Page 22 of A Fate of Blood and Magic (Fated #2)

Chapter

Nine

TEDDY

While I would’ve preferred to celebrate at home, we decided to ask everyone to meet us at the castle in the hopes Elias’s mom would join us.

It was a good thing too, since Elias had meant “feast” in the literal sense.

Where I had imagined a regular dinner with our friends and family, Chef Xander and the castle employees had prepared a banquet hall with enough food and drinks to feed a small town.

It made me think of the people in the human realm. Back in Colina, Elias had worked tirelessly to provide us with food while the castle boasted more than we could eat.

Brenton rushed to the dining table, taking a seat in the middle.

When Elias sat next to him rather than at the head of the table, I joined him.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised when the girls insisted on sitting next to George, making Everly sit a couple of spots away from him.

It also separated whatever bromance George and Donnie had going on that evening.

Donnie took his seat beside his best friend and future brother-in-law.

While Koa and Bon lurked by the room’s entrance, Juanita convinced their kids to join them at the table.

Although shy, the seven lirio younglings seemed eager to be included.

At Alastor’s urging, the mated couple finally entered the room.

How strange it must be for them to be in the castle of the royals they’d once been compelled to fight.

I only hoped that any fae they’d encountered on their walk here hadn’t treated them poorly.

Despite the deeds they’d been forced into, Koa and Bon were good.

Over and over again, they and the other lirio had shown me warmth, welcoming me into Tera Insaldame as if I belonged.

While I didn’t consider Hayden, Ximena, or Finley close friends, I was glad Elias thought to include them as well. Though Finley sat on the farthest side of the table, away from Brenton.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about her for hurting my brother so many years ago, but from everything I’d witnessed, Brenton went out of his way to make her feel comfortable.

He’d tried to seek her out multiple times while she was obvious in the way she avoided him.

Eventually, with his shoulders slumped forward, he’d given up even looking in her direction.

As everyone took their seats, the castle employees busied themselves setting champagne flutes in front of us.

My heart seized in my chest at the way Victoria grabbed her glass. “I think the girls should probably get regular cups.” I delicately held the fragile stem of my glass. “These look entirely too expensive for the girls to play with. Ryenne too.”

I grinned at my friend, who nodded in agreement.

Elias wrapped his arm across my shoulders. “If the flutes break, they break. The girls should be part of our celebration. Ryenne should get a kid’s cup, though,” he teased.

Ryenne lifted her middle finger .

“And what exactly are we celebrating?” Brenton asked, arching a brow in curiosity.

Two ladies dressed in light blue dresses went around the table, pouring champagne into each glass.

“Are the older kids getting champagne too?” I asked, ignoring Brenton’s question.

Elias ran his fingers over my bare arm. “I think it’s best if those under the legal drinking age abstained. We have juice or cider for the younglings.”

“If we were in the human realm, I’d be of legal drinking age.” Aidas leaned forward to prop his elbows on the table.

“If we were in the human realm, you’d be dead or in a nursing home,” Javier said.

“Hush now, child,” Grandma Richter scolded, waggling a finger at Javier. “I’m well over seventy, and if my grandchildren even thought of putting me in a nursing home, I’d make sure to haunt them after I died.”

“They’re a lot older than seventy,” Javier told her, earning a playful shove from Aidas.

“What’s a nursing home?” Seated on Javier’s other side, Delaney tilted her head in confusion.

With both their hands beneath the table, I wondered if they were holding hands.

“It’s where we put crazy old people who threaten to haunt their grandkids,” Ryenne said.

“Lord, have mercy,” Grandma Richter muttered. The fae eyed her curiously when she did the sign of the cross. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

“You must’ve been really good in your previous life,” Ryenne said.

I rolled my eyes, ready for Grandma Richter’s long-winded, Bible-quoting rant .

Before she could start, I stood, taking Elias’s hand when he stood beside me.

“Why don’t we get on with our celebration?” I asked.

“I’d be happy to if I knew what we were celebrating,” Brenton said.

“Why don’t we show you?” I asked.

From Elias’s inner pocket of magic, he pulled out a white shirt I’d made for Brenton.

It wasn’t a very good shirt, with my letters being messy, lopsided, and various sizes.

When I’d shown the kids, Kieren had offered to make a shirt himself.

While I was certain his would’ve come out better than mine, I enjoyed the idea of giving Brenton this awful masterpiece.

Brenton took the offered shirt while Ryenne recorded it with her phone.

Brenton eyed me suspiciously before he unfolded it.

Once he read the words on the shirt, he shot up, pushing his seat back as he rushed the few steps to me.

His arms circled my neck, but then he reached for Elias to hug us both.

“Are you truly?” he asked.

“Truly, what?” Everly asked.

Brenton stepped back to show those we loved most his shirt with the words World’s Best Uncle scrawled on the front. He worked quickly to remove the shirt he was wearing to slip on the one I’d made for him.

I laughed in surprise at the evident pride when he looked down at the shirt.

“You’re pregnant?” A smile overtook Donnie’s face.

When I nodded, the room broke out in loud chatter. When we finished hugging everyone, including Leah, who seemed to feel a little out of place with our loud group, I pulled out two pieces of folded paper from the pocket of my jeans.

I held them over my head, and everyone quieted. “Ry, Donnie, y’all have been my family and have loved me since we were in diapers . . .”

“We’ve tolerated you,” Ryenne said, speaking over me. Nate covered her mouth with his hand.

“I hate that I didn’t tell y’all the minute I found out, but I wanted to tell Elias first.” That wasn’t exactly true since Ryenne and George figured it out, and I’d told Javier, but whatever. Semantics, right? “To make it up to you, you each get to reveal something about the pregnancy.”

Ryenne clapped when I handed her and Donnie their pieces of paper. I instructed Ryenne to go first. She took her time, unfolding it dramatically with Nate drumming on the table.

“Just open it already,” Brenton urged, which only made Ryenne move slower. “Leah, am I having a little niece or nephew?”

Leah pursed her lips and lifted a shoulder. With her fae-like swiftness, Everly plucked the paper from Ryenne’s hand before any of us realized what she intended to do.

“Hey!” Ryenne shouted.

Everly held the paper over her head, where Ryenne couldn’t reach. My friends were a tiny bit insane, and I loved them for it. I loved it even more for the girls, Javier, and our boys, who’d grow up with such a fun but loyal group.

“If I give this back to you, you’ll tell us the gender. Right away,” Everly said.

Ryenne rolled her eyes. “Give me the paper, or I’m hogging the little one and never letting you hold it.”

“It?” Elias said with a scoff.

“I see why I’m your favorite, Mama Teddy,” Aidas said, slipping beside me .

I peered up at him, the mischievous quirk of his smile making mine grow. “All our friends are insane.”

Kieren set a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You fit right in.”

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment,” I added, watching Ryenne jump as high as she could to reach the paper Everly held over her head.

“Okay.” Donnie’s voice boomed over the chaos. “I’ll go first.”

“No,” I shouted, making everyone turn to me. “Ryenne has to go first.”

With that, Everly handed Ryenne her piece of paper back, threatening to take it back if she dallied. I bit the inside of my cheek, not bothering to point out that the whole fiasco went on much longer because of Everly’s interference.

“Can I just tell them?” Jasmine asked.

“I’m opening it. I’m opening it.” Ryenne busied her fingers, unfolding the paper. When she read it, she held the paper to her chest. “We’re having a boy.” The look she gave me spoke of years of friendship and of the same joy I felt deep in my chest.

“Donnie.” Elias nodded his head in encouragement.

Donnie tore through the paper. Eyes wide, he chuckled when he read it. “You’re not serious.”

“What?” Ryenne snatched the paper from her brother. “No.” Excited, she jumped in place.

“What is it?” Brenton asked.

I waved at Donnie to tell them.

He ran a hand over his clean-shaven chin and let out a bewildered breath. “They’re having twins.”

“We’re having twins!” Ryenne rushed to me, folding me in her arms with another laugh.

“Pretty sure I’m the only one who’s pregnant,” I said .

With me in her arms, she jumped in place again. “Twins, Ted. We’re having two little boys.”

I squeezed my best friend hard. “Except you’re not pregnant,” I teased.

“Oh no.” She stepped away and bit the side of her thumb. “Your dress. We need to move your wedding up before you don’t fit in your dress anymore.”

I looked at Elias, who worked his jaw back and forth.

“We have a checkup with Leah in two weeks,” he said. “Set the date for the same day.”

He pressed his hand to my lower back, and I went to him, hugging his waist.

“Two weeks.” Ryenne pulled out her phone to tap on the screen. “I can make that work.”

“We have another checkup in four weeks.” I leaned the side of my face against Elias’s firm chest, where I heard the rhythmic thump of his heart. “Wouldn’t that be better? You’ll have more time to get everything ready.”