Page 32 of To Ashes and Dust
“To our little spitfire.” I rolled my eyes as Barrett spoke. “May she rain hell on the darklings and bring a peace like no other.”
I didn’t speak for a moment, absorbing the words that seemed so unlike Barrett. He stood among our friends,our familyas they all smiled at me, shot glasses raised.
For me.
I smiled, holding my glass up in response, and we all downed our drinks.
12
DAMIEN
“She wants to change things,” Zephyr said as he sat down next to me, his body still wound tight. He was doing a damn good job of stifling the possessive male instincts I knew were causing his blood to boil.
I leaned back against the bartop as we watched Cassie and the other females talk on the couch. She looked so happy, so at ease, despite everything she’d been through. It was a relief she and Calista had worked things out between them. I dreaded to think how deeply it would have hurt Zephyr if Cassie had refused her. I didn’t know what he would have done.
“She’s ambitious,” I said. “I know she’ll do amazing things. I’m just worried.”
Zephyr’s eyes flickered briefly to me, onyx brows furrowing.
“I fear how they’ll react when they meet her. Some of them hate humans.” My gaze dropped to the swirling amber liquid in my glass. I’d downed several drinks by now and was only just starting to feel the buzz. The joys of being immortal. Thank the gods Semele was able to import ambrosia liquor from the Godsrealm. She was the only one who’d somehow secured that connection.
“She’ll put them in their place, or we’ll do it for her,” Zephyr said. “Honestly, there’re a couple of pompous pricks who need to be brought down a notch anyway.”
A smile twitched at the corner of my mouth. “That’d be a sight to see. I don’t know what they’d do if a female made them eat their words.” My smile faded. “It won’t be easy for her to navigate the politics. There’s so much for her to learn.”
I had absolute faith she could put some of them on their asses. Some of them had never trained, and only the few who served in The Order had ever seen battle. I didn’t know which was more of a turn on; the sight of her in her Elythian leathers, or the image of her taking down an immortal male. Gods, my skin tightened at the thought of it, and I had to drag my mind away, or else I’d have to pull Cassie into one of the back rooms.
“Anna!” Cassie’s voice echoed through the bar as she jumped up from the couch to greet Vincent’s mate as she entered the bar. She hung her long coat on the rack, revealing her scrubs. She must have been working a late shift at Johnson’s clinic.
She greeted Vincent as he met her at the door, and I chuckled when he swept her into his arms, kissing her deeply. Her cheeks flushed, and she giggled as he nuzzled her, the glow of the neon light catching on her sepia skin. When he lowered her to her feet and bent to lay a kiss to the swell of her stomach, my heart swelled both with happiness and sorrow.
Vincent’s mate had made it safely to her twenty-sixth week of pregnancy and was progressing well. I could only imagine how much it worried Vincent, though. He seemed constantly distracted as of late, checking in on her regularly throughout the day. It must have put a strain on Anna as well, to have her mate out on patrol, in danger. The worry wasn’t good for her. I had lightened his patrol schedule as much as I could so he could be with her. If we weren’t so tight on warriors, I would have pulled Vincent from the patrol schedule completely so he could stay home with her. I hated putting him at risk.
Zephyr knocked back the last of his drink and set the glass on the counter. “Still can’t believe Vincent’s gonna be a father.”
“He’ll make a great one.”
I couldn’t help but wonder what Emilia would’ve been like if she’d survived. Would she have followed in our footsteps and joined The Order? Would she have worked as a healer in the medical field? What would she have looked like?
I liked to imagine she would have taken after Lucia: long, wavy black hair, her mother’s pale moon eyes, a sweet smile that would have me wrapped around her finger. My mind drifted to what ifs and possibilities, images of what could’ve been dancing in my thoughts: Lucia tending to Emilia as a newborn, the two of them making a mess in the kitchen as they baked a cake for Emilia’s birthday, how proud I’d have been to have the chance to teach her how to wield a dagger, watch her knock her uncles on their asses.
Zephyr’s eyes flickered to me, as if noticing the sorrow lingering in the shadows of the happiness I felt for them. “Sorry...”
“No.” I cleared my throat, pulling myself from the depths. “It’s about time one of our brothers started a family. Gives us something to hope for.”
Anna would survive, Vincent would survive, and their babe, whether male or female, would have one hell of a family there to help raise it. My eyes trailed over to where Cas cheerily spoke with Anna on the couch. She leaned in, her hand on Anna’s baby bump, waiting, and her eyes lit up when, I assumed, the tiny babe kicked.
While I was still annoyed Barrett had coaxed Cassie to drink when she’d originally turned it down, I couldn’t deny how carefree she looked—more so than I’d seen in weeks.
“When are you going to tell her?” I asked Zephyr.
He drew a deep breath. “I’m not sure.”
“Maybe during your next training session?”
Zephyr didn’t answer, turning back to face the bar.
I turned to him, resting my drink on the counter. “Zephyr, you know better than anyone what’s going to happen. You may regret not telling her while you have a chance. She deserves to know, and it wouldn’t be right for me to tell her. It should be you.”
