Page 85 of Aria's Desire

Xaiar smirked wryly. “Strange how fast things happen when a visiting Queen shakes her… er, horns.” He faltered, his eyes flicking to her decidedly hornless brow. He grimaced slightly, realizing the saying didn’t quite work for her, but seemed to shrug. “I should thank you for that.”

Aria snorted. “Wouldn’t have shaken my horns if you didn't deserve it. You should've been General from the first, and we both know it.” He opened his mouth to argue, but she shook her head. “There’s no need to thank me for something you earned three times over.”

He let it go after that, and they got to work. In spite of the impressive speed Xaiar picked up what she taught him, it only took one look at the rest of his soldiers to realize it was going to take longer than she’d estimated before they were ready.

Oddly enough, and in spite of knowing it was counterintuitive, she wasn’t upset at that. It took one glance at her guys working nearby to understand why.

It was that feeling she’d had with Sin in the cave, that they were in a bubble, and the fear that, as soon as they got home, things would change between them, that she’d lose what they had here.

There was no real need for her and her men to be the ones to train the army at all and, yet, none of her mates had argued against it. That made her wonder if they shared her fear.

Still, eyeing the soldiers again, she was sorely tempted to call Spar and see if she’d be willing to relocate for a bit. Aria had never met anyone as good at spy craft as the small, eccentric woman. If anyone could teach these people the art of espionage and undercover work, it was her.

Making a mental note to comm her later, Aria glanced back at her men. While she and Sin worked on combat training, Rellik, Tirox, and Kix were educating a group on the world beyond their hidden Queendom.

She did a double take when she spotted Vekai and Vehar seated with the group.

Reaching out to Kix with her mind she asked,“Aren’t they a little young to be learning about all the shit that goes down in the cities?”

“No. And… they insisted.”

She snorted. “Pushover.”

She felt his wry amusement. “Vekai is almost as determined and stubborn as you, myaessa. And nearly as persuasive as Rellik.”

Snickering, ignoring the looks that earned her, she pictured Vekai with that narrow-eyed, scheming look he got on his face when he was trying to convince the other person that giving him what he wanted was what they wanted to do.

“Somebody needs to keep an eye on that kid and make sure he uses his powers for good, or else he’s going to grow up to be a Voldemort instead of a Harry.”

Instead of trying to decipher the reference she’d made to a movie he had no hope of ever seeing, she felt him pause. “Do you not know?”

Immediately tensing at his tone, she frowned. “Know what?”

“Xaiar has adopted the boys.”

Aria felt like the breath had been knocked out of her. She darted a look at Xaiar, standing with his back to her, then back to Kix. “What? When did that happen?”

“As I understand, it happened shortly after the tournament. It became official with this morning’s announcement about Rellik’s fostering system.”

That stunned her to silence. She’d thought the kids had been sleeping in the connected room, and she just hadn’t seen them last night because she’d been busy. Afterall, it was always late by the time they made it back. She’d seen the boys around the castle so she hadn’t been worried for them, but realizing they hadn’t been there at all… and she hadn’t known? She quickly shut down the worry that maybe she wasn’t cut out for parenthood before Kix picked up on it.

“Aessa?”

There was something in his voice or maybe in his emotions that clued her in. “Which one of you helped facilitate this arrangement between Xaiar and the boys?”

He hummed with pleasure. “You’re getting very good at reading me, my song.”

“Mmhm. You and who else?”

“Your dragon, of course. Xaiar had secretly longed for children and family even as he had been unwilling to take a mate because of the change that would have to his autonomy. I mentioned this to Sin. He took it from there. He is the one who helped Rellik design the foster program. It was that or your dragon was going to adopt them himself.”He paused at the sharp spike of emotion he felt from her then hummed with understanding. “I see you had a similar thought. I’m sorry, my treasure, I didn’t realize.”

“I— They needed someone. I only thought about it for a second. Anyway. As long as they're happy with Xaiar…” She trailed off in a question.

“They are. Very. The boys and Xaiar both. Little Vehar is speaking more even after only a few days.”

“Good. That’s good.”

Itwasgood. The boys would benefit from growing up here, among their people, and Xaiar was a good man. More, he was apparently a good father to them. So, why did she feel a bit like crying?

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