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Phoenix rolls her eyes at me, and something inside me relaxes. We might have these new grown-up kids, but underneath, we’re still us. I’ll still drive her nuts all the time and she’ll roll her eyes at me but then I’ll see her secret smile.
“Fine,” she says. “We’ll do it your father’s way. This is food. You eat it.”
She mimes putting food from her own plate into her mouth and chewing it.
Asher picks up a piece of cheese-covered broccoli and puts it on his tongue, delicately putting it into his mouth. Almost immediately, his face lights up. Then he starts shoving food in his mouth like a madman with no manners at all. Raven giggles, tumbling end over end in the air.
Asmodeus is far more cautious than his brother. He delicately picks up a piece of bacon and nibbles suspiciously at the end of it. He can’t hide the widening of his eyes, and though he eats quickly, he gives no expression of enjoying it.
Lilith, on the other hand, can’t stop making noises. Like her brother Asher, everything she tries only seems to delight her more. She’s jumping up and down in her chair and squealing with every bite of cinnamon roll.
I look at Phoenix darkly, suddenly realizing that fatherhood is not going to be easy. “We’re going to have to keep her locked up until she’s thirty. Or glamour her to look like a troll.”
Abaddon laughs. “Welcome to fatherhood, brother.”
“Glad it’s not us,” Remus and Romulus say at the same time. I still can’t get used to my conjoined twin brothers occasionally being awake at the same time. Much less the two of them actually agreeing on anything.
“And it never has to be,” their consort Lauren says, kissing Romulus and then leaning over his shoulder to the back of his head to give Remus a kiss. “I’ve always been more of an aunty than a mommy type of gal.” She pulls back to look at the rest of us. “And apparently, I’m never going to be lacking for aunty duties if you all keep up at this pace.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Phoenix calls pitifully from her armchair. “Never again!”
“Ahem,” Abaddon not so subtly clears his throat. “Speaking of. How exactly did these three grown bundles of joy come to be so… grown? Does it have anything to do with why you were all drenched with blood?”
Ah. We hadn’t exactly had a moment to talk since we’d gotten here. I’d considered Phoenix resting more important.
Remus reaches out and smacks Abaddon upside the head. “Ever heard of a little something called the birds and the bees? Obviously, their children just grew a little more quickly than yours.”
“Well, yes,” I say, looking to Phoenix, who’s only nibbled at her food. For having given birth just this morning, she’s been an absolute trooper to even try to come out for this big dinner. I need to get her back to our rooms as soon as possible. But I also need our brothers to understand some of the things I never told them.
“But we also had a little run-in with our Creator-Father this morning.”
“What?” Abaddon leaps up from the table, throwing his napkin down. Romulus and Kharon look similarly shaken. “Where is he?”
“Gone,” Phoenix says. “I destroyed his body and sent what’s left of his spirit to a realm so dark and faraway, he can never return.”
“You don’t understand,” Kharon says. “He’s come back before. Several times—”
Phoenix stands up in spite of still being weak, fists down on the table. “You don’t say? He’s come back from the dead before?”
Asher immediately gets up and stands beside her, glaring at my brothers. Then she turns to Asher, putting a gentle hand on his arm. “It’s fine, darling, I can handle this.”
I know she can; it’s the only reason I didn’t leap to her defense. “Layden learned your father’s true name many years ago,” she says calmly, and I feel all my brothers quickly swing in my direction. Well, there’s no one and nothing to hide behind now. So I stand up straight.
“I learned it when I visited the realm of the angels many years ago, treasuring that time in my heart.”
“So why didn’t you tell us?” Abaddon demands.
“What good is a secret name if you don’t keep it secret?” I throw my hands up in the air.
“You and your secrets,” Abaddon says, shaking his head.
“You should be glad for his secrets,” Phoenix says. “They saved us all today. Your father assumed he had the upper hand on us the whole time and that arrogance was his undoing.”
“Why didn’t you call us to help you once you saw you were facing our father?” Abaddon asks me accusingly.
“Uh,” Phoenix interrupts, now really unleashing her attitude on my sanctimonious older brother, “maybe because we were busy being naked and fucking like rabbits under the influence of a succubus and some mixture of Sabra’s and your father’s magic?”
Sabra holds up her hands and shrugs. “Guilty.”
