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Silas leans back into my legs, whistling low. “So you’re saying she gets a throne if she doesn’t die first. That’s motivating.”

Elias sighs. “Honestly, I’d kill for lower expectations.”

Blackwell’s eyes glint. “You already have.”

That shuts Elias up.

But the god’s voice softens again as he looks back at me. “Your children won’t be fragments. They’ll be inheritance. Creation spun through desire, not destruction. That’s what makes them different. What makes themyours.”

Lucien says nothing, but his eyes—his eyes are lit with something dangerous and vast.

Hope. And maybe, beneath it, something darker. The knowledge that we didn’t just survive this legacy.

Werewroteit.

Blackwell steps closer. His power pulses in a rhythm I feel in my ribs, in my spine, in my magic.

“Be ready,” he says, and this time his voice is almost gentle. “Your lineage begins now. And the world… will try to tear it down.”

Before anyone can speak, before any of the guys can ruin it with jokes or panic or an ill-timed innuendo from Silas—Blackwell disappears.

No smoke. No flash. Justgone.

And I’m left with seven Sins staring at me like I’ve become the center of their universe.

Because I have.

And for the first time, I’m not afraid of what’s coming next.

I’mstarvingfor it.

“Go get her pregnant already,” Silas says to Riven, mouth full of popcorn, eyes on the TV like he didn’t just launch a verbal nuke across the room.

Riven doesn’t look at him. The smile that curls on his mouth is slow, ancient,dangerous. It’s the kind of smile that doesn’taskpermission. It just happens. Like gravity. Or fate. Or falling in love with your executioner.

I bury my face in my hands, muffling a groan. “That’s not how it works.”

Silas tosses a kernel in the air and misses his mouth entirely. “I’m just saying, if heaccidentallyknocks you up tonight, I get to go next. Call dibs. Fast pass. Skip the line.”

“There’snine monthsbetween each of you,” I snap, lifting my head just enough to glare at him. “That means you get to wait almost a year and a half,minimum. Til your kids pop out.”

Silas gasps. Actually gasps. “A year and a half? Do you have any idea how long that is in Silas time?”

“You’re unbearable in normal time.”

“Exactly! You want this baby chaos factory to run smooth or not?”

Caspian chokes on his cider.

Elias, from the corner of the couch, deadpans, “Can wenotrefer to her uterus as a chaos factory? Just once.”

“It’s a compliment!” Silas protests. “She's a miracle machine! She's gonna build our legacy with herincredible internal craftsmanship.”

“Dear gods,” Orin mutters beside me, rubbing his brow with two fingers, his eyes flicking toward me in a way that saysI’m too old for thisandyou’re glowing againandyes, I noticed, and yes, I’m thinking about it.

And Iamglowing. Literally. My body is still humming from whatever Blackwell did. The moment his magic surged through the room, it left something behind inside me—a thrumming heat that pulses like promise, like beginnings. LikeRivenis already calling to it with the dark thing in his blood.

“It’s only fair,” Elias adds lazily, eyes not leaving the screen. “Silas got twins. That’s basically a buy-one-get-one-free situation. The rest of us are stuck with one.”