Jayce shoved him. “Hah! I’ll be an even better one than you.”

“Nuh-uh!” Adron dove at his brother. The two of them hit the deck, pounding on each other.

Kiara’s face flushed bright red as she pulled them apart. “Stop it! Both of you. None of my children are going to be assassins. None of you! I mean it!”

“Mom!” they whined.

She made that imperious maternal gesture that never failed to quell squabbling children, and reminded Hauk of how his own mother used to break him and his brothers up from fights.

Hauk let out a tired “heh” as he faced Nykyrian. “Remember when it was just the five of us and the only kids you had to break apart from fighting were me and Darling? Oh, for the blessed peace of those days.”

Nykyrian swept Adron up in his arms to keep him from punching at his brother. A rare devilish grin curved his lips as he held his son against his chest, and Adron laid his head on his father’s shoulder. “I will gladly take one minute of this chaos over an eternity of that peace.”

A tender, heated glance passed between Nykyrian and Kiara. The love they bore for each other never failed to amaze Hauk. The gods knew, he didn’t understand it. He’d never felt that way about anyone. And he still couldn’t believe Nykyrian did. Battle-hardened and battered by life, Nyk had every reason to kill. No reason whatsoever to understand, never mind show, any kind of love or compassion.

For anyone.

Nykyrian pulled Thia against him with his free arm and placed a kiss on the top of her head. “Let no harm come to you, mu tina.”

Adron launched himself from his father into his big sister’s arms with such unexpected force that she stumbled back. “Love you, Thia! Don’t be gone long.”

Closing her eyes, she squeezed him until he protested it. “Love you, too, Addy. Be a good boy and I’ll bring you back a souvenir.”

“Like what?”

She cast a speculative glance toward Hauk. “Darice’s head on a pike if his manners don’t improve.”

Adron laughed as she set him down on his feet. Thia opened her arms for Jayce to get just as warm a hug from her. She released him before ruffling the hair on both their heads. “Keep Tiernan and Taryn out of trouble, and don’t let them steal Zarina’s bottle from her while I’m gone.”

They gave her sharp, military salutes. “It will be done, Captain.”

“Captain?”

Hauk turned at Chayden Aniwaya’s teasing tone as their longtime ally joined them. Almost as tall as Nykyrian, Chayden had the lethal swagger that marked most of the Tavali pirates who brazenly preyed on League ships and flouted the laws of any organized nation or empire. But his laughing hazel eyes and mass of short curly dark hair stole the bad-ass from his gait and demeanor, and gave him a boyish, carefree appearance. It was why he kept his face and hair covered whenever he had to deal with people he needed to intimidate.