EPILOGUE 2
Ama
“They made a sign,” Alora murmured in embarrassment, her cheeks going bright red as she realized what her dad had done, exactly. “They made a fucking sign for my dorm room door.”
They had, and it was honestly hilarious.
“I know, honey.” I wrapped an arm around my daughter’s shoulder in comfort, but my lips had tweaked up, my laughter barely contained.
“Just remember, this is only going to happen once…probably.” I stopped and thought about it for a second.
“I actually don’t know if they will do it each year or not,” I admitted, causing her to groan in response, like the world was ending and she couldn’t bear it any longer.
She definitely got her dramatic side from Fin and Luce.
“That isn’t even the worst part, though!” Alora pointed towards Finias accusingly, standing a few feet away in her dorm, his eyes all misty with emotion as he inspected where our little girl would be living.
He was a total softy when it came to our daughter and it made both my heart and pussy puddle with warmth.
She meant the custom shirt he was wearing…the one that had a photo collage of the two of them printed on it, back and front. I knew he wasn’t the only one who’d had one made, either—he just happened to be the only one that decided to wear his today.
It was true, though. He always did stuff like this, and it was one of my favorite things ever. The grumpy and bloodthirsty assassin turned enthusiastic and emotional dad. Who would have thought?
“I’m used to his antics, but the rest of my dads?! Putting up that sign?! This is literally insane, Mom. Make them stop,” Alora growled, her purple and gold mixed eyes flashing with frustration.
“It isn’t a big deal,” Colt assured, looking pleased with what Damien was helping him hang up. “It is just a framed royal decree that says any male who enters this room will be punished under the rule of law in Hell. Not a big deal, just some execution.”
There he was, that vicious side of him that made me all hot and bothered. Honestly, I didn’t think anything could be hotter than him threatening to kill anyone who came near me, besides the rest of my mates, but seeing him that way towards our daughter was even better.
All of the guys had that same level of protectiveness towards Alora, and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have such amazing mates. Our daughter may be grumpy with their slightly overbearing ways, but I knew she loved it when they doted on her and protected her.
She had such a beautiful relationship with all of them, that reminded me of my own relationship with my father. I couldn’t have hoped for anything more.
“Just a little head-chopping,” Finias agreed, sniffling emotionally while talking about a possible murder.
“Honey, you know that’s not even legal, it’s just a scare tactic,” I assured her.
The world had changed a lot in the past hundred years and I’d made good on my promise to Adrien to expand and explore the rest of the realms, specifically Ordinarius.
Except what we found in the human realm was something we couldn’t have expected, despite all of the books Adrien had read in his thirst for knowledge.
I’d known about the veil between hell and the humans as a reaper, but when we crossed over, I’d been surprised to find that there were additional veils and realms. Above Ordinarius, where the humans prospered, was another veil that led to the supernatural realm of creatures—Praeditus.
Above that, a third veil that led to the realm of the gods—Divinus.
Unless you could travel through the veils or had someone willing to cross you over, which required a large amount of power, you couldn’t just pass through them.
Humans, while knowing about the supernatural world, wouldn’t be able to show up at a place like Dark Imaginarium Academy, because it was centrally located in the supernatural realm with all of the creatures who existed neither in Heaven or Hell.
Vampires, Witches, Fae, Shifters, and a plethora of other creatures. After speaking with the Headmistress, we’d come to an agreement to add a Demon sector to their academy, opening the door to more opportunities to those from Hell.
It was an adjustment for all of the different realms, and there had been a few blips as species adjusted to the knowledge of there being more out there that they hadn’t known of before, and then being expected to mingle and behave themselves.
I’d had to lay down the law as Queen with a few of my demons, but it had sorted out quickly.
There was even a monitoring system in place that detected what species you were as you crossed the veils, keeping those who should be in each one, firmly in their realm.
Of course, there were exceptions, like when each realm’s leaders came together to work towards a unified future.
So far, we had tentatively had peace between the four realms.
I liked to believe that it was a possibility to unite us all, which is why I encouraged young demons to attend a place like DIA.
So I was being mostly serious about them not being able to execute any males that came to her room, I think that would qualify as breaking the peace treaty signed from the realms.
I honestly should have expected this, considering how they had been with her growing up, but this was even extreme for them, and I knew it was because we were dropping her off for her first year at DIA.
It was a big step and honestly, while I was glad I had set up an exchange program for our young demons to attend school here, it did make me a bit nervous.
I just liked our little girl safe and sound inside of our castle in Hell.
“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 use a phone for emergencies.
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 lunch before we leave,” I pointed out to Alora, and she nodded. I wanted to get her mind off the worry about who her roommate would be.
Once she grabbed her jacket, we left her house 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.