Page 20

He aimed the question at Kildare who immediately picked up what he was very carefully laying down. “What are you saying?”

He nodded once. “Exactly what you think I am.” Reuban regarded Krave, now finally tuning in as well. “You’re saying this was supposed to happen?”

“I’m saying it is happening, and right now, the child is battling for his existence. We have the power to destroy him or help him, and we are not destroying him,” he said, right at Larena before regarding Kildare and Krave. “We are helping him. We aresupposedto help him.”

The revelation fully dawned in Kildare first then Krave who hurried back to the hut right as the Paladin’s voice cracked the air. “Help me!”

Their powers clashed as they bolted for the doorway, sharp dread cutting through Reuban.

Krave’s roar shattered the air. “NO!”

Kildare’s fire disintegrated the sheet, revealing Josie on the bed, lifeless with her arms out at her sides, eyes vacant and staring while Krave held her face, begging her to wake up.

“Where is the child!” Bellatore demanded as Reuban felt Krave’s winds building into a bomb.

“Kildare, control him!” Reuban hurried, looking for signs of the baby right as the heavenly King’s wings erupted to subdue Krave’s agony.

“We must find him!” Bellatore ordered, hurrying out the hut.

Reuban turned all around, sensing something nearby. He finally recognized it around the roar of both Kings. Fear. Clawing against his powers, trying to hide itself within the fragmented remains of Kaos’s void.

Reuban turned to the bed where Josie lay, moving closer. He felt it again, a splintered thing, desperately trying to make itself small.

“Remove him!” Reuban ordered Kildare, when Krave’s winds pummeled his ability to sense and hear.

Instantly, Kildare flew him through the roof, leaving the hut in a sudden silence.

Reuban lowered to the floor, stretching his power into the shadows under the bed. He narrowed his focus at the darkness, then stilled. He blinked at the impossibility. Pressed into the far wall, not an infant, but a child of nearly five years old. Reuban’s seal instantly informed him of the being’s incredible makeup. Where Kaos had evolved into a genius within an hour, his acceleration was a physical one. And much more.

Reuban’s pulse thrummed with additional knowledge and awareness as he very carefully threaded his words with whatever authority he possessed, and called to him, gently. “Come to me, little one.”

The sound of his breaths reached him, sharp and scared, his small body locked in place.

“Nobody will hurt you. I’m here to protect you.”

His breaths suddenly slowed in the darkness. “Are you… Uncle Reuban?”

Reuban’s heart lurched and squeezed at the little voice and the careful way he spoke each syllable. “I am. How do you know my name?”

He waited in the silence, noting an immediate drop in his fear. “Mother told me you were safe. W-where are… my fathers?”

Fathers?

“Mother says they will protect me but… I fear them.”

His pitiful little voice brought a sizzle to the King’s seal on his back, then promptly got loaded with every manner of wrath to meet any threat formed against him. “You have nothing to fear. Your mother is right, we are all here to protect you.”

“What about…” his little breaths quickened for many seconds. “Kaos?” he barely whispered, his name stirring a great anxiety in his tiny body.

“Kaos is my brother,” Reuban said, infusing the words with undeniable peace and truth. “He’s as kind as a teddy bear and won’t ever harm you.”

His fear twisted inside of Reuban. “But… I… hurt Mother.” His words fragmented between shallow breaths. “He will be very angry… because I am not to hurt Mother. I did not know I hurt her. I never want to hurt her.”

The seal demanded immediate ramifications as if his fear was an enemy. Given his makeup, it likely was. “Would you trust me and allow me to hold you?”

“I’m… a big boy, now,” he breathed, the words sounding scripted, making Reuban wonder how aware of himself he was. “Mother said I am to grow fast like… Kaos.”

Why didn’t he refer to Kaos as his father?