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Brayden chuckled, kissing the back of his neck, when he turned to check the water trough from one of larparca areas at the barn. “We did get the whole thing going huh?”
“We followed our instincts. There’s nothing wrong with that.” He winked over. “Tyr’s more a manager than I am. I follow the seasons. Besides—” He took a soft kiss. “We’ll have our child in the midst of winter as well. Melissa was early, so our children will only be so far apart.”
“So true. I want them to be friends as well as family.”
“I know they will be.” Harden had no doubt in his mind that his child and Tyr’s would be the best of friends, even as they were cousins through Sloan and Brayden. When he thought of it the song swelled even more, filling him all the way up inside.
He gasped, the wind swirling around him, his hair flying. “Our son.” The words were a whisper.
Their son, their beautiful, wild, free baby who would fill his world with songs.
Suddenly he could see him, a boy who looked like Brayden, but free, never knowing a land where he couldn’t fly, soaring through the air on their little white-winged angel, a wind rider.
His knees buckled.
“Harden?” Brayden caught him when he sagged. “What is it? What’s wrong?” He could hear the panic in Brayden’s voice.
“I need to speak to Cade and ask to see the wyrmnain, the mystic. Our son will ride on Seren. I saw it.”
Brayden frowned. “His grandma, right? Is that bad? That he will ride?”
“No, but it has never been seen before, I don’t think. Not in my lifetime, which has been fairly long, but maybe she will know better.”
“Got it.” Brayden rubbed his arms a little bit, looking kind of chilled. “I just think that sounds kind of ominous, baby.”
He saw Brayden understood. “It might be because really special children are at risk, at least according to what the black dragon said to Poe some time ago.”
“Yeah and I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Then we have a need for us to go and talk with the wyrmnain.” He sighed and shook his head. “But we have time even if this baby is early, like Tyr and Sloane’s. We have time.”
“We should still talk to Cade about it when we go have our picnic. We’ll invite him and Poe to come down too. The kids will love that.”
He smiled. That was his Brayden, always getting things done as quickly as possible. It was one of the things he admired about his mate, though, because Harden felt much the same way. He liked to know that there was a timetable, that things were going to get done.
Harden took Brayden’s hand and put it on his belly, which still was not showing much of anything in the way of a bump. “Don’t worry, my love. All will be well.”
He was not particularly optimistic by nature, but he wanted Brayden to believe that what he was saying was true. All would be well because there was no other choice.
His little Seren fluttered in her stall, prancing around and flapping her tiny wings. “Someone would like you to pay attention to her before we leave for the day.”
“Well let us not disappoint her.” Brayden slipped into the stall, leaving it open enough for him to get in with mama and baby and Brayden. They laughed at her for quite some time, both of them teasing each other and playing with her.
By the time they packed up and left for Sloan and Tyr’s home, where they could go and play in the stream, he was feeling much better. He wasn’t deluding himself into thinking he was going to be completely safe with his winged ysidri and his special singing baby. He had convinced himself that, between them, he and his friends and family had all the tools they needed in order to handle it.
“You’re smiling. It both pleases me and worries me when you’re smiling,” Brayden told him, hand on the small of his back.
“Does it? He leaned on Brayden, chuckling as the wagon swayed back and forth. “Cade and Tyr used to tell me the same thing, that it worried them when I smiled so much.”
“See? We know.” Brayden tapped the side of his nose with one finger.
“You are all so evil to me.” Harden urged the bocapal to go a little faster. “Honestly, I don’t understand why I can’t be in a good mood.”
“You can be, but when you’re smiling you’re probably in an evil mood.”
He inclined his head because that was true enough. “I was just thinking about all of the horrors we will unleash on someone who tries to hurt either my ysidri or my child. We have many horrors.”
“Mmmm. We, I mean all of us, such as me, you, my brothers, your best friends, the clutch up the mountain, the clutch in the village…”
