“I promise.” She patted Brandth’s chest reassuringly, by the nine circles, she loved him, he’d helped save her son with a broken arm, there were no words to thank him for his courage and determination. The best she could do was knock him out whilst they moved him to the Palace, where she would take another look at his arm and secure it so it would mend correctly.
“Is he going to be okay?”
“Yes.” She looked to the left, Levi had crawled up beside her, his red hair almost dried, sticking up in a hundred directions at once. Love and fear warred within Perri. “Hello.” Turning her head slightly so he could get the full measure of her face… her scars. She would not be a coward, she would not hide from her son. If he chose to turn away from her, to run away, then she would not love him less. She would send Alia after him to explain his options and help him make the right choices for his future. “I suppose I should officially introduce myself… I’m Perri Gloomenthrall, your mother.”
Levi continued to stare at her, his blue eyes so familiar, she saw them every day in the mirror. Still, he stayed silent. She couldn’t stand it another minute, reaching out to try and pat some of his riotous hair into some kind of order. He didn’t flinch away, that was a good sign.
“I have your hair. I didn’t see it until today.”
“Yes.” She confirmed, giving up. What she needed was a strong brush and perhaps some scissors. “And my eyes.”
He just kept on staring at Perri. “I limp.” He made the announcement gravely, as if it was something hard to say.
“I know.”
“Yes… yes, of course you do. But I limp less now…” All the colour draining from his face suddenly as he glanced down. “I lost my… shoes and the insole you bought for me in the river.”
“Then we shall have to buy you some new shoes then. Maybe some boots even. And I’m sure it won’t be any trouble to have several insole uppers made.”
“So I’ll limp less?” His eyes narrowed, as if what Perri said next was of vital importance to him.
“It’s not so much that you limp, it’s what that is doing to your hips and spine. Especially now you’re growing taller. I suspect of late you’ve started getting passing pains and aches in those places. If we can begin to even you out a little now, you will have less related problems as you get older.”
“Oh.” He continued to stare at Perri intently, but her matter of fact response seemed to have reassured him somehow.
“I have some scars on my face.”
“Yes.” Levi acknowledged, his gaze shifting from her eyes for a moment to travel over her features. “Do they hurt?”
“No, not for many, many years.”
“Good.” His eyes met hers again, full of bright curiosity now, but still edged with uncertainty. “Father… father told me you’d died.”
Gods, her child had survived over a decade under Regal’s hellish rule, there was no point in drenching the truth with honey. “As I think you know by now, when your father was talking, he was invariably lying.”
Had she gone too far by disparaging Regal openly? Levi freezing in place, his shoulders hunching almost automatically, as if he expected to be punished just by listening to someone else speak ill of his father. Oh, Levi. She hoped Regal was rotting in hell. Heavens, she wasn’t sure if Levi knew what had happened.
“He’s dead, you know. Your father…”
Levi’s eyes widened in shocked surprise. “Really? Dead dead?”
“Very dead. Trust me, I’m a healer, I know dead.”
He bit his lip, and then whispered just so Perri would hear. “I used to dream about him dying. Dream about growing up, getting tall enough, strong enough to… to kill him.”
“Well, I’m afraid you shall have to find something new to dream about, darling boy of mine.”
“Yours?”
Hope flared. “Mine, completely and utterly mine.” Perri couldn’t resist any longer, reaching out to cup Levi’s too lean gorgeous face. Holding her breath, prepared for him to bat her hand away, oh, Gods, and he did, but only to dive forward, wrapping his arms around her waist, clinging to her. One word slipping from his lips that filled Perri with indescribable joy and heat, lovely warm heat. The ice that had been encasing her heart shattering between one beat and the next.
“Mama!”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Will you stop scratching.” Perri tapped Levi on the shoulder. “And you.” She gave Brandth a side-eye glare. “Stop waving at people. This is a funeral procession, not a parade or a wedding. Think solemn. Think grim. The pair of you.” She fervently hoped no one else standing on the royal family balcony was noticing their antics.
“Everything itches.”
