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He held his sheet around him as he ran toward him, long legs eating up the distance. “Look!” he said, skidding to a stop in front of him, voice deeper but bubbling over with excitement. He stretched out his forearm. “Kildare gave me these.” His grin rivaled the fucking crack of dawn. “Scars,” he breathed, flashing his galactic lit-up eyes to him. “For when I’m older.” He pointed at one. “That one’s yours. And look at everything I’ve got inside me,” he hurried, hands moving outward and stirring a breeze with flickers of flame glinting at his fingertips.

Krave’s winds surged as he grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm to him, looking at the marks. “What theheckdid our Flaming King do to you, kid?” He glanced at Kildare, now in his angelic form, wings buried in his skin.

“Just logging the greatest event of all time, Bluster Boy.”

“So, tell me,” Krave urged, flicking a wind-ball at him. “What you got inside that killer vessel growing faster than I can keep up with?”

Kross’s laugh tumbled out with excitement. “Everything! Your winds—they can cut or protect—like a cloak, and Kildare’s fire is warm, but it can heal, and Father’s pull is…” He paused, eyeing Kaos. “Don’t worry, I didn’t touch it.”

Kaos answered with a growled, “Don’t ever touch it. Not until I train you.”

Kross nodded quickly with a serious, “Yes, sir,” before his excitement returned to Krave. “I got Uncle Reuban’s power—and itknowsthings,” he said lower, with his twinkling gaze.

“Oh boy,” Krave chuckled, crossing his arms. “This mean you know all my secrets?”

He laughed at that. “Not yet!” he warned. “But I know that you’re happy right now, and…” He stepped in closer with a quiet, “and that Father is notasangry as I thought.” His smile beamed with that. “I even have Larena’s powers.”

“Uh-oh,” Krave said, side-eyeing him. “You in love with all the mothers now?”

He paused as his brows slowly locked together in contemplation. Then they loosened with his astonished gaze at him. “Iam,” he whispered, getting Krave’s big laugh.

“You’ll definitely need to train him,” he warned at Kaos now, remembering he was missing somebody. “And what did our Lost Saint give you? Yourmother.”

Krave’s wind heated at the huge smile that lit up his face. “She gave me her life essence through her blood!” he marveled, like it was his wild-card power. “Do you realize that it makesallof humanity my family?”

No. He hadn’t realized that.

“Don’t expect the Earthly Kissing King to appreciate that one,” Kildare chuckled next to him. “He hates all humans that aren’t your mother.”

“And me,” Kross bragged.

“You’renothuman,” Kaos muttered, stomping out the joy in the moment.

Krave eyed Kaos then advised Kross, “Just ignore He-Who-Hates-All-Joy. Show me what you can do with that fire King Hot Pants gave you.”

Kross’s grin widened, and he extended both hands, producing flaming fingertips while a gentle breeze stirred around him and made the tiny fires flare.

“He’s a quick learner,” Kildare bragged as Kaos turned and headed back toward the hut, his dark wake blowing out Kross’s flames before disappearing through the door.

Krave blinked as he regarded Kildare, then Kross, then the door again.

“Did he justslurpup our powers and leave?” Kildare wondered, his voice a mix of amusement and irritation.

Krave propped his hands on his hips and shook his head. “Brat.”

Kildare snickered and Kross burst into laughter, his dark eyes bright as he realized the humor and removed the urge to murder the black bastard from his winds.

“I’m just glad he doesn’ttrulyhate me,” Kross barely said, like Kaos might get the idea to still. “He just hates that he made something he doesn’t know how to keep.”

A Mother’s Love

It was dark as Reuban guided the SUV toward the hill hiding the hut, headlights cutting through the shadows.

Reuban gripped the steering wheel as they got closer. Kross would be twenty-eight and then some. Which also meant he was able to wake Josie.

He regarded his angel in the passenger seat, filling him like a steady hum of power, grounding him despite the chaos in his chest. He felt her craving—her desire for his touch, for everything he gave her. She locked it away behind a wall of power but not one he couldn’t easily penetrate now. He had direct access to all of it. To the heat beneath her resolve and the way her energy pulsed with a need she’d never admit.

He pulled the SUV to a stop at the base of the hill, the engine’s rumble fading into the quiet. He reached for his phone and dialed Kildare’s number, the line ringing twice before he picked up with a, “Hello, King Know-It-All.”