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I stared into the swirling vortex of the portal before me. This time, it wasn’t some rift between worlds, eager to swallow wizards whole, but a doorway home.

“That was fun! We really need to get out again now that the kids are old enough to stay home alone.” Penny clung to her incubus’s arm. “I want to feel young again.”

“You’ll always be young to me,” Prax replied, eliciting an “Aww” from the rest of us.

“It doesn’t count,” Penny said, “when you’ve got centuries on the rest of us.”

Even on Liam, apparently. Liam, it turned out, was young for a demon.

We were standing outside Delerium after a night of partying hard—or at least what accounted for partying nowadays. Despite the years that had gone by, the nightclub still had the same energy as the last time I’d been there with my two gorgeous lovers over a decade ago. The beats still hit hard, and all types were welcomed.

I remembered the first time Liam and Seth brought me to Delerium; I’d felt like a fish out of water. I’d been to bars and pubs, but not anything like this. Some sexy siren had tried to sink her claws into Seth, and I’d gotten so jealous until I realized he had no eyes for her. He had everything he needed in Liam and me.

Since then, we’d all had our moments of being the center of unwanted attention, but it didn’t matter because we only needed each other. After a while, it became known that anyone who dared touch me would be temporarily changed into…that was right, a gnat, and I stopped getting hit on. What was with wizards and gnats anyway?

Technically, using magic in this way was against the nightclub's rules, but Julian, the owner, had been trying to get into Lily’s pants at the time. He was also a friend of Prax from way back.So he’d let Seth off the hook just that once. Once was enough, though. No one dared grab my ass after that.

I found I enjoyed letting loose and dancing with my men. And, I’d gotten close to Griselda, Penny, and Lily.

We visited Delirium often until Sebastian was born. And then, two years later, Amelia came into our lives. We’d decided that two was enough, especially when both of them had inherited talents that made them handfuls.

Thank goodness for the internet because no parenting books told me what to do when a three-year-old starts making inanimate objects around the house talk, and the baby flies before she learns to walk. They were a lot easier to deal with now that they were older.

Like Seth, Sebastian had a competitive streak, and once we got him into the right programs to train his magic, he became a lot easier to handle. Luckily for us, one of the wizards that had left the WEC at around the same time as Seth had started a magic school aimed towards those who wanted a formal education but wanted to break away from the old-school, sexist, and misogynistic teaching.

Amelia, in comparison, was a lot easier to raise despite being half demon. She was nothing like Eadie, the hellion that Tansy and Eamon had to deal with. The only time that one behaves was in front of Grandma Elena.

“I’m glad we came out,” I said. “I needed this. But I don’t think I can handle this every weekend.”

Being a mother and a cop was draining—yes, I kept that job, though Mike and I now mostly train the newcomers on how to deal with and work around monsters and magic— and no amount of self-care via baths and face masks could replicate the joy I’d felt tonight with my friends.

Mike and his wife had come out too today since it was technically my fortieth birthday, which was why we’d chosen to do something that reminded us of when we were younger. It turned out Mrs. Hayes was a party animal at heart and got along great with my other friends.

Two more portals opened up next to ours, cast by Griselda and Penny. Unlike ours, theirs showed the inside of their homes. We said our goodbyes, promised to find time to go out again soon, and stepped through our respective portals as Lily waved from Delerium’s front door.

Seth, Liam, and I tiptoed up the stairs to the master bedroom, careful not to wake the kids. We’d moved into our current home right before Sebastian was born. It was custom-built on the land I’d inherited. As a nod to my grandparents and their role in getting me back into Darlington, we’d kept the front façade of their home. The rest of the home was built to look like an old Victorian. We’d gone with red, with all the roof and details in black because, well, Seth.

Ah, Seth! He was more mellow now, no longer focused on besting everyone else or proving himself. But the good life hadn’t taken his edge either, when it came to Liam or me, he was just as protective and possessive as ever, and to our two children too. It didn’t matter to us who fathered who, they were ours.

And Seth never gave up his unique style either, though with the years it too had matured. Who knew he could make a tailored suit look edgy?

As I stepped onto the landing, I felt the familiar tickle of Liam’s demonly appendages sliding under my skirt. From his angle, he probably had the perfect view right up it. My body lit up immediately, knowing what was coming.

That was one thing that hadn’t changed throughout the years: our passion for each other. By the time Seth got a blanket of silence spell around the master bedroom, my clothes were already on the floor.

“You were a sexy little thing on that dance floor,” Liam murmured. “I wanted to fuck you right then and there.”

“And all ours,” Seth said, joining us.

“Yes, all ours, Babygirl.”

Damn! I loved it when they got all possessive with me.

What could I say? I was the luckiest woman on Earth, and no one could tell me otherwise. It may not be conventional, but screw conventional; I didn’t want to live someone else’s dream. Because here, in the arms of my two very generous and sexy as hell lovers, was where I belonged.

THE END