Page 65 of Finding Closure

Nice.

A few days later, I was completely done and showed up for the photo shoot that Julian had gifted me for my birthday… Sort of. I had expanded the present.

A lot.

I now had the photographer and his team—who were all supes—for the whole day along with their studio. We were doinga lot of everything all day and incorporating too much into not enough hours, so people had better behave.

For real, because I was using what little remaining time I had with my family to do all of this.

Lucca and his family were already taking pictures when I arrived. He had asked to sneak it in and promised they would all get up extra early to be pretty and ready to go right at the start time without fuss. I thought his brother Jason would have started shit, but he was as worried about Mrs. Von Thann as Lucca was.

That was apparent when he thanked me on the side later for including them and even having fairy makeup artists work on his mom and sisters. It was a really mature thing to do and acknowledge, so I was kind as well.

“I will always have too much on my plate, but I do care,” I told him quietly. “If you see something I should know about, always come to me. It’s not a problem if you’re not being selfish, Jason.”

I was ready too and took a quick picture with Lucca and his family before we moved on. Izzy and I took one with Anya White who was surprised to be invited, but she’d honestly become like an aunt to us with how much she’d helped us both.

Katrina arrived with apologies for not being on time but hurried to join us. The two women were instrumental in how far I’d come after all. Then the female commanders joined us, and we took a couple of different shots before Izzy had a chance for a few with just Anya and Katrina.

Hudson’s family slipped in for a couple of pictures in between meetings and their kids getting to school. It was all before eight in the morning, so it was kind of crazy honestly. They thanked me for including them, Sasha tearing up when she saw the picture of her and Xavier with Hudson alone.

I nodded that I understood. He was so grown up now. He’d always been a man when we’d met, but now… He was an adult.

We all were even if we were twits in our mid-twenties.

Mr. and Mrs. Rothchild quickly snuck in a picture with me, and I thanked them before they hurried off with the Vogels.

Then I had a picture with each of my guys in a variety of cute or snuggly poses. We took one all together, and I beamed as my dad arrived looking a bit shy about it all. I waved him to join us, kissing his cheek when he did.

A few were snapped, but then it was just the two of us and we both teared up. Luckily, Izzy demanded to join us as his adopted daughter and our family as well.

He chuckled and kissed her hair, saying he was blessed to have such a wonderful woman want to be his daughter, and it was forever recorded just how red Izzy turned. It was a pretty big compliment coming from a damn demigod after all.

Lageos and I took pictures with Iolas, and then Neldor joined us before Taeral did as well. Fine, we were jumping the gun on some of this, but… My dad wouldn’t be here much longer.

I wanted all of the moments possible to look back on forever.

Dad and I also took pictures with all the light fairy commanders before all of them and Neldor as well. We added the majors as well who basically filed in quickly just for this, bowing to Neldor and me and thanking us for the honor.

I was shocked when Rafe snuck in with all of his friends and Wyn who pulled Darby in as well. It made sense because they’d all become really close going to law school.

“Congrats,” I praised them both. “I heard you’re all graduating at the top, not just Darby.”

“I can’t always be a twit, Your Highness,” Wyn chuckled.

“If only, Wyn,” I teased. I smiled as they had fun and was really glad that their exception had gone through. Law school was normally three years but given their resumes and thedegrees they had listed—they hit the prerequisites that weren’t law and fillers.

I stepped out and let Rafe, Dalyor, Kerym, Agis, and their group have a few quick shots alone, Neldor giving me a look that I was a total softie. I shrugged; it was the day for that. I nodded to where Stefanie was standing with Colton, clearly going to slip in as well… And I was thrilled they were. It warmed mysoulthat they were at the point of taking couples pictures.

“They flew together,” Neldor told me under his breath, nodding when I gasped. “I gave permission for Colton to be allowed to fly around Faerie as long as he was escorted. They went flying at sunset the other night. People were worried and checked on them but kept far enough behind.” He rubbed my back. “She can still glide. She does what you and Hudson used to do.”

“Thank fuck,” I rasped, turning away so no one saw me cry. “Asshole. Tell me this later and don’t mess up my makeup.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m horrible,” he chuckled as he checked my face. “You look perfect, baby doll.”

I rolled my eyes and went for the next picture. It was with Cara and Jordan who were already showing. It was kind of trippy to stand in between two pregnant women sporting baby bumps, but I was glad we got a picture.

Next were all my hobgoblin buddies. I started with the kids, and my guys joined in—Izzy as well. They wereso excitedto do something this fancy and be the center of attention. They might be older now, but they remembered all of the years of hiding and trying to stay under the radar.

---