Chapter 64: Welcome to Parenting

Karina did not appreciate the snort.

She whipped around fully now, abandoning any pretense of composure, her arms still faintly trembling from where Soren had recoiled out of them. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Zarek’s expression hadn’t changed, but there was something almost smug settled into the flat line of his mouth. "Looks like he doesn’t want you either."

"He’s scared. He’s three. He doesn’t know what he wants."

"He seemed very clear about it." Zarek nodded toward the small, furious bundle still thrashing in Aldric’s arms. "Down. Down. No touch. Very clear."

Karina opened her mouth to snap something back, and then Soren let out another shriek, twisting so hard that Aldric nearly lost his grip entirely.

"NO! NO PEOPLE! DOWN!"

"See," Zarek said. "Consistent, too."

"Do you want to try?" Karina snapped. "Since you’re so confident you know what he wants."

For a second she thought he might actually decline, might retreat back into that maddening silence he had worn like armor since he first stepped into her throne room. But then his jaw set, and he crossed the distance in a few long strides, boots silent against the marble.

"Prince Soren," he said, stopping in front of Aldric. His voice had dropped, none of the flat detachment from a moment ago. "It is me."

Soren’s head snapped toward the sound.

For one breathless second, Karina let herself hope. The cub’s frantic thrashing stilled, his wide eyes locking onto his father’s face, his little forked tongue flicking out once, twice, testing the air.

Then he hissed. Louder than before. Worse than before.

"NO! NOT YOU TOO! DOWN! DOWNDOWNDOWN!"

Zarek reached out anyway, his large hands closing carefully around Soren’s small, scaled body, lifting him from Aldric’s arms with the kind of gentleness that surprised her.

It lasted exactly two seconds.

Soren’s claws found purchase in the collar of Zarek’s tunic and he flung himself backward with a strength that should not have been possible for something so small, nearly toppling out of his father’s grip entirely. His tail lashed out and caught Zarek across the cheek hard enough to leave a thin red line.

"OW." Zarek’s composure cracked for the first time, his eyes widening in genuine, wounded surprise. "He bit me."

"He didn’t bite you, he hit you with his tail."

"It felt like biting."

"Give him back to Aldric before he actually bites you."

Zarek did not give him back to Aldric. Instead he stood there, arms locked awkwardly around his son like he was holding a very angry, very slippery eel, while Soren continued to wail and thrash and generally make it clear that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with either parent currently in the room.

"BAD! BAD! NO TOUCH!"

"I am not bad," Zarek informed his son. "I am your father."

"That’s not helping," Karina said.

"I am attempting diplomacy."

"You’re negotiating with a snake cub like he’s a hostile noble."

"He is being hostile."

"He’s being three."

Aldric, still hovering close by in case he needed to intervene, made a small, strangled sound that might have been a laugh he was desperately trying to swallow. Karina shot him a look. He straightened immediately, schooling his face back into perfect neutrality, though his shoulders were still suspiciously tight.

Soren let out another shriek and this time managed to wriggle one arm fully free, batting uselessly at Zarek’s chest. "DOWN! I WANT DOWN! WANT RYNAN!"

That landed like a slap.

Rynan. Not Mama. Not Papa. Not either parent standing right in front of him, arms outstretched, desperate for a single moment of recognition.

His brother’s name, a boy he had apparently been happily playing with not fifteen minutes ago.

"He wants his brother," Zarek said slowly.

"I heard him."

"Not either of us."

"I heard him the first time, Zarek."

Zarek looked down at the still-squirming bundle in his arms, and for a moment he appeared sad. Karina almost felt sorry for him.

Then Soren managed to get a claw into his hair, and Zarek made a sound like a wounded cat.

"Alright." He held the cub out at arm’s length, like a man surrendering a very small, very furious enemy combatant. "Here. You take him."

"He doesn’t want me either, remember?"

"You are still his mother. You will figure it out."

"That is not how this works."

"It is how this is going to work right now, because he is attempting to remove my scalp."

Karina reluctantly stepped forward and took Soren, bracing herself for the same violent rejection. And it came, immediate and furious, a fresh round of hissing and thrashing the second her arms closed around him, his small claws scrabbling against her bodice.

"NO! NOT MAMA EITHER! DOWN! WANT RYNAN! WANT DOWN!"

"Sweetheart," Karina tried, keeping her voice as soft and steady as she could manage over the thundering of her own heart. "I know you’re scared. I know this room is strange, and there are too many new people, and it’s loud, and—"

"DOWN."

"—and I am trying, I promise I am trying, but you have to let me—"

Soren twisted so violently that she nearly dropped him, and only Zarek’s hand shooting out to steady the cub’s back kept him from tumbling to the marble floor entirely. For one dizzying second both their hands were tangled together, supporting the same furious, writhing bundle, and neither of them pulled away.

Soren stopped struggling just long enough to glare accusingly at both of them, as if personally offended that his escape had been thwarted by teamwork.

"I have led armies," Zarek said, faintly, staring down at his son. "I have negotiated peace treaties with kingdoms that wanted me dead."

"And?"

"None of them screamed this much."

Karina felt the corner of her mouth twitch. "Welcome to parenting."

Zarek looked at her, then down at Soren, then back at her again, looking genuinely panicked.

"What do we do?"

Karina looked down at their still-squirming, still-furious son, wailing for a brother who wasn’t even in the room, refusing every single parent currently trying to comfort him.

"Honestly," she admitted, "I have absolutely no idea."