Page 130 of Crownless King

“Look who is here, Aithen,” she murmured, placing a kiss in the nest of the black curls on the baby’s head.

The boy sucked on his berry juice covered finger, paying him little attention. But Voron stared at him, struck by the emotions unfurling through his chest. There was awe at seeing his flesh and blood—his son. And regret for all the time they’d lost. Fear of failure, but also hope for a future together.

“Aithen,” he tested the sound of his baby’s name on his tongue.

Sparrow looked so natural and comfortable in her role as a mother, when Voron felt like an imposter in the role of a parent.

“Do you want to hold him?” she offered.

“Can I?” He reached for the boy tentatively.

The baby eyed him suspiciously as he took him from his mother, but didn’t cry.

“Greetings.” Voron settled his son on his forearm, holding him with his other hand. The thick knitted sweater the boy was wearing felt soft and cozy under his palm.

Aithen promptly got hold of the ruffled collar of Voron’s shirt and pulled at it, aiming to stick the priceless lace into his mouth.

Sauria chuckled from the doorway of the now-visible tiny cabin. “You may rethink wearing fancy clothes around that boy, Your Majesty.”

Voron smiled, not minding the berry juice stains one bit.

A wing popped out from his baby’s back. The feathers on it were small and soft but just as black as his own.

“He does that, randomly.” Sparrow stroked the tiny wing gently. “Sauria says he’s learning to control them.”

“We’ll learn together, then,” he said. “Wings are new to me, too, little friend.”

At the sound of his voice, Aithen looked up, startled. His tiny features crumpling, he appeared ready to cry.

“It’s all right, Aithen.” Voron spoke softly, bouncing his son in his arms. “From now on, I’ll always be around. We’ll be friends. I’ll make sure of it.”

He tapped the baby’s chin with his finger. The sparkling sapphire in one of his rings caught the baby’s attention. He stopped crying and busied himself by figuring out how to stick the ring into his mouth, along with Voron’s finger or even the entire hand if necessary.

Deep laughter rolled between the trees of the forest. It took Voron a fraction of a second to realize the laughter was his. It’d been a long time since he’d laughed like this, with pure joy.

He tilted his head up to the sky. Tiny shimmering snowflakes descended from a fluffy cloud above, like specks of diamonds. Other than a few light clouds, the sky was clear. The sun was shining. The air was so still, the snowflakes slowly fluttered straight down, frosting the fallen leaves on the ground with brilliant glitter.

Sparrow looked up, too, catching a few snowflakes on her rosy cheeks.

“It rains when the Sky King cries,” she said. “A storm means anger. Sun means happiness. What does it mean when it snows like this? With the sun shining and the complete stillness in the air?”

He inhaled deeply.

What was it that he was feeling?

He met the eyes of the woman he loved while holding their son to his chest.

“Peace,” he said. “When it snows like this, the Sky King is at peace.”

Epilogue

VORON

The Throne Room was filled with people. The walls had been expanded. The vines of the ceiling opened like a giant flower to provide amphitheater-style seating for all the highborn of the palace and beyond. The marble floor of the room held rows upon rows of seats for those who couldn’t fly up to the branches.Taureans,ariens, andsnakanassat in the velvet seats in the middle or stood along the walls.

It was Sparrow’s idea. By tradition, a royal wedding ceremony had to take place in the Throne Room. But she wished to invite the entire palace, including the servants, as well as some merchants from the city and the nearby villages. So, with her usual ingenuity, she had found a way to accommodate everyone by expanding the room and opening the ceiling in a new fashion.

He didn’t object to any of it. During his reign, he’d modified the palace to his liking, making it far more practical. Now, it was Sparrow’s turn to add whatever features pleased her.

---