“It was all of us,” Daddy grumbled.
“Yes,” Lucas noted. “You all know we were there at the engagement party last night, and we decided to go out for a drink afterward.”
“With our wives,” Daddy added.
“I know we haven’t gotten along well in the past, and have had our differences, but since the war is going on we decided to settle them over a few drinks,” Lucas said.
“Afew?” Marcus asked.
“That wasn’t how it started,” Daddy defended.
Marcus crossed his arms. “Dad, you told me to never cave to peer pressure. Nowyou’rethe one caving! To other adults!”
“Yeah…” Lucas trailed off. “The night got a little wild. All us parents decided to share our own stories, our history with our former prophecies and what not.”
“And it was really creepy,” Daddy deadpanned. “The similarities really threw us off.”
“Then we all got depressed because of what we went through as kids, and all the stories kept on gettingworse…” Lucas shivered. “Well, what we came to is that we’re all more alike than we realized, that all of us have been through some shit trying to save the world, and now our kids are going through it, so we might as well forget about it and try to live while we’re still young.”
“So… you partied the night away,” Kallie stated.
“We did our best,” Daddy confirmed. “It was a fun night out at the bar, but us men had enough and wanted to continue theparty back home. It was too far to walk back to the palace, so we crashed here. The ladies weren’t up for coming back.”
“Where are our moms?” I exclaimed.
“They didn’t want the night to end, so they went out to the club.” Lucas hiccupped, before he fumbled in the cabinet for pain reliever. “Haven’t seen them since.”
“For shit’s sake, Dad.” Marcus sighed, before turning to Grant. “I swung by to get the potion we’ve been working on. Is the latest batch done brewing?”
Grant nearly dropped his spatula, and his eyes widened. “You’re using it?”
“Yes. We’re going on a mission tonight,” I said.
“Hold it right there, young lady,” Daddy said. “What’s this mission about?”
We painstakingly had to explain the whole thing to our fathers. Daddy sneered when we’d finished. “A strip club? You shouldn’t be going into those kinds of places.”
“I don’t need the lecture, Daddy,” I replied. “I’m sure you and Mama have never been to a strip club, but we need to do this.”
Daddy’s chest puffed up. “I’ll have you know, your mother and I can be adventurous, and wedovisit these types of establishments every once in a while. After all, your mother appreciates looking at other women?—”
“Oh my ancestors, I don’t want to hear about this!” I shouted. Apparently, all of our parents were more wild than we thought, even in their forties with grown-ass kids.
Daddy coughed to clear his throat. “Fair enough. Though I don’t like that you’re going into the line of danger tonight, I can’t get in the way of it, and I’m not going to stop you. But please be careful, peanut.”
“I will. We’ll get the key and come home straight away,” I promised.
Not like the thought of messing around in Vegas wasn’t tempting, though…
Marcus ducked into a back room, then came out with a vial full of glowing purple liquid. “This should be enough,” he said. “I’ll leave the rest of you to your hangovers.”
“Please do,” Lucas noted sickly. King Ethan gave a particularly loud snore as we closed the door behind us.
“Didn’t you realize your parents were missing all night?” Kallie asked Marcus as we left the penthouse. “Haven’t you been staying with your mom and dad?”
“I have, but I feel better now, and you guys need me at the palace,” Marcus stated. “I moved all my stuff back last night.”
Kallie almost seemed to glow. “It’s good to have you around.”
