Page 142 of Fae Reckoning

Keyon opened one eye to peer up at me. When he thought I hadn’t noticed, he shut it tightly again, allowing his legs to hang more heavily outward, giving me more access to his tummy.

I indulged him with more caresses.

Saffron snorted.

Rush added for us both.

Saffron said with a glance at Keyon, who was now purring contentedly.

I said.

Saffron said.

Rush conceded.

As if we’d conjured her, Larissa entered the courtyard from the opposite side. Hand in hand with Xeno, her face was tilted up toward him. When Xeno’s eyes widened as they landed on his prone son, her stare followed, her long, silky hair sliding around her shoulders, skimming the bulge of her very pregnant belly.

When she started running toward us, tugging Xeno along by the hand even though Xeno, as a dragon shifter himself, knew full well how resilient his son was—and how inclined to theatrics—Rush called out to his sister.

“He’s fine, Lari. Just took a little spill.”

Her steps slowed.

Saffron told Rush and me.

I said.

Saffron bristled ever so subtly. Had I not known him all his life, I might not have noticed. I added,

Unable to hide his delight, Saffron chuffed, a puff of smoke rising from his nostrils.

By the time Larissa and Xeno reached us, Keyon’s eyeballs were fluttering nonstop beneath his eyelids from his effort to keep them shut.

Xeno stifled a laugh so as not to encourage his son, something I’d seen him do countless times, while sharing a good chuckle through a stare with me.

I snorted quietly. “Like father, like son.”

Xeno tipped back his head and laughed, raising Larissa’s hand to his lips to kiss it. Her cheeks were fuller than usual with the pregnancy, and when she smiled she radiated well-being. Braque’s poison had taken a couple of months to work out of her system, but since then she’d suffered no lingering complications.

“Keyon,” Lari called as I continued to rub his tummy.

He moaned as if waking from a deep sleep.

“Key-key,” Lari repeated.

His eyes opened slowly—dramatically so.

“Whatchou been teaching him, Saff?” Xeno asked. “I don’t need him to learn how to better wrap any of us around his little finger—or wing, depending.”

Saffron chuffed again and didn’t deign to relay a response through me to Xeno, as he sometimes did.

“Are you alright, Key-key?” Lari asked as she tried to squat down beside him. Halfway through, she gave up, pressing both hands to her low back instead.

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