Phoenix Inheritance by Corrina Lawson

Charlie to pay attention.
    â€œYeah, Mom?”
    â€œRunning after Odin today was really, really dangerous, Charlie.”
    Yes, insanely dangerous. Renee was being calmer about it than he would be.
    â€œWhy was helping that cat so important?” she asked.
    â€œI dunno,” Charlie mumbled.
    A pause. “I’m not going to yell at you, I’m trying to figure out why you did it so it doesn’t happen again.”
    It better not happen again, Daz thought.
    â€œI swear, I won’t go near the cliff again.”
    Charlie’s voice shook a bit. Good that he was a little freaked by what happened. Maybe he actually would think twice about running off again.
    â€œWhat if Odin wants to go back outside and you give chase again?”
    â€œHe won’t run away, Mom! He said he likes it here.”
    Another pause. Renee sighed. No wonder.
    â€œYou did run off, Charlie. You can’t do that again, okay? Next time, you could be really hurt.”
    â€œI won’t run after Odin again because he won’t run off again. That’s a fact.”
    â€œJust tell me next time when you get the urge. I’ll help you work through it so we can do what needs to be done safely.”
    â€œWould you have let me run after the cat?”
    â€œRemember? I offered to get the kitty myself,” she said. “We’ll work together on it next time, okay?”
    â€œOkay.”
    Renee was very calm, considering. Daz remembered his panic the day at the zoo when Charlie had run off and tried to climb into the wolf den. A fence had stopped him that day. But not everything could be fenced away from Charlie. When Daz had pressed Charlie about why he’d run off, Charlie just said the wolves wanted him to come closer so they could all talk to him. That was the same excuse he’d given Renee about running after the cat.
    Dangerous. It had to stop. But damned if Daz knew how. Maybe Renee’s talk would have some effect.
    â€œOkay, then,” Renee said. She moved on and started asking Charlie questions about the cat.
    Daz picked up a framed photo of Charlie and Renee on a hiking trail from the fireplace mantel. As he lifted the frame, a small piece of paper fluttered toward the floor. Daz scooped it up before it drifted into the fireplace.
    He opened his hand to see what it was. He brought it toward his face for closer inspection and realized it was a little origami animal, squashed flat. Not just any origami, either. This was the bear he’d folded years ago for Renee.
    One of the dogs wandered in and stared at Daz while he put the frame back and slipped the bear behind it again.
    â€œWhat are you looking at?”
    The dog lay down and put his head on his paws, still staring. Inscrutable, like Renee could be. Or maybe the dog was tired and liked to soak up the heat.
    Funny, he’d never thought of Thor and Loki as growing older. They’d been frozen in his memory as the young dogs from when he’d met Renee in Turkey.
    Daz adjusted a log. He’d made that bear for Renee to cheer her up after they’d been nearly mauled by one. That was the first night they’d slept together. Despite their breakup, she’d carefully preserved it and placed it close to a photo of her and Charlie.
    All that he’d put her through and she’d still kept that little token. He didn’t deserve her, he didn’t deserve Charlie. Despite being called Batman, he had more leveling up to do to even come close to that.
    He added another log to the fire and watched it catch. Satisfied, he shut the screen and set down the poker. He wandered over to the big map of the world that Renee had mounted on the opposite wall. Multicolored pins decorated the map, representing places she’d traveled over the years. He frowned. The green and orange pins, representing trips before Charlie was born, far outnumbered the blues, reds and yellows from after Charlie was born. Renee loved to travel.