A lot clouded my mind when my husband walked up to our room and that girl was in the arms of Taiga. If it weren’t for my husband telling me it was him before he came in, I would’ve been content to last the rest of my days here. I’d lived like that once and I shivered at the thought. Never again. 

I shook my head as Helios woke up slowly. I was not in the mood for another day of wailing baby. As my husband relayed what happened, I can recall two things of perfect clarity: the look on his face as he drew out the map from his pack and his words that he said.

 “We must replot our course. We have been discovered.” His face was contorted in a way that I remembered from all of the wars I’d lived through with him, that I’d fought alongside him to win, and that I’d die with him again and again just so that our two children could live safely and happily forever. That demon-child could carry the nation easily as a wonderful bit of refuse. 

I ceased this line of thought as he eyed me aggressively, he could read my mind quite literally, even if my face portrayed otherwise. “Eris will be the first to know of our plans, I advise you treat her well.” 

His eyes always glowed so fiercely and it scared me so violently whenever he used his telepathy. His mental voice was always harsh and biting like the grating, sickening grind and crush of a rabid dog's bite. Taiga had begun walking towards the door but my husband shut it with a wave of his hand. His face turned a touch more gentle, 

“Why Taiga, let’s discuss what we had been before we were so rudely interrupted by those outcasts.” He said, his words turning to honeyed sweetness as he stepped aside to give her room at the map. 

His face tightened back up as he talked. Something dark, angry, and feral brewed in the stress-fractures of his face even while the civil, gentle king of our world talked over some matter of importance.