Rhys shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere soon. I’m needed here. Now that you’re back, I’m going to pour my time and effort into Frelsi and the Fae here. Obviously, if I’m needed in battle I’ll be there, but getting you and Dad and Papa back was the mission.”

“I thought the mission was taking back our rightful places.”

“Your place, Mother,” he corrected softly.

I groaned. “I hate it when you call me Mother. It makes me sound like I’m eight hundred years old and holding something over your head.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to call you Mom. I’ve been around too many formal Fae lately. I’ll try to be more like Lee and Evan.”

“That wasn’t what I was saying either.” He was definitely turning out to be my touchiest child. But then it had to be hard to be Rhys. Evan had Fen and Lee had…well, apparently Lee had most of the supernatural world to comfort him. Rhys was alone, and it was obvious he felt it.

We needed an intervention, my son and I. Or perhaps an adventure.

Rhys started walking again, his long legs eating up the distance. “It’s all right. I don’t mind. I know I’m a little more uptight than Lee. I should call you what you want to be called. If you want to be called Mom, then Mom it is. I use the more formal term mother when talking to our allies. I tend to refer to you as the queen or my mother. Momma didn’t have the gravity I thought it needed.”

Had I been some political figure to him for the last few years? I wondered how much of our lives he’d forgotten during the time we’d been apart. I’d talked to Lee about how Rhys had felt when he would leave his brother in favor of working with Kelsey. What I hadn’t told Lee was when he would do that, I would find a reason to spend time with Rhys. I would take him out for ice cream or ask him to teach me how to play his video games. We would sit on the balcony and work on his homework. While Kelsey had held Lee’s attention, I’d tried my best to show Rhys he was wanted. “I would hope we could be less formal when we’re with family.”

“It wasn’t merely you,” Rhys assured me. “I referred to Dad as the king and Papa as His Grace. Always. It was a relief to hand all the political stuff back to them.”

Oh, I didn’t think he really meant that. Even as a kid, Rhys had little tells. His chin would come up slightly when he was lying, and there it was, that minute uptick that he likely thought made him look all upright and trustworthy.

What was going on in Rhys’s head?

Before I could try to examine that line of thought, Lee was walking out of the door to the long house that served as one of Frelsi’s common spaces. It was close to the dining area I’d been in for breakfast. Inside the long house there were kitchens and storage spaces, a little area that functioned as a general store, and several meeting rooms. Lee had a bag in his hand, and he waved our way.

“Hey, Mom. How’s it going?” Lee asked as he caught up. “I can’t wait to catch a ride on whatever plane Papa is buying. Do you think they’ll have those cookies we used to like?”

I was sure it didn’t help my case with Rhys that Lee immediately proved how charming he could be. “I’ll make sure. Your brother and I are going to find my godparents. Can you check in on Dean while I’m gone?”

Rhys had stopped and turned my way. “We’re what?”

Lee nodded and held up his bag. “Sure thing. Lily asked me to grab some herbs. She’s got a whole treatment plan for Dean. He’s doing great, but she wants him to rest for the day to make sure he’s cleared the curse. I think he has. I watched him yack for a good hour. If there’s more curse, I don’t know where it’s sitting.”

“Good. I’m glad he’s on the mend.” I was planning on having a talk with Dean at some point, but I didn’t want to crowd him when he wasn’t feeling well. It looked like I would be talking to all the boys today. “Tell him hi for me. We’ll be back before your dads get home. I hope.”

“Wait. What are we doing?” Rhys asked.

“You promised yesterday that you would take me to find my godparents.” I knew he’d been putting me off on that, but I wasn’t going to let him out of the promise.

Rhys frowned. “That’s not a good idea. With everything that happened yesterday I think we should wait until Dad can take you. Maybe with Sasha and a couple of the others. Yes, I’ll put together a proper guard for you. I should have talked to the dads about that this morning.”

Tags: Lexi Blake Outlaw Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net