by Naomi Lucas
‘I can’t.’
‘She’s in pain. You’re not helping.’
‘I don’t know what to do!’
‘Hold her hand.’
Sundamar steeled his nerve and took her hand, regretting it immediately as he felt his finger bones strain under the pressure.
“Galan, please, please just kill me!” she begged between sobs.
“Keep pushing, pale one, death won’t come for you today,” he said with such serenity that Sundamar saw the betrayal in Yahiro’s eyes.
She was leaning into Quist’s chest, who held her from behind and kneaded her muscles. His younger brother’s eyes remained closed. Sundamar twitched when the fresh smell of blood pooled between the four of them and acrid copper took over his senses.
“I see something,” Galan said under his breath. The blood was visible now, spreading into the linens between his second and Yahiro. Sundamar did his best to stay strong even though there was no control for him to have over this situation and he was increasingly bothered by it.
The next half hour was much worse and by the end, he wasn’t sure if he or his family would ever come back from it. Yahiro was drenched and pale, her eyes hooded and body limp from the effort of the miracle she had created. He wished he could take away her misery and absorb it into himself.
And then pure surprise and joy filled him.
Because in his and Galan’s arms were three beautiful babies with raven black and golden streaked hair. Two beautiful little females and one male.
Three. Three. One for me and each of my brothers... and yet, Sundamar couldn’t bear to let go of either child under the curves of his arms. He was already attached to all of them, and each had little stems on their backs for wings.
He was pleased.
“Let me see,” Yahiro whispered.
“I don’t think Sundamar is willing to give those two up, but here is the youngest.” Galan placed the now clean and squirming child upon Yahiro’s chest where it curled up and relaxed.
Fresh tears trailed down his female’s cheeks and Quist did what he could to coo and relax her, his third utterly fixated on Yahiro and her comfort and nothing else. Galan had begun the gruesome process of clean up, taking everything from the birthing nest into the light.
Which left him to care for the babies. Yahiro had endlessly teased him that the job of being a father would be the most difficult one he’d ever have.
Sundamar hadn’t believed her.
He believed her now.
One of the babies released a weak cry and squirmed under his arm. He hefted it closer to his beating heart and watched it with something close to reverence—the same way he watched their mother. When the other two babies quickly followed suit, he shared a look with Yahiro who mimicked the babies cries with a soft smile on her face.
“They’re hungry I think,” she said.
“Do they feed from you or from the sun?”
“I have no idea...”
Sundamar nodded grimly, knowing his work was cut out for him. “Is it okay to bring them out into the light, pale one?” He had no idea what to do.
“Go ahead, but shield their eyes.”
He stepped backward and found a weak ray that flowed through the gilded drapes and fabrics he had lined around the aviary for Yahiro’s sake. His eyes flickered back and forth around his children and his female—wife—watching as Quist moved from behind her slumped shoulders and picked her and their youngest up in his arms and hovered in the air.
The pain on Yahiro’s face shifted back and forth, her exhaustion and strain heavy enough for even he and his brothers to feel. They had a job to do and even though he thought he had started it months ago, he knew with the wiggling ones under his arms that it had only begun. Quist flew them to his side and they went into the light together.
His heart filled with light, pure light, full of serenity, and it strengthened his resolve. It flooded his eyes and brightened them into a glow that cascaded out upon his family.
The babies stopped mewling and his heart stopped with fear. He raised them in his hands and didn’t hear the laughter of the others, afraid the light had hurt them.
It wasn’t until Galan slapped him on the back that he realized the babies and their small wing stubs shimmered in the sun, that the light cleaned them better than the water they’d used and all that remained was gold dust on soft gold skin.
“Oh thank god. I was worried about diapers.” Diapers? Yahiro laughed. “I’m down with alien DNA.” But as she spoke, the youngest latched onto her breast and sucked. “Hrrmm, or not.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Galan said.
“We will,” Quist responded, pressing Yahiro closer into his chest, his wings expanding and circling all seven of them.
“How long were you three children?”
“We never were,” he said. “We were brought forth fully grown. These are the first children to grace a City of Light.” And they were the best. Sundamar held his treasures close.
“Weelll damn,” she muttered, her throat still hoarse from her screams. “You three are in for a real treat when they’re toddlers, especially if they’re toddlers for centuries.” Yahiro was filled with warnings and jokes and threats about many things he didn’t understand. Only things she and Galan seemed to know from the technology in their heads, but he didn’t mind, and Quist taunted her right back in response.
“Good thing you’ll be here to deal with them.”
Ever since Yahiro swallowed Lusheenn and drank down the molten gold of their Creator’s power, she had begun to change—slowly—into her own lighted valos.
Already, he could see his youngest brother itching to fly their female and their children into the sky and take them on an adventure.
The spark had quietly returned to Quist after Yahiro swallowed Lusheenn whole; Sundamar could see a new goal build like sunfire behind his brother’s irises and it filled him with relief. Even though they still had humans to find and save and had the cities to bring back to life, Quist needed a mission to keep his soul powered.
Sundamar unhappily relinquished his children to Galan and Yahiro, until he was given the youngest to hold, a pale little girl who stole his heart. His lips curved into a smile when he noticed a tuft of raven-black hair atop her head.
His heart swelled beyond its walls as he gazed down at his... daughter. The molo took another giant step forward. He created all that was around him, all that he cared about. Yahiro had found his heart, took in his guilt, and his love, and saved all of them.
Today, he would figure out his children. Tomorrow, he would rebuild his kingdom. After that... who knew? There was hope now. And there was light. Glorious light all across the wilds of Sonhadra.
But right now, as he looked upon his daughter, all he needed to do was be with his family.
His eyes landed on Yahiro and a heavy affection bloomed like wildflowers in his chest. Love, Galan called it. Sundamar shared a look with his brother.
They were happy. And in love.
Author’s Musings
THANK YOU FOR READING Radiant, fifth in the Valos of Sonhadra series. If you liked the story or have a comment, please leave a review.
This book was the first work I’ve written for a collaboration, a multi-author one at that! It really has been a blast working with Poppy Rhys (she had so much pressure on her shoulders for being the first in the series and who has so many of the same interests as me that it’s eerie), Amanda Milo (the sweetest person on the internet and the cheerleader for everyone and always knows how to make a sour situation better), Nancey Cummings (who is so open-minded and so fun, you could talk to her about ANYTHING and not feel weird about it), Ripley Proserpina (my hero in the reverse harem department and whose books make me love-love the Japanese throwback anime/manga reverse harem genre even more), Isabel Wroth (she keeps me laughing at all hours of the day and happens to put me in awkward situations out in public when half-naked Tom Hiddleston images appear on my phone screen!), Tiffany R
oberts (my fellow adventurer on the quest to make great photoshop images who has also become a dear friend I hope I know for the rest of my life), Marina Simcoe (a bright ray of sunshine and daily enthusiasm who is also one of my favorite authors), and Regine Abel (who has whipped me into a better writer and has given me some of the best feedback in my life). Working with these women and the support they have given has changed my life and I can’t wait to work with them and many others in the future.
For those of you who are venturing into the writing world, whether you’re thinking of a story to put down in words, working on a half-done manuscript, or have finished and are tackling the everything after, reach out to other authors in your genre, even if you’re an introvert, even if it frightens you. You’ll find that nearly every other author in the indie world, ESPECIALLY SFR, feels or has felt the same way. We’re all introverts. Even me. I wrote alone for a good ten months before I was comfortable enough to reach out to others. I wish I had reached out sooner because writing is a lonely job, and now, it’s not.
And for the usual:
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What’s Next
SHADOWED by Isabel Wroth, the yin to Radiant’s yang, comes next in the Valos of Sonhadra series. See what happens with the pale and vampiric-looking valos in the darkest corners of their world...
Deja thought she could fear nothing more than the daily treatments she received during her imprisonment on the Concord. The horrible experiments which rack her body with unimaginable, searing pain. But she discovers the true meaning of terror as she clings to a life pod’s harness while plummeting toward the surface of an unknown planet.
Struggling to outrun the beasts hunting her, fighting to outrun the light, Deja hastens for the only cover she can find — between the feet of a giant stone statue. Only statues aren’t supposed to move, or wrap you in their arms and carry you off into the shadows...
