“Where she will not look.” It was the only area we knew for certain Ivy wouldn’t go snooping. She disliked the dark, enclosed space far too much, and with it being the place where we kept the skull of Nyx, she remained far away from it.
Instead, when the dreary, wet days came, she and the children turned the old ballroom into a makeshift play area, which we’d offered to do to the basement to give it new life.
The corners of Rhadamanthus’s lips quirked as he approached my desk with the paper folded between his fingers. “Sao has also alerted the small guest list of our plans. All know to keep it a secret until the day.”
“And her dress?” I asked, taking the letter from him and scanning Sao’s words.
“In progress,” Rhadamanthus replied easily. “As are the children’s and Thea’s. All are set to arrive with the supplies.”
I checked the letter again, heart racing. The last couple of months had both been busy and yet somehow slow; it was a rush of helping to rebuild our world, meetings to decide the council and its head, assessing the systems that allowed Dante to take the power he did and deciding whether it could be changed.
Oberon’s admittance system was overhauled. The Council changed hands. And Phoenix, which had taken advantage of young creatures like Elias, and thrived on those willing to do anything for absolution like me, had to be burned to the ground and rebuilt into something that had real standards—that didn’t take advantage of those with nowhere else to go.
The letter detailed the specifics of our plan, with what we needed for our ceremony and the small party afterwards. Even though Rhadamanthus was no longer king of Elysian, he still had deep connections. Well, he still had Sao in some capacity. The demon had declared he would stay at the palace until a newruler made themselves known and vowed to help that demon when it happened.
I breathed a sigh of relief and handed him the letter. “Thank you.”
Rhadamanthus tucked the paper into his breast pocket, eyes darting to the outside courtyard and our mate. “It is what she deserves.”
I wouldn’t disagree with him on that. Following his line of sight, I felt my heart skip a beat as the sun brightened her dark hair. Up close, I knew her eyes would appear more gold than brown with the light of the sun warming her face.
Our mate, at peace at last. It was not something I would change for the world, even if how it came to be meant an entire shift for our world. It was what she deserved.
And it was what we needed, too.
Ivy trailedher fingers down my bare arm, tracing the old, silver scars marring my skin lightly. “I don’t think I ever want to leave this bath,” she murmured, tilting her face to look at me.
The arm I held her with tightened under her breasts and over her stomach. Beneath my forearm, I almost thought I felt the flutter of baby B where they were wedged on her right side. “Do you feel better,a mhuirnín?”
My sweet mate dropped her head to my shoulder, humming under her breath. “Much. Though I tend to when we get to spend time together.”
I dropped my lips to her temple and pressed a kiss to her damp flesh. “I very much reciprocate those feelings,” I murmured, taking her other hand beneath the water. “Especially now.”
With how much work we were all doing to prepare for not only Ivy’s surprise, but the time we’d need to help her through the birth and postpartum period, there was so much going on, and some of the only time we got to spend with one another was in the evenings or when we slept.
We were all trying to take as much as we could off Ivy’s plate, which meant we were all busy trying to keep up with our responsibilities.
But soon, it would all be over, and our newest mission would begin.
Caring for our mate and new babies.
“I will be so glad when you finish going through those boxes of artefacts and Xerxes doesn’t have to work on the council, and…”
“And we can all be together again,” I said, cutting her off with another kiss. “I know.”
“It’s a little selfish of me,” she said quietly. “I know that. But I’m going to blame it on the hormones.”
I chuckled lightly, moving our joined hands to the top of her belly. Over her shoulder, I took in the way she poked out of the water, her belly button little more than stretched skin to accommodate the pregnancy. Silver and red stretch marks shimmered in the dull, golden light of the bathroom, her normally milky skin flushed.
“This is also common in mate circles when one is pregnant. You are allowed to want your mates. Especially now,” I murmured.
Ivy sighed, her free hand moving once again to trace my scars. “I’m figuring that out.” She looked back at me, eyes dark. “I’m glad you’re all here for this.”
“Even though some of us are still…wary?” I asked carefully.
My mate returned to her mindless tracing. Normally, I would test the bond, but I held back, waiting for her answer.
“Yes,” she said slowly. “At least you don’t have to worry about accidentally knocking me up after this.”
