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your service to him long ago.”
    “If I’d had the power to take Taric’s place up there, I would have,” Bryton snapped.
    Myla shook her head. She did not berate him, rather she honored him. “Peace, Bryton. I meant no slight. I simply wish to thank you for your service. Because of Balic’s gift, I am human. I am able to give Taric an heir. I will give him the child he has given me.”
    Sky-blue eyes widened, dropped to her stomach then shot to her face. “You’re…He’s going to be a father?”
    “Yes. His throne, his line, is secure. I am no longer his guardian. You are, Bryton. His life is in your hands now without my…interference.”
    His lip twitched but he could not hide the twinkle in his eyes. “You were a bit of a pain in the ass at times.”
    “I’m sure I will continue to be such.” She tipped her head to the right. “Your issue will one day sit on my throne but I would prefer you and I keep that secret from Taric. He will be far too protective and indulgent a father as it is.”
    His eyes widened even more. “What?”
    “Your daughter…not your first one, the second, shall be the bondmate of the son I bear. I may be fully human but I have not lost my gift of foreshadowing.” Myla cupped both hands in front of her, one over the other. A warm light grew in her palms until it leaked through her fingers in pale lilac shimmers. “I should like to give you a gift, a bit of my essence. Taric is my heart. Please accept this and use it to keep him safe.”
    A harsh gulp moved the cords of his neck but he nodded. A fiery orb held in her palm, Myla stepped closer and touched it to his heart. The effervescence was sucked into his chest and prognostication bathed his soul. For an instant, his bright blue eyes glowed with gifted enchantment as his blood accepted her magic, then they soothed to clear ocean.
    “Well, shit.” His stunned whisper had broadened her grin.
    There was no grin on her face now. Now, worry wrinkled her brow and squeezed her eyes shut. Bryton had left a daughter in her and Taric’s care. One child. He had no others…yet. Although the love he’d shared with Katina had been powerful, they were not bound by the mysterious bonds of heartmates. Few were. She’d hoped he would heal and one day find a new love, a new mother for another child. But if he died without second issue…Her mind shivered in terror.
    “Myla, if you think any louder, you’re going to wake the children.” Taric’s voice husked with the rough edges of sleep, his breath warm against her shoulder. “What has your mind so troubled?”
    “Thoughts beyond my power,” she murmured, rolling to him. His face was hidden in the shadows but she needed no light to see the tawny cut of his brow, the ridges of his cheekbones, the thrust of his jaw. All this and more were carved into her heart decades ago. Her fingers strayed to the thick line above his heart, her mark, the brand of bonded heartmates. The falter in her caress drew his hand and he squeezed the trembles away.
    “Like what?”
    “Batu.”
    Taric snorted. “He’ll be okay. I’m sure he’s not the first child to eat soap.”
    Myla tugged her fingers from his grasp and stroked the wide bondmark once more. There was none she could share her troubles with but her mate, her husband. Night hushed her words but concern tightened them to a sharp whisper. “I worry Batu will never find his heartmate.”
    “He will, we just have to believe that. It’s hard enough thinking of him as anything other than a little boy but one day, when he’s grown, he’ll find his mate.”
    The bed ropes creaked as Taric moved to his back. For a long moment, slow ticks of time, he did nothing but breathe. Tensions crept into his frame, each minute stiffening transferring to her through her palm on his chest. “We can only hope. It’s beyond our control. For all the power of the crown, I can’t make his heartmate appear.”
    “She has yet to be born.”
    Her murmur