{Reipon}

Sagan loved having the girls in her room. She loved Korac for giving them the space to do this. It was his idea. She loved him even more because he spent his time away from the room helping Bethany heal.

Korac was so getting some tonight.

But Sagan also knew he did it to avoid people in the house. He avoided their conclusive stares now that they all knew so much of his truth. Korac was a big Icarus—very big—he could handle the exposure. It would eventually calm down.

Her lover was not the only person avoiding the story in the house. Even though it played in the room, Tameka distracted from it with discussion or activity. Xelan also seemed otherwise engaged. Sagan counted them as two out of three living persons she wanted most to hear it. Rayne was the third.

“Do you think Rayne’s heard the Verse by now?” Sagan asked as she looped another one of Tameka’s braids.

The redhead squirmed a little. “I hope so.”

Sagan pressed, “What about Xelan?”

“Ah… he’s been a little busy. I think he’s waiting to catch it on the next run through.”

Sagan’s non-related sister tensed, anticipating the next question, but the Seamswalker didn’t ask if Fury had listened to it. Sagan suspected it might prove difficult to listen to someone that Tameka detested discuss the father of her child in such an intimate fashion. Sagan only hoped she’d eventually grow out of it.

Xelan, on the other hand…

“I’m all done,” Sagan said. “And I’ll be right back. I have a quick errand to run for the boys.”

Not a lie.

Tameka all but sighed with relief as Sagan hopped up and popped over to her desk. The item she wanted lay on top, packaged, and ready to go. She hustled out of the room with its soothing murmur of conversation. This was not something to put off.

Down the stairs and into the basement, Pax’s voice heralded her arrival as he squealed and hid beyond a lab table. His freckled cheeks flamed with his toddler crush on Sagan. Living in the house with him was meant to squash it, but instead she occasionally wandered into a room to the sound of his “yips” and scurrying for cover.

It always made Sagan smile.

“Hey, Planet Breaker.” It was Xelan’s cheesy nickname for her ever since she broke Gait in half.

This also made Sagan smile. “Hey, Wingmaster. I hope you don’t mind the intrusion.”

They both gazed around the lab with its stations separated by glass walls: medical, tactical, and one specifically for Rayne’s malady. Xelan had scribbled formulas and assumptions on every surface lit only by perimeter lighting that glowed along the gray ceiling and black floor. The white walls displayed some notes, but mostly they were covered in Pax art. Paintings, clay statuary, and models—all of which the father and son had created together.

Proud Papa Icarus.

Xelan stopped working on the next discovery that would surely save the Shadow’s collective asses. “How can I help you? And what have you got there?” He raised an inquisitive brow.

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Sagan gripped the packaged manuscript behind her back. The kraft paper wrapping crinkled under her nervous fidgeting. “Well, I… I couldn’t help but notice you’re not listening to Korac’s Verse.”

Xelan’s face never looked angry or disappointed. Instead, he looked more understanding and open to listen.

Elden, she’d missed him.

“I brought you this.” Sagan held out the only unredacted copy of the Verse. “I figured you might need persuading, so I kept this especially for you. You see, in the broadcast, I redacted most of the detail regarding you. And quite a lot of sex talk between me and Korac—”

Both of his brows shot up this time.

“—But that’s neither here nor there. I feel uncomfortable knowing so much about you that you didn’t volunteer, but I think some of it is worth mentioning to Tameka.” Sagan quickly added, “I won’t—Of course. But I… Well, I hope you understand the predicament I’m in. and I hope it helps you appreciate how much you’re loved.”

Xelan tilted his head to the side in that avian way that Icari sometimes did. As if he listened to some other force—Elden, maybe—on how to proceed. Then he held out his hands for her to pass him the tome.

Which Sagan did, excitedly. “You won’t regret it.”

“I’m most certain I will, but not for the reasons you assume.”

Wow.

Xelan didn’t frown as he said it, but something shifted in him. His eyes glittered with it.

“Xelan, what do these Verses mean to you, if you don’t mind my asking?” Sagan hopped her butt onto a counter because she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Hah!” With that sarcastic laugh, Xelan found a home for the Verse on a lab table beside her and leaned a hip against it. Meanwhile, Pax finished a chalk mural on the black slate tiles, humming a sweet tune only children know. “If I don’t mind your invasion of my privacy? Yes. You’re the only person I’ll allow to ask me these questions because I promised you a talk months—years ago, I guess. But you know everything now, don’t you?”

Sagan shook her head and tried to keep the respect in her eyes. “No. Learning from Nox and learning from Korac aren’t the same as learning from you. If I’m pushing, please say so—owed talk or not. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable—”

“All of this…” Xelan waved at the tome. “Makes me uncomfortable, but not because it’s my life being exposed to the entire Vast Collective. That’s… Honestly, that’s ‘whatever’ at this stage of things. No.

“These Verses steal away what sense I’ve ever made of my life.”

Oh.

The dawning of it all must have shown on Sagan’s face because Xelan nodded with the recognition of it. “When I died, all I wanted was for Nox to die, too. For everything he did in my life and for everything I knew he could do.” His voice took on a bitter tone. “I knew nothing. His Verse… it keeps me up at night. It keeps me busy down here. I…”

Sagan shifted a little uncomfortably on the counter. She knew there was more that kept him so feverish at work. And since they all benefited from his fervor, she wouldn’t dare criticize him for it. Except… “What about Pax and Tameka?”

For the first time since she lied about Justin abusing her, Xelan glanced at her with suspicion narrowing his gaze. It softened immediately, as did his voice. “I love them with everything in me—”

“Hee! I love you, too, daddy.”

Xelan closed his eyes and soaked in his son’s innocent eavesdropping. He sighed heavier than Sagan expected before continuing, “There’s a ‘getting to know one another’ phase that never really took place. Tameka and I are working on it though.”

Offering him a sweetened smile, Sagan assured, “I know you’ll get through it.” She glanced at the Verse. “And I think this will help. I want to hear your thoughts, and maybe it’d be good for you to talk to me about it.”

Xelan’s warm smile broadened to his trademark grin. “You’re so tenacious, Planet Breaker. All right. Fine. I’ll read it tonight.”

“Good. Then you’ll catch up with the rest of the Vast Collective.” Sagan tilted her head as she considered asking him about their own research project. After Razor confessed that an “Icarus got the better of him” and that led to the creation of Seamswalkers, Sagan went on an endless pursuit to find the Icarus responsible. Xelan offered to help, but she’d taxed him enough for now. Instead, she asked a question that drove her crazy to think about. “Do you think Rayne’s heard it?”

Xelan crossed the room to help Pax with his mural. He responded over his shoulder, “Do you want the logical answer or what my instincts are telling me?”

Sagan shrugged. “Both.”

On his hands and knees, shading a lovely flower while his son chalked the moon, Xelan explained, “Logically, it would be unwise for Imminent to let her listen to it. And ultimately it’s a ‘let’ situation.”

Trying not to pout, Sagan asked, “And your instincts?”

“Rayne is capable of anything. If she could track Nox’s pulse across the Vast Collective, she could hear Korac’s Verse. And that’s what my gut tells me to go with.”

In Xelan’s heart, he wanted Rayne to know he was alive.

Sagan beamed.

They’d be a family again soon.