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Iyanda leaned forward, her voice dropping into a whisper. ‘Imagine a neighbor who never sleeps, always meddles in your affairs, and throws celestial tantrums that disrupt your city because they misplaced their favorite sandals.’

Ki’Remi’s eyebrows lifted. ‘You’re saying gods start wars over footwear?’

‘Among other ridiculous things,’ Issa muttered, shaking her head.

‘I once witnessed a god disband a planetwide festival because the offerings given weren’t in perfect symmetry,’ Safiyya added, giving in a severe eye roll.

Ki’Remi huffed out a laugh, amused despite himself. ‘Fokkin’ hell. Will you ever return?’

The family stared at each other, then in one loud and resounding call, ‘Nada!’

‘Not when we have a new life on a planet we love and peace of mind,’ stated Zephyr.

‘Not when I have this man at my side,’ Issa confessed in a husky breath.

She turned toward Ki’Remi and, without warning, kissed his lips.

Raquel chuckled, shaking her head. ‘How did this begin? How did you both meet?’ she asked, amusement dancing in her eyes.

Issa grinned, settling against Ki’Remi’s side. ‘With a behemoth Iccythrian giant who escaped surgery and was laying it into Remi, who needed rescuing by me.’

‘Nadakidaya,’ the Sableman groused with a quirk to his mouth. ‘I did not need you to save my ass.’

‘I did it anyway.’

She ignored him, her tale unfolding to booming laughter and chuckles.

Ki’Remi smirked as her story took on a dramatic crescendo.

He gazed around the table at the joy, taking in the unbreakable ties and the kinship Issa had long battled to return to.

The scene was intimate and devastatingly raw.

He’d fought alongside Issa, freakin’ witnessed her bleed and burn and rise like a phoenix from the ashes.

Twas bittersweet witnessing her victory and homecoming.

His admiration grew with every passing second for this family, the strength they carried, the burdens they bore without breaking, and the gift of his woman.

Even more mind-blowing was that her peace and joy were now also his.

The talk eased into a more earnest note as Issa’s face sobered. ‘One thing I want to know is how you endured when I wasn’t here?’

Zephyr leaned back in his chair, the morning light casting a golden hue over his weathered features.

His deep-set eyes, once dulled by years of suffering under the Sirr Sanctum stone, now burned with a clarity that unsettled Issa.

He stared through the window at Dunia’s verdant fields and then up into the celestial expanse he had been cast from.

‘I was laid up most times in bed, but your mother, bless her soul, ran the farm and the house with Iyanda and Safiyya. The acreage is humble but thriving, the earth rich and fertile. Tis a place that sustained us in hiding. The gold I managed to take from Sacra bought this land,’ Zephyr explained, tracing his calloused fingers over the oak table. ‘It also kept us fed when the harvests failed. In short, we thrived despite the circumstances.’

Issa exhaled. ‘I wish you never had to hide.’

Zephyr paused, turning to her. ‘My love, I would have waited in a thousand more shadows if it meant having us together once more.’

Theirs was a singular bond between a firstborn daughter and her father.

Issa took a deep inhale. ‘I hated being away from you all and seeingbabasuffer -.’