in this room mattered.
“ENOUGH!” I didn’t recognize my own voice.
Mal was standing too, alpha command radiating from him. “Everyone silence!”
But the damage was done. Killian was gasping for air, his powers spiraling completely out of control. More portals opened. A chair lifted off the ground. Someone’s plate flew across the room and shattered against the wall.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! Mama, I didn’t mean to be bad!”
I dropped to my knees beside him, ignoring the flying silverware and the accusations and the seventy pairs of eyes watching us. My hands found his face. Clawed and shifted, but still my son.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. Look at me. Just look at Mama.”
“But everyone’s scared!” His voice cracked. “I FEEL IT! I feel all of them!”
Oh god. Did he have some sort of empath abilities? How…? Though that was just one more on the list of surprises for tonight. My son was feeling everyone’s emotions, all seventy people in this room with their fear and anger and suspicion crashing into his four-year-old mind at once.
No wonder he’d gone quiet during dinner. He’d been absorbing all of it. Every whispered insult, every suspicious glare, every cold assessment of his worth. He’d felt it all.
I was going to kill every single person in this room. Later. After I saved my son.
“Nobody else matters right now. Just you and me.”
“Make them stop feeling scared! It hurts!”
People were backing away now, some reaching for weapons. Guards were trying to contain the situation but had no idea how to fight magic.
Good luck with that, I thought grimly. I don’t know how to contain it either and it’s coming out of my kid.
The nobles were still shouting behind me. I could hear the accusations, but they were just noise now. Background static. Irrelevant.
“Look at me.” I held his face firmly, forcing him to meet my eyes. “Just at me. Breathe with me. In...”
He tried, his chest heaving. “In...”
“And out.”
“Out... Mama, I’m really scared.”
“I know. But I’ve got you. I’m right here.”
“Everyone hates me now.” His voice broke. “They think I’m bad.”
My throat tightened. “I don’t hate you. Papa doesn’t hate you. And you are not bad.”
“But I broke things.”
“You didn’t break anything important. I broke things too. Ugly dinnerware and Xander Silvermane’s dignity, and honestly, that last one needed breaking.”
A wet, hiccupy almost-laugh escaped him. Good. That was good.
“That’s it. Deep breaths. You’re doing so good.”
Mal was beside us now, forming a protective circle. His hand settled on Killian’s back, steady. I could see his face, the same shock I felt and the same confusion, but underneath it all was the same desperate need to protect our child.
“I didn’t... didn’t mean to...” Killian could barely get the words out.
“Hey.” I held his face tighter, making sure he could see nothing but me. “You are not bad. You hear me? You’re perfect. You’re my perfect boy and nothing that happened tonight changes that.”
“But I scared everyone.”
“Sweetheart, I scare people all the time. It’s practically a hobby.”
A small, broken sound that might have been a laugh escaped him. The portals were starting to close, one by one. Objects were floating gently back down instead of flying. His shift was receding as ears and tail and claws slowly disappeared.
“See? You’re doing it. You’re calming down.”
“I’m really tired, Mama.”
“I know. We’re going to bed now.”
Killian went limp against me, exhausted from everything that had happened. He was shaking and making those awful shuddering sounds, but his powers had stopped. He was just a four-year-old again.
Mal’s hand found mine over Killian’s back. When I looked up, I saw my own shock reflected in his face.
“I did not know,” he said quietly. “Did you?”
I shook my head. “I had no idea he could do any of this.”
“The portals... the floating... how?”
“I don’t know.” I shifted Killian’s weight in my arms. “But right now I don’t care. We need to get him out of here.”
“Mama?” His voice was barely audible.
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“Can we go now? I don’t like it here.”
Something cracked in my chest. “Yes. We’re going right now.”
I looked at Mal, mouthed the words: “Get them out. Now.”
He nodded immediately, standing and pulling us both to our feet. His alpha command rolled out over the crowd, forcing silence through sheer dominance.
“This gathering is over,” he announced. “Everyone will return to their quarters. Now.”
“But Your Majesty-”
“NOW.”
The force behind that word made even the most powerful kings take a step back. But they weren’t leaving…And they weren’t shutting the fuck up.
Shit.