He takes her hand in his, as she looks at all of us with bright eyes. "We're pregnant."
My jaw drops so low it barely misses the floor.
"What?" Peach gasps.
"Oh my God. Oh myGod!" Ella shrieks. "Congratulations!"
Wren walks back to us, with Lyra in his arms and Sophie wrapped around his leg. "Holy shit, congrats!" He turns to Peach. "Trouble, I'm begging y?—"
"Wren. We're having a moment here," she shuts him down.
"Sophie," Achilles calls out, and she runs to him, crashing against him before climbing on his lap. "Auntie Alex has a baby in her belly. What do we say?"
"A sister!" she shrieks with excitement. "Daddy, will you love her more?"
"The baby isn't your sister," I explain gently as I caress her hair. "She's Auntie Alex's baby. She's like your cousin."
She blinks at me. "But will Daddy love her more?"
"Of course not,Crapule. That's impossible," Achilles says reassuringly. That tone exists solely for his girls. No one else ever hears it.
"Thunder stolen," I say jokingly to Alex and Xi. "And I couldn't be happier."
We all hug her, and Alex can't help tearing up. "Stop," she groans. "Stop making me cry."
I catch Xi talking to Achilles a little farther away, desperate to stay discreet.
"Any advice?" he asks him.
"Only one. Your child and your wife are always right. You're wrong. Period."
"About everything?" Xi snorts.
"Everything," Achilles confirms.
"You're so dramatic," I call out to him.
"Yeah, Daddy's dramatic," Sophie repeats.
He rolls his eyes, but Xi’s still staring at him. "I don't want to fuck up."
"Xi," Alex scolds as she goes to him and hugs him. "You could never fuck up. You're the most caring person I know." She looksat us. "I'm just happy my kid is growing up in a world without the Silent Circle."
The wave of relief this gives me makes me hug Lyra tighter, and I can tell it does the same with Achilles because he picks up Sophie before joining me back on the couch. Is the Silent Circle gone for good? I have no idea. It’s impossible to take every member down, but Achilles got rid of the leaders. And as he always says, you cut the head off the snake first. What is sure is that they left us alone, and they will never bother us again.
"Thanks to Hermes," Ella says, her gaze on Achilles. "Thank you," she adds sincerely.
"Talking about Hermes," Peach jumps in. She takes her phone out, scrolling. "Can we just talk about the things Hermes said about Achilles? Or, in other words, what you posted about yourself when you came back to SFU in second year."
She stops scrolling and reads. "'Myfavoritefuckboy is back! After his parents’ messy divorce was finally finalized, he went to live with his mom in France. And now he’s back! I’mobsessed.'" She looks at him, unimpressed.
He shrugs. "What?"
And we all explode in laughter.
"Obsessed with yourself much?" Ella squeaks.
"Always has been, always will be," Alex adds.
