War broke out inside me, the need to go after Zeon and tear him to pieces fighting with my mother's instinct to protect my son, to comfort and cradle him against what the maji leader just did to hurt my precious baby.

Mommy won, partly because of Max.

"It is irrelevant what Zeon thinks," he said, voice low and subdued. "Only Gabriel matters now."

I really was a horrible parent. My son spun, his back to me, arms over ...