Page 23

The boy nodded but didn’t say more, his gaze still lowered.

“Does it have anything to do with you measuring the worth of the blood your mother and father spent?”

He nodded again, without hesitation.

“Are you allowed to tell us why you’re measuring those things?”

He stared at Reuban for many seconds then scratched his cheek with a slow shake of his head. “It’s not safe,” he said in a tiny voice, his fear reaching straight into Krave’s blood and strangling him.

Reuban pulled him in his arms and hugged him tightly. “Do not fear the unknowns Little King.”

The boy hugged Reuban’s neck. “The Dark One is not kind and good like you and my fathers,” he whispered, his breaths shaking. “And… he wants to make me into a monster.”

The sadness and terror bit through Krave as Kildare’s wings emerged, forming a warm band around all of them. “We will surely not allow it,” his heavenly brother vowed. “For you are our son,” he whispered, his wings growing firmer and hotter around them. “Any weapon of darkness that dares come against the heart of the Kings—against you—will face our wrath in a war like no other.”

The boy’s breaths heaved and stuttered before he turned and wrapped his arms around Krave’s neck, flooding his winds with breathtaking power. “I am not measuring the battles coming or the bloodshed, Father,” he whispered then quickly wrapped his arms around Kildare’s neck, now. “I’m measuring the worth of what Mother and Father gave the whole world.” He flung himself on Reuban then, weeping fully. “And what I must do to ensure it will not be wasted.”

Divine power erupted between them at this confession—Krave’s wind, Kildare’s fire, Reuban’s authority and the powers of Kaos and Josie infused into their son.

Reuban’s breath released sharply as a light slowly filled the space between all of them.

“Raviel,” Kildare whispered.

Krave closed his eyes and the single card from the last hand appeared in his mind.

Agony shredded him as he stared at the face of the shorn woman that stood halfway between light and darkness. No longer the angel of mothers—but Josie. Their Lost Saint.

“The Bellatore’s sacrifices for all of motherhood was manifested in Josie’s choice,” Raviel’s voice whispered in their mind. “In the face of great darkness and evil, our Lost Saint boldly demanded life. Mercy. And love. She made a mother’s choice. And that choice gave birth to a new hope for humanity. A child of Heaven and Earth. A vessel of wrath and mercy. A flame bound by will andforthe will of mankind.”

Raviel’s light softened, moving around the boy. “He is not a sword of God. And he is not the full fury of Hell. He is thechoice… madeflesh. And his eternal name—is Kross.”

****

Reuban silently summoned Kildare and Krave outside the hut while riding the razor’s edge of a cognitive collapse. Once alone, he plugged them in to what he was feeling with the child and judging by the jolt in their beings, he succeeded. In the hut, their powers had buffered the potency of the boy’s agony—all perks from being fused by three Knight Kings, a Lost Saint and the Angel of Mothers—but they needed to understand it with the same intimacy that Reuban did.

“He’ll need clothes,” Reuban muttered after he was done saturating them, glancing back at the hut. “Adult clothes.”

Please may I lay with Mother before I finish growing?

A sharp breath escaped him as he closed his eyes, barely containing the pain of his heartbreaking request. The only thing connecting him to his very short childhood was his dead mother, and a dead father, whom he feared, while wanting with all his big heart to love.

“I don’t understand,” Krave said, pacing. “How is he supposed to survive what he carries?”

Good. He felt it.

“Raviel is coming tonight,” Kildare reminded, his wings blazing with the same crushing anguish.

“What did he mean about measuring his authority and powers?” Krave asked.

Reuban released a sharp breath with that question. “From what I could gather—because he’s got a galaxy thick shield—he intends on waking his Mother and Father.”

Krave and Kildare came to instant halts and Reuban nodded about it.

“Yes, you heard exactly right.”

“He can do that?” Krave’s whisper came like a prayer.

Reuban slowly widened his eyes at him. “Oh yes.”