Page 244 of Dark Souls

“Okay…”

“He wants us to be known as the Prince and Princess of Darkness.”

“Done!” I laughed.

“Seriously?” Luka groaned, rolling his eyes. “You two are ridiculous. Before you get too excited, love. Don’t you think your parents will have something to say about this?”

I shook my head. “I can be very convincing. And, in case you still hadn’t noticed, Red. I don’t take no for an answer. That reminds me.” I darted my eyes away from him quickly. “How do you feel about living in the right wing of the castle and taking over the Romano clan in the next few years? It is kind of my birth right, so I don’t really have a choice, but you don’t have to be involved if you don’t want to be.”

Even though I wasn’t looking at him, I could tell he was frozen in shock. I dragged my gaze back to him and watched him slowly blink himself back into the room.

“Not going to lie. That scares the shit out of me. But I’ll follow you wherever you go, love. Like I said, I am done hiding who I am. I’m by your side no matter what, so why the fuck not?”

I smiled and dived at his lips, kissing the hell out of him once more.

Karma

“I’msorryaboutthis.”Ruby gave us all a tight smile from across the table. “You can always count on Leif to be late to family night, even though I told him to be here half an hour earlier than the rest of us. That normally guarantees he’s on time.”

Ilaria held her hands up. “That might be my fault. My invitation told him half an hour later.”

Ezra scoffed and Ruby frowned, looking between the father and daughter. “What invitation? Since when do we send invitations to family night? I never got one? Did you?”

Lorcan shook his head, looking just as confused. The rest of the family didn’t seem to have any knowledge of it, either.

“I just didn’t want any of you to miss it,” Ilaria said, struggling to hold back a fit of giggles. I narrowed my eyes at her with a smirk. She’d been super excited about tonight all day but wouldn’t tell me why. What was she up to?

“Miss what?” Ruby questioned, glaring at Ezra and Ilaria. We didn’t have to wait long to find out. The dining room doors swung open and in walked a very naked and very blue warlock.

Silence. Eyes wide. Mouths open. And then Ilaria and Ezra burst at the seams, spraying spit and hitting the table with their hands as they lost their minds with laughter. Leif stood frozen, wearing only a blue thong that matched the colour of the blue paint that covered him from head to toe. Even his hair was dyed blue. Only the whites of his shocked eyes and the swirling of his colourful irises stood out among the sea of blueness. He suddenly slammed his hands over his private area but it was a little too late.

“Oh my goddess, Leif! Why are you blue?” Ruby screamed. “And naked? Is that a thong?” She slammed her hands over her eyes.

“I can’t–I can’t–” Ilaria was crying now, tears streaming down her face as she bent over in her chair, unable to control herself. The rest of us were struggling to hold back our own laughter, even though we still had no idea what was happening.

“You little shit,” Leif growled, his eyes set on Ilaria. He pointed a blue finger in her direction. “You set me up!”

“Payback is a bitch, bro!” Ilaria wheezed out between chuckles.

“Payback for what?” he gaped, running forwards to grab a silver lid from a serving plate to cover his ass.

“That monstrous spider you sent me! And for turning dad into a teapot.”

“You were in on this?” Ruby scolded Ezra, who had his head buried in the crook of his arm that was resting on the table. He lifted his tear-streaked face, took one look at his son and then lost it all over again. Ruby pressed her lips together to stop herself from joining in with the rest of the room.

“Someone please explain before I die from laughter without even knowing why,” Maddy cried.

“Ilaria texted me, saying that in order to break the ice and to make the demons feel more welcome, we’re throwing a fancy dress party tonight. I even checked with dad and he said he was wearing a fur blanket,” Leif grumbled but the sides of his lips were twitching too.

“What was the supposed theme?” Logan laughed, shaking his head at his grandson.

“Anything but clothes,” Ilaria was crying again and I couldn’t help but laugh along with my devious mate. “I expected you to wear a bin bag or make an outfit out of cardboard, not turn up painted blue! So much better than I could have planned for!”

Leif sighed as the room roared with laughter. He slammed the lid back on the table and held his arms out wide, twirling in a slow circle and giving us all an eyeful. “Go on then. Have a good laugh. I think I look fucking awesome so I really don’t give a shit.”

He went to pull out a chair at the table and Maddy screamed, “Wait! Don’t sit your bare blue bum on my cream chairs! Towel, Arius! Get a towel!”

Soon we were all finally sitting around the dinner table and digging into our meals but every few minutes one of us would burst into another fit of uncontrollable hysterics again, sending a ripple effect like a Mexican wave around the table at the sight of Leif. Even Zoran had cracked a smile and I swear I saw his shoulders shake with a silent chuckle.

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