Luna. Chapter 62

(Lyra's POV)

"Daddy, the fortune teller says you're carrying a secret that tastes like old medicine," Asher announced as we left the mystical readings booth.

Kael's face went very still. "The fortune teller said that?"

"She whispered it to me when you weren't listening. She said secrets make people sick if they keep them too long."

I watched Kael struggle with something internal, his jaw tightening the way it always did when he was wrestling with difficult decisions.

"Maybe we should get some dinner," I suggested, wanting to ease whatever tension was building.

"Food trucks!" Asher pointed excitedly to the row of vendors selling everything from celestial cotton candy to werewolf-approved barbecue.

We found a picnic table under strings of fairy lights, and Kael helped Asher navigate the choices until he settled on mini tacos and blue moon lemonade. I opted for something simple, but my attention was on Kael, who seemed to be fighting some kind of internal battle.

"The secret isn't mine to tell," he said quietly as Asher was distracted by a group of fae children playing with light-sprites nearby.

"But it affects us?"

"Everything I've done for the past four years has been about protecting you and Asher."

"Even rejecting me?"

"Especially rejecting me."

I stared at him. "I don't understand."

Kael was quiet for a long moment, watching our son laugh with the other children. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.

"Victor was dying. Someone had been poisoning him slowly for years, and by the time I figured out what was happening, he only had months left."

My blood went cold. "Poisoning him with what?"

"Something specifically designed to target alpha genetics. Something that would have killed him painfully and slowly while making it look like natural heart disease."

"Who would do that?"

"Someone who wanted to destroy your family systematically. First your father, then you and Asher."

"The Ashwalkers?"

"Among others. But they offered a deal. Victor's life for my cooperation."

The pieces started falling into place. "That's why you rejected me. You were trying to protect us."

"I was trying to buy time and save a life. But I did it in the worst possible way."

"You made me think you didn't love me."

"I made you think that because I thought it would keep you safe. If you hated me, if you moved on with your life, if you built something new with someone who could protect you properly..."

"Someone like Magnus."

"Someone like Magnus."

I looked at Kael - really looked at him. The exhaustion in his eyes, the careful way he moved, the scar on his face that he thought I hadn't noticed.

"What did they do to you?"

"What they had to do to make me convincing as one of their agents."

"You've been working undercover for four years?"

"Among other things."

"And the antidote for Victor?"

"Arrived this morning. Anonymous delivery, as promised."

"From who?"

"The organization I've been feeding information to while pretending to work for the Ashwalkers."

My head spun as I tried to process all of this. "So when you rejected me..."

"I was choosing between losing you temporarily and losing your father permanently. I chose wrong. I should have trusted you with the truth."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I was scared you'd try to stop me. And because I was terrified that if you knew what I was becoming, what I was doing, you'd never be able to look at me the same way again."

"What you were becoming?"

Kael touched the scar on his face unconsciously. "Their mark. Their weapon. Their monster."

"Daddy's not a monster," Asher said firmly, appearing beside our table with sticky fingers and a serious expression. "Monsters smell different. Daddy smells like love and protection and very old pain."

"You heard all that?" I asked.

"I hear lots of things. But Daddy?" Asher climbed into Kael's lap without hesitation. "The fortune teller was right. Secrets make you sick. But telling the truth makes the medicine work better."

Kael held our son close, and I could see tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "For all of it. For not trusting you, for not fighting harder, for letting you think I didn't care."

"I'm sorry too," I said quietly. "For not seeing that you were in trouble. For not fighting harder for us."

"Where does that leave us now?" Kael asked.

I looked at him holding our son, at the way Asher curled against his father like he belonged there, at the hope and fear warring in Kael's expression.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "But I think we figure it out together this time."

"All three of us?"

"All three of us."

Asher looked up at both of us with satisfaction. "Good. Because the clouds have been very worried about our family being scattered in different directions. They like it better when we're all pointing the same way."

"What direction are we pointing now?" I asked.

"Home," Asher said confidently. "We're all pointing toward home."

And looking at Kael across the table, seeing the man who'd sacrificed everything to protect us, I thought maybe our son was right.

Maybe it was time to go home.