Page 68 of Inheritance
“Dad,” Alora appeared next to Damien, who was fixing the sign there with focus, “Come on, you have to understand how this will look—”
Damien offered her a sympathetic look, “This is a compromise to what my Hellhound suggested we do.”
I clapped my hand over my mouth to contain my scoff of amusement. I could only imagine what he had suggested.
“A compromise?” My daughter offered a small shriek, turning towards me. I felt a surge of emotions go through me again because she looked so grown up. Her black hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, her little black horns peeking out despite her attempts to hide them. Her wings ruffled with his exasperation, mirroring her internal emotions. The black and gold-tipped feathers fluttered as she walked back over to me with a pleading expression.
“I believe him,” Jace nodded. “Remind me again, why did we drop the idea of opening our own academy in hell?”
“An all-girls one,” Drayven added gruffly.
“There is still enough time to create one,” Luce smiled at our daughter, looking amused. “Come on Alora, you could personalize it however you want, it will be fun,” he half pleaded with her.
“No,” Alora huffed, sitting on her bed as Adrien sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
“They are just messing with you,” Adrien’s voice held a warning as Drayven scowled. “You know how proud we are of you, honey. It’s not easy to get in here. You are at the top of your class already, just from the entrance exam.”
“No pressure,” Alora muttered, mirroring exactly how I had felt when I was told I was going to be the ruler of Hell. She definitely got her snark from me.
“You know, you really can come home anytime you want,” Jace reminded her. “We are a phone call away. Always.” Although, apparently the school was strict enough that you could only keep phones for emergencies, and they had to stay locked up the rest of the time. It seemed a little ridiculous, but when you had this many kids on campus, I imagined it was necessary to keep their focus on education.
“Half of you just got a phone, do you even know how to make calls?” she teased, a small smile tugging her lips up.
Nico chuckled, wrapping his hand around my hip and pressing his lips to my shoulder. “Your mom and I know how to use ours. The rest of them are horrible at it.”
To be fair, we had only gotten them six months ago on a trip up here, and Nico and I had used ours a lot…for literally only one reason. The same reason that no one was ever allowed on his phone, specifically in his picture album. Just because we had been married for a century, didn’t mean we didn’t like to have fun.
“We should get dinner before we leave,” I pointed out to Alora, and she nodded. Once she grabbed her jacket, we left her dorm and walked towards the dining hall. I could feel people staring at us, and it wasn’t that surprising, since this was the demon sector and she was literally the princess of Hell…and I was the queen, but that wasn’t important.
I tapped Alora’s head, and her crown appeared. She shot me a scowl. I had never met a girl who didn’t want to be a princess so damned much. I did notice that she seemed a bit nervous looking at the other students, but when she tilted her head up proudly, I smiled, happy that she wasn’t going to let them intimidate her.
I wasn’t surprised—Alora was beyond strong, and more than anything, the girl knew exactly what she wanted out of life. I wasn’t afraid to admit that it was a quality I completely admired in her.
When Finias began talking to her, his emotions a bit calmer, she relaxed, and I let them walk ahead, my hand intertwining with Drayven’s as I looked up at how emotional even he looked.
“I can’t believe she’s all grown up.” He swallowed down a lump of emotion before squeezing my hand. I wasn’t surprised how emotional he was. All of my men were amazing dads, but Drayven had been the most worried about being a parent, oddly enough. I knew this was a hard day for all of my mates, sending our only baby off to the academy, but there was something they hadn’t considered.
“You know…” I hedged, offering him a smile, “we have this fun little immortality thing, we can have another—”
Drayven stopped me, his eyes lit up with heat, “Are you saying that we can get you pregnant again?”
I burst out laughing as some student squeaked and nearly ran down the hall. I scowled at him, “You just freaked them out—”
“Are you serious, Ama?” He looked thrilled at the idea, and it brought back all the amazing memories of eighteen years ago when my mates and I had decided to start trying…and, oh man did they try. All the time. Then, once I was pregnant, they had become impossibly more possessive and protective.
I wouldn’t lie, I had absolutely loved it and would be completely down for having another member of our family. It had actually been something on top of my mind for a bit now.
“Yes.” I flashed a smile as he literally swung me up in his arms.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, looking around to see who was watching.
“Is it time to go home yet?” Drayven joked.
I flashed a smile and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. I would have never thought this is where we would be, but it was clear the Fates had a plan for all of us, after all.
I couldn’t wait to see what the Fates had in store for Alora.