Page 34

NOVA

SEVEN YEARS LATER.

O pening the french doors that led onto a balcony overlooking the ocean, I snuck out as quietly as possible—not wanting to wake anyone before my first sip of coffee. Unsurprisingly for the group of us, our family was chaos incarnate, so the few teeny tiny seconds of quiet I got at the start and end of the day? A much needed break.

Especially after the hectic process of packing up all fifteen of us and portalling to our property here in Bora Bora. A real estate investment I would never regret. Was it practical? No. But could we portal here anytime we wanted? Even for a weekend break? Yes. In my mind, that made it worth it on its own.

A shimmering avatar of purple appeared next to me, offering me cheers with her own coffee mug. My magic downed her caffeine quickly and entertained me by jumping onto the railing before soaring downwards and disappearing.

I swear, when I’d let the chains loose on her, I’d had no idea she would just start physically manifesting on her own accord. Even better, the others couldn’t always see her—so sometimes I looked like I was making faces, laughing, or talking to myself.

People had already thought I was insane, but now…

Suddenly, the door opened behind me and I didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Nour. His large arms came down on either side of me before brushing a kiss to the top of my head. “Happy anniversary, moonbeam.”

Turning into him, I flashed a big smile before going up on my toes for a kiss. “Happy anniversary to you too. I swear the Maker is looking out for us because the kids are all still asleep and it’s nearly eleven.”

“Or they’re up to something,” he said knowingly. My lips tugged into a smile. That was incredibly possible. Seven years ago—after the nearly cataclysmic cosmos war—I’d had no idea what we were going to do or where we’d be in a year, let alone seven. But the world has a way of working out, and destiny always seems to have something in mind for our family .

In mid-July, only months after the war, the ten of us had gotten married on a beach in Bora Bora. There had been a stunning display of purple and blue flowers, with all of my men wearing white linen suits that complemented my blue and white ombre dress perfectly. The event was large to say the least, probably much bigger than most on this island, but it had been an absolute blast and was filled with more than a few tipsy escapades with Lorcan, Vegas, Gray, Maize, and Maya. Something I totally had pictures from.

Outside of imagining marrying John when I’d lived in the coven, I’d never given much thought to my wedding. So when it had come together perfectly, it had been more than a bit surprising. What hadn’t been surprising was when we decided to extend our honeymoon not once but four times, staying in Bora Bora for nearly two months before finally returning to the real world.

A world that had included a massive estate and rather lofty political position in the God realm. Although, I’d been pretty hard pressed to find something to be stressed about. If I’d thought my men were attentive before, it was nothing compared to when we didn’t have the weight of the literal universe on our shoulders.

I’d be the first to admit that they spoiled me. I would have felt guilty over it, but the times I’d pushed back, they’d gotten all broody about it. Especially when they’d given me my wedding ring.

Bringing my hand up, Nour caught my fingers as we both examined the jewel on my ring finger. I mean, I couldn’t even call it a ring, right? It was gigantic, a brilliant diamond that was surrounded by the most delicate white gold work I’d ever seen. Nine strands of gold wrapped around the diamond, creating a space for my finger in the most organic way possible. It was absolute perfection, and the wedding band I’d soldered to it had nine diamonds, representing my men in a symbolic, beautiful way.

“I still can’t believe you tried to fight us on this one.” He shook his head in mock disappointment as I rolled my eyes, a smile tugging at my lips.

“I was worried my finger would break off! I’m sorry, but you’re not the one wearing a weight on your finger,” I teased. My gaze moved to his own band, the matching one to eight others. The silver was engraved with a special pattern I helped design for each of them. Inside was each man’s first initial and my own—pretty cute, right?

“I still think we should have done a full proposal,” he grumbled.

“I mean, I sort of walked in on the middle of planning.” I turned into him, taking another sip of coffee. “But I totally didn’t mind. Besides, it was really fun putting it on for the first time during the wedding. It felt really special.” My magic had literally sealed each ring when we did our vows. I had no idea if the men realized it, but since then no one had been able to take their rings off. So that was cool, right?

Except I had almost whacked my own babies by accident with the size of this thing.

“It’s hard to believe that only seven years ago we were here—without kids. Just married and only having known each other for maybe a year at most.”

“That is sort of crazy,” I admitted softly. And yet despite that, all of them—especially Ramsey—had brought up not once but several times the idea of starting a family right away. It was so extremely flattering, and I totally got into it, especially behind closed doors…but something had told me to hold off. Man, I was glad I had trusted my instincts.

When we’d returned to the God realm, we received a request to visit the Horde—specifically Queen Gray. I think all of us had assumed it was something to do with the Red Masques or the war, but when we’d arrived at the castle, I realized it was anything but that.

When the House—the orphanage that had tortured River for most of his young life—had been dismantled, many of the children had found refuge in the castle. Once their records were made available, many even managed to find their families. Some of the parents recounted how their sons, mostly, had been taken right from under their noses.

Not everyone had been that lucky, though. Some of the older kids had chosen to leave for the Red Masques academy or otherwise, but after a year, two little boys still remained.

Tarkan and Metehan—or Tark and Met—were twins: one was assumed to be an alchemy mage, the other a healing mage. At the time, they’d been three years old, and while they’d obviously been well taken care of in the castle, they were both hesitant and shy when being introduced to us. They had been cautious around all of us except…River. Which made far too much sense.

It was also why, despite having zero parenting skills, we had decided to adopt them into our family. Seven years later, I considered them as much my children as the other three. Sometimes it was crazy to consider that I hadn’t actually had them myself.

Suddenly—as if my thoughts brought them into fruition—the balcony doors swung open, bringing Nour and me out of our peaceful moment.

“Mom, you can’t make me wear this.” My smile grew against Nour’s chest as my husband chuckled, stepping to the side to reveal our two ten-year-old boys.

Tark and Met were already taller than me by at least an inch, and considering the adorable baby faces they still had, it was sort of a funny. Well, that and they considered themselves a lot older and tougher than they probably were. Not that they weren’t strong, but the inflated ego of a ten-year-old whose fathers were always surrounding them with support and love—let’s just say it could get intense.

“Wear what?” I asked, pretending not to know as Tark ran a hand through his dark hair, looking stressed. Much like Met, who was holding a stack of two shirts and staring down at them with concern, the twins had black almost navy hair and fair skin. Their eyes were a bright blue that had been almost unnerving when they were four but now held so much passion and excitement for things—even when they were cranky.

And they did get cranky—like right now.

Met, who could smile as brightly as Rowan but had the quiet intensity of Cassian, was holding the shirts with a disgruntled expression. He may have not showcased his alchemy mage powers yet, but the shadows that did slip out occasionally were a pretty telltale sign.

Tark was his very outspoken counterpart who may have picked up a bit too much of Everett’s unhinged thought processes and Fox’s sarcasm. I knew that it was only a matter of time until these two got into real trouble, so I was appreciative of them being mad about a t-shirt right now.

“Matching shirts!” Tark growled, grabbing a shirt from his brother and shaking it out. The black shirt with neon blue writing that listed all of our names on it with a palm tree had me smiling. I thought they were adorable.

“Those turned out great, moonbeam,” Nour encouraged.

“Dad,” Met groaned, shaking his head.

“They did,” I said, arching a brow at both boys. “What are you two worried about? I get being worried about not being ‘cool’ in the God realm or the Horde, but why here? It’s literally just us.”

I knew why. I totally knew why. But both of them instantly went quiet. My smile grew. I felt a little bit bad about teasing them, but not really. “I mean, the only people that would see them if we took a picture would be my friends—Aunt Maize, Aunt Gray, Aunt Maya, Aunt Lorcan for sure…oh, and Aunt Vegas. She loves showing the pictures to her kiddos.”

“That’s the problem!” Met said, unable to hold it in anymore. “You can’t send them to her.”

Nour chuckled as I asked innocently, “Wait, why?”

“Shut it,” Tark hissed before plastering on a bullshit smile. “Nothing, Mom. Just no pictures. Please.”

“Get out of here, you two.” Nour shook his head as they grumbled and ducked back inside.

I sighed and looked up at my husband. “That crush of theirs is going to get them in trouble.” I wasn’t surprised they had a crush on Vegas’s daughter, who was two years younger than them. It was actually really sweet. They’d played together often as kids, but now the boys always acted like absolute weirdos around her. I don’t think they even realized why they were so freaked out.

“Eh, it’ll be fine.” Nour shrugged. “What are they going to do?”

What would Vegas’s husbands do if their daughter liked our sons….yeah, I didn’t need to answer that one. I would just have to do my best to keep things calm and relaxed.

“And I mean, you guys do help with the Red Masques all the time,” I reasoned.

Well, that and I literally had a group chat with all the other women and we met up once a month for a girls’ night. It was one of the more relaxing nights out of the month for sure—that and date night, although I hoped to have even more of those now that our kids were getting older and our responsibilities for work were even less than they’d been seven years ago.

While I worked on the council of the gods and Volkan, Nour, and Ramsey helped with things there, many of my men worked as contractors for our various allies when it came to training and introducing new skillsets into militaries. We were pretty much all but retired, and it had made parenting a hell of a lot easier.

Shit was still hard, but when you had ten sets of hands, it helped.

“I’m going to run in and get more coffee.” Nour dropped a kiss on my head and moved through the door, passing our middle child, Eren.

After our hectic first year married and adopting the twins, we hadn’t even started to try for a baby until the following January. Once we started trying, though…well, let’s just say that by that December, Eren was brought into the world. Labor had been fairly easy but only because River had been able to freakin’ tell when I was having contractions so we got to the medical center on time. The pregnancy and subsequent recovery had been hard on my men, stressed and worried about my and Eren’s well being—but we were more than alright. Now at six years old, almost seven, it was insane to see the kid that he’d grown into.

“Morning, kiddo.” I offered him a smile, sitting down on the patio sofa and patting for him to join me. In his hands were three books, all heavy texts that were totally for kids older than him, if not adults. But that didn’t surprise me; Eren was extremely smart. It was actually a bit scary how intelligent he was, and while I didn’t know how his power would manifest, I had a feeling it would be along the lines of Ramsey or Nour. He was already starting to have flashes of visions.

“Can I bring these to the beach?” he asked. “Tark told me I couldn’t.”

I put my hand out to examine the books and smiled. The one on top was the history of the Horde book—the same one I’d sat on the porch reading with August so many years ago. “I don’t see why not. They may get sandy with your little sisters running around, but if you don’t mind, I’m fine with it.”

His gold eyes filled with distraught. Frowning, expression twisted in contemplation before he ran a hand through his navy and silver hair. “I don’t think that’s a good idea then.”

Eren was a stickler when it came to rules, much like Ramsey, and he was more than a bit broody, like Ram and River combined. At least sometimes—especially when his books got messed up. But who could blame him?

“Why don’t you use your e-reader?” I asked.

“Grandma told me it’s better to hold the books,” he said, his expression conveying wisdom. It was fucking adorable. I knew that he was talking about my mom, Lorelei, but with the number of people walking around calling themselves grandparents, aunts, or uncles—looking at you Venus, Isis, Osiris, Hecate, Danu, and Anubis—it could have been confusing.

“It is nice to hold books, but preserving them is great also. Try the e-reader. I think you may find that you like it.” I could see him struggling with breaking out of his normal routine, which is why I was thrilled when Rowan appeared out of nowhere with it in hand.

Rowan crouched down. “I downloaded the books in the app—the exact ones you're holding. Try it out, buddy. Your mom’s right—it’s worth a shot.”

“Alright,” our six-year-old huffed before grabbing the e-reader and striding back into the house. I offered Rowan an amused smirk as he stood and tipped my chin up, dropping a kiss to my lips.

“Happy anniversary, wildcat.”

“I love you,” I said happily, kissing him once more. “Is everyone up?”

“Oh yes,” he sighed. I flashed a smile and stood, joining him as we walked through our luxurious tropical bedroom and into the upper-floor foyer. I could hear multiple voices downstairs, but that wasn’t what caught my attention.

“No—no—no,” I hissed as I shot my magic out to grab hold of not one but two small bodies about to throw themselves down the stairs. In an explosion of magic, my daughters’ powers collided with mine and shot sparks everywhere, causing the three-year-olds to let out peals of giggles.

“What the hell…” August frowned, surging out of one of the nearby rooms in panic as I crouched down to grab both girls in my arms, shaking my head at their craziness.

“Happy anniversary, Auggy!” I called out as the man flashed me a gorgeous smile. I walked right into the girls’ bedroom and tossed them on the bed playfully.

“Girls.” I offered them knowing looks, their adorable smiles growing.

“We were playing!” Selin clapped her little hands before wiping her nose onto her nightgown. The two of them were wearing matching princess dress-up nightgowns, which somehow contrasted and worked perfectly with what they were attempting.

Kneeling down, I looked her in the eye. The bright silver orbs sparkled with pure joy. “Playing is safe. This wasn’t safe. You can’t use your magic to propel you down the stairs like a rocket.”

“Propel?” Meryem frowned at her sister. The two of them had the same silver eyes, but Selin’s hair was a pure navy shade and Meryem’s was silver. Two sides of the same coin.

“Moving you forward—or shooting forward, in this case. You can’t sit on a floor scooter and use your magic to push you down the stairs,” I huffed.

“Why?” Selin asked, her eyes way too critical for a three year old.

“Mommy do it also!” Meryem encouraged. I already knew I was in trouble with her. While Selin had August’s sunshine personality and Nour’s softness, Meryem was all me and Volkan. As in my sassiness and Volkan’s power. In fact, Selin had my power almost directly, and Meryem had his. Needless to say, it was more than a bit intense to have toddlers wielding Titan magic.

“Mommy can’t do that,” I disagreed. “I don’t want to get hurt, and I don’t want you two to get hurt, either. Can we please try to be more careful and use our thinking caps?”

“Yes, Mommy,” Selin said sweetly as Meryem nodded. It was the best I was going to get.

“Alright,” River said, stepping into the doorway. “Breakfast is ready. Pineapple pancakes—careful!”

The girls raced past him as I sighed and stood, crossing the space and sinking into my healing mage.

“They’re going to be so much trouble,” I mumbled into his chest. “Fun, for sure. But trouble.”

“I mean, it could be said that it’s impressive that they’re smart enough to figure out how to do that,” River grumbled. I chuckled because he was right—they were so smart.

“Hey.” I went up on my toes. “Happy anniversary.”

River deepened the kiss I offered before scooping me up. As he whispered the words back and carried me downstairs into the chaotic kitchen of fifteen, I couldn’t help but sigh happily.

After everything that had happened… I was really glad I hadn’t stayed away from mages .

* * *

The End.