Page 80 of Crownless King

The baby squirmed again. I leaned back into the pillows, laying him on top of me, his belly to my chest. The skin on his back rippled, suddenly glowing blue.

“What’s going on?” I shot a worried look at Sauria.

She smiled contently. “Just watch.”

The blue light shimmered and thickened, growing darker. Then, two small black wings emerged from the back of my baby. The feathers were so dark, they glistened with purple and blue.

“Wow…” I gently stroked the edge of a wing, the silky feathers trembling slightly under my finger.

Sauria nodded. “He’s a highborn. There’s no doubt about that. What are you going to name him?”

“I don’t know.”

I didn’t have a name prepared. It just hadn’t felt real to me all this time, not until I saw his little face. I couldn’t name someone I’d never met. And now, no name seemed good enough for this perfect little being.

My son.

I pulled a blanket higher to cover us both, careful not to ruffle his little wings too much. He stretched them out, then folded them neatly against his back but didn’t hide them. I wondered if he even knew what he was doing or if the movement of his wings was mostly instinctual, like gripping my finger.

“Aww,” Sauria cooed. “He really is the cutest, and you know I’ve helped deliver quite a few babies in my life.”

I didn’t care about other babies. I just knew mine was the best, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

“Hey, how about the name Aithen?” Sauria suggested. “Like the God of Death? He has black wings, too, just like him.”

“What?” I bristled. “Why would I name my baby after death?”

She rolled her eyes. “Not death, but the God of Death.”

“Isn’t it the same thing?”

“Of course not. God Aithen doesn’t kill people. They die from the hand of an enemy, from an accident, or from old age. The God of Death just comes to take them into the afterlife, so that they don’t have to make that trip alone.”

“That’s nice of him,” I mumbled, a little less revolted.

“Isn’t it?” Sauria nodded enthusiastically. “In fact, he’s the most merciful god of all of them, if you ask me. Most of the others are a rather spiteful, cranky bunch of egomaniacs.”

“Aithen,”I tested the sound of the name, then looked back at the sleeping baby in my arms. “I’ll think about it. It may grow on me still.”

“Good.” Sauria got up to take care of the afterbirth wrapped in rags. “Oh, and by the way,” she narrowed her eyes at me from the doorway, “if you ever tell anyone my real age, I’ll turn you into a six-legged frog and lock you in a jar to add to Sova’s collection. Even the fact that you gave birth to the cutest boy in the kingdom won’t stop me. Do you hear me?”

I smiled at the fake menace in her voice.

“Sauria, I promise, your secret is safe with me. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them you’re so old, the God of Death has already shaved and put on his best cologne, getting ready to meet you.”

She left the room giggling, very much like the woman in her twenties that she was.

ChapterTwenty-One

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

SPARROW

“And one more?” I smiled, lifting a spoon filled with mashed potatoes and squash.

“Ma, ma, ma.” Aithen bounced in the highchair we had found among the many things stored in Bavius’s barn.

“That’s right, my boy. I’m your mama.” Sometimes, he would say two of those syllables close enough for it to sound like one word.

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