I jerked my stare away from my currently tactless husband and looked back at Aodh. “Sorry about that. Would you like to say hello?” I held Miri out.
Aodh and Nighean closed in on the baby. As they welcomed her formally, then more casually, I slid an I'll-deal-with-you-later look at Sever. He wisely looked repentant.
Don't fuck with the postpartum hormones. Baby mama crazy is real, even for us mixtures.
“Ah! So good of you to come,” my father exclaimed.
As the Sylphs moved on, I turned to see whom my father was greeting. Behind me came a shuffling, and I knew without looking that it was my husbands going tense. Because our guest was King Astaroth of Hell.
And even as the King of Hell finished shaking my father's hand, his green stare shifted my way, the inner gold catching fire when he met my gaze.
Once, I would have known what Star was feeling. But that insight had been brief. Still, I had a piece of his soul inside me, and that didn't go away. Not ever. A lot like the memory of thekiss we had shared the last time I'd seen him. The kiss I hadn't told my husbands about.
Guilt sliced through me and was quickly stamped out by the rustle of Raza's wings. Raza, who would have started a war with Hell over that kiss. At the time, I thought I was simply sparing my husbands' feelings—and mine, for that matter. Things were already strained between Astaroth and most of my men. I didn't want to make them worse by confessing to a kiss that would go nowhere. But now I knew that I could never tell my husbands about the passionate exchange that had seared itself into my mind. Not ever. The confession would be catastrophic.
All of that was expressed between Star and me in a heartbeat, through our locked stares. So maybe there was still a soft frequency between us, one through which we could speak without speaking. Or maybe it was just that we were both really fucking familiar with the situation.
“Your Majesties and Highness,” Astaroth said with a nod to the rest of us as a whole. “Congratulations on the birth of your new daughter.”
“Highnesses,” Killian, who was the least opposed to Star, corrected. “Sever here has stepped down from the Throne of Heaven.” He smacked Sever's shoulder. “So now, he's Prince of Twilight.”
As if Killian's words had summoned them, the sound of horns (the musical kind) came from the arched entrance of the throne room, and a company of Angels marched in. The entire Host hadn't come, thank goodness, but there were representatives of every class of Angel there. The Seraphim, Cherubim, and Erelim who guarded and maintained the HolySanctuary; the Lords who ruled the territories; the Virtues who taught in the academies; the Powers who trained the warriors, and all the Principalities who governed Earth. Oh, and Gabriel, of course. He strode in at the front of the group, dressed in shiny gold armor instead of his usual board shorts and T-shirt.
“Dad,” I snarled.
“Yes, I invited them and allowed them through a rath,” my father admitted. “They're family.” He leaned over and gave me a stern look. “And they're allies. This is part of what being a queen is about. Maybe you still have something to learn from your father.” He winked a purple star eye at me.
I groaned.
Astaroth chuckled. “Good thing I brought an escort of my own.” He waved at a group of Demons, including his King's Guard, previously known as the Sayadi.
I glanced at them, then did a double take. Normally, I got glared at by Antaura, Star's ex-girlfriend. But there was someone new among the Sayadi, dressed in a gown instead of Demon armor. She was stunning, with midnight-black hair down to her waist and fair skin blushed a pale pink. And she was staring murder at me.
I frowned at her in confusion. Glares didn't faze me. I'd been glared at and worse by more horrible people than a Demon in a dress. I glanced at my cousin Bress and had to suppress a horrible memory of him poised above me. But he had paid for what he tried to do to me, and I'd forgiven him. He'd been a mommy's boy back then, and his mother was pure evil. Nowshehad a glare.
But I digress.
“Uh, who's the new girl?” I asked Star.
His eyes widened, going from me directly to the woman who was glaring. As soon as his stare shifted her way, she looked at the Angels, as if she'd been watching them the whole time. Star opened his mouth to reply, but that's when the Angels went down to one knee. All of them. In unison. It made quite the clamor since a lot of them wore swords, if not armor.
And then they cried as one, “All hail the Queen of Heaven!”
And they weren't talking to me.
Holy shit.
“God damn it,” Sever growled.
“Literally,” I muttered. “Was that blessing also a crowning?”
Sever looked down at our daughter, then up at me. “It could be seen as one.”
“So, you're a queen now, little one,” I said to my daughter. “That's quite a step up from marchioness.”
Snickering, Star bent to kiss Mirielle's head, and in the commotion of the Angels getting back to their feet, he whispered, “She's as beautiful as her mother.”
“Thank you, Star,” I whispered back, locking stares with him again.
