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But my breath stops as my soul affirms it.

Crazier than falling in love with a superhero? Crazier than loving him so hard, you became an electric mutant yourself just to save him? Crazier than the endless, bottomless love you feel for the child you created with him?

This time, I have all the answers to the questions.

And confirm them by watching my beautiful son and holding his incredible father.

And acknowledging the triangle of love between the three of us: not as visible and not as blinding but there all the same. Binding us. Connecting us. For always. Existing in the same forever that Reece Andrew Richards will always consume in my soul—enabling him to gaze at me as he does right now, seeing the core of me and knowing exactly what’s there. And loving exactly what’s there.

The same way in which our son pivots to look at us both now…

And speaks to us without moving a single inch of his smiling lips.

My clutched breath leaves me on a tear-filled gasp.

I can hear him. I can hear him.

The same way I heard him when he was still inside me. Not in the faint whispers that I catch every once in a while when he’s asleep. This is his full, conscious voice. The same pure energy of what he sent to me when we were physically connected but better now.

So much better.

Because one glance tells me that Reece hears him too.

Don’t worry, Mama. Don’t worry, Dada.

Reece chokes out a taut breath. Fully empathetic to his cacophony of emotions, I press closer against him. My tears plop onto his shirt and then slide down his arm, and I let them. They’re his decorations of honor. And probably mine too.

“We’re not worried, son.” Reece, finally giving up on trying to tune his senses to Lux’s freaky frequency, simply spurts the words aloud. The stunned stares from Davidson and the others are immediate, but I’m beyond caring. “We’re just…”

“Concerned,” I fill in, at once accepting Reece’s grateful kiss atop my head. Sometimes, moms just do know the right words. “We’re concerned, Lux.” I form a full sentence for the payoff of getting to repeat it. “Honey, are you okay?”

I gasp in happiness as his adorable towhead swings up and down like a dashboard bobble and the twins let out shy giggles. “I fine, Mama,” he says in full voice. Maybe he’s noticed that Davidson, Garza, and all their men have started inching forward, led by the stealthy SWAT guys. I’m on the verge of ordering them to stand down, paranoid that the drawn guns will wig out the twins once more. But the girls take in the spectacle behind us with open curiosity, as if they’ve never seen men in black with instruments of violence at their fingertips.

Knowing what we know now, there’s a damn good chance that’s the truth.

This is Faline’s energy. Both of those girls are drenched in it. But she is not here.

“Are…are you having fun?” I finally ask Lux. “Are you talking to your new friends?”

He’s the world’s most precious bobblehead again. “Yes, Mama. They are nice. They like me!”

“I know.” I draw out the second word, eagerly latching on to the same tone I use when we go venturing into the canyon behind the ridge together. His fascination with everything creepy, crawly, squiggly, or slimy means I’ve got the emphasis down to an art. “What are you three talking about?”

“Worms. And beetles.”

I half expected it, even in this situation, giving me a leg up on preparedness with the follow-up question. “Oh, yeah? Do they like worms and beetles like you do?”

“Sometimes,” Lux babbles. “But only to play with when they bored. And if the critters no come around while they are sleeping.”

Okay, I’m not ready for that one. Or the horrified bile it surges into my throat. Or the equally awful words that I force to my lips, trying to tell myself that asking the follow-up is going to be more palatable than imagining the possibilities. “Wh-While they’re s-s-sleeping…where?”

As soon as the query leaves my lips, there’s a distinct change in the energy between Lux and the girls. A new kind of thrumming and a new pitch of sound. The pulses are rapid and fierce, like war drums intensifying before a fight. The song has changed into a similar chant. If I heard it on the radio, I’d think it was the start of a new Fall Out Boy hit. But the twins are still as serene as seraphs. Their light continues to swirl through and around Lux as he remains facing us.

For all of two seconds.

Just enough time for him to issue one more sentence to us.

“They show me where…now.”