Evenstar (50 page)

Jacob panted.
 
“It’s not that they’re not nice, because they are.”
 
Whitney caught him and righted his flight path.
 
He smiled.
 
“They’re just rather
exuberant
.
 
I mean I don’t even know them and they’re trying to get me drunk and take me home!”

Varen took to the air.
 
“What’s wrong with that?”

Jacob blushed silver.
 
“I’m a monogamous guy!
 
One girl, that’s it!
 
But they all want some!”

Varen swooped towards Apple.
 
“Send the extras my way, I love sylphs.”

Apple threw a sword at him.
 
“Stop being a pig.”

The doors banged open.
 
Jacob fled to the corners of the ceiling, but no sylph girls entered.
 
Nodin skipped through the doors, beaming.
 
He led Tracy in.
 
She was quite pregnant.
 
The pair looked at each other, grinning and in love.
 

Celeste pointed.
 
“Tracy!
 
When did
that
happen?”

Tracy flushed pale green.
 
“Earlier today?
 
Apparently it’s easy to get me pregnant and I get really pregnant really fast.”

The royalty swarmed the couple.
 
Nodin pushed them back.
 
“All mine!
 
I’m the first!
 
I am the most awesome!
 
Mom and Dad will love
me
the most.”

Apple flipped across the room and landed on Grendel’s shoulders.
 
She stared at Tracy.
 
“Wow!
 
When are you due?”

Tracy shrugged.
 
“I don’t know, at this rate soon I guess!
 
I’m still in shock.”

Belial laughed and tossed her helmet to the side.
 
“I told you that you were a fertility demon!
 
What did you think would happen when you had sex?”

Tracy scowled.
 
“I was on birth control.”

Nodin squeezed her.
 
“
Human
birth control.”

Apple got in her brother’s face.
 
“Did you warn her about that before you knocked her up?”

“Kind of.”
 
Nodin shrugged.
 
“She’s not mad about it.”

Apple punched Nodin, sending him flying into Regis.
 
She hugged Tracy.
 
“I hope you’re okay with this.”

Tracy touched one of her horns self-consciously.
 
“It’s a bit overwhelming.
 
Why’s everyone so excited?”

“None of us has had kids and more than a few of us has tried.”
 
Apple smiled at her.
 
“This is huge news for our family!”

Tracy smiled.
 
“Does this mean I get to be a princess?”

“Of course you do.”

“Cool.”
 
Tracy touched her belly.
 
“I am twenty-seven, and it’s about that time.
 
Besides.”
 
She smiled at Nodin.
 
“He’ll be a great dad.”

Nodin puffed out his chest.
 
“Of course I will!
 
We are going to have
dozens
of kids!”

Celeste laughed.
 
“This month alone!”

Tracy turned green.
 
“That part we’ll need to talk about.”

Whitney touched down and threw her arms around Tracy.
 
“Wow, you got big!”

Helion hugged her when Whitney let her go.
 
“Congratulations!”

Whitney grinned.
 
“When is the wedding?”

Tracy and Nodin shared a look.
 
Tracy smiled.
 
“Do you guys do that sort of thing?”

Apple scowled.
 
“Of course.
 
That was our idea first.
 
Come on, Mom and Dad will want to know.
 
Mom’s going to die of happiness.”
 
Apple grabbed Tracy’s hand.
 

Berith wrapped his arms around Apple and lifted her off her feet.
 
She kicked him.
 
“What do
you
want?”

Berith carried her under his arm and headed for the doors.
 
“
They
can tell your parents.”

“Well where are we going?”

“My place.”
 
Berith grinned.
 
“They have their heir now.
 
I think this frees you of any lingering obligation you think you might have.
 
We have a few thousand years to make up for.”

Apple blushed.
 
“But—”
 

Her brothers laughed and pointed at her plight.
 

She launched throwing knives at them.
 
“You’re all jerks!”
 

Nodin shielded Tracy.
 
“Hey watch it!
 
Future heir right here!”
 

Berith carried Apple out of the room.
 
The youngest princes ran to the doorway and catcalled after their sister.
 
She swore at them until Berith clapped a hand over her mouth.
 
She grinned and settled in his grip as they got out of sight.
 
Berith noticed.
 
“All for show aren’t you?”

“It’s always been all for show, dumbass.”
 
She crawled out of his grip and kissed him.
 
Lilliam gaped as the pair went by.
 
She smiled.
 
“So where’s your place?
 
You always stayed at the palace.”

Berith shrugged.
 
“I just planned on finding somewhere empty of Lilliam.”

“You know the Old Road is empty.”
 
Apple waggled her eyebrows.

“And full of dragons and beasts.”
 
Berith grinned and looked her over.
 
“Really?”

“Why not?
 
We’re both armed and you fight naked just as well as armored.”

Berith smiled and took off towards the Old Road.
 
The City Guard let them pass and retreated a safe distance away.
 
More than a few grinned when they knew Apple was not looking.

***

The sparring room had emptied of almost all of the princes.
 
They followed Nodin and Tracy to the throne room.
 

Tokala stayed behind with Celeste.
 
The pair boxed up and down the length of the room.
 
Tokala was being squarely beaten in his human form, but he did not mind.
 
He back flipped away and beckoned her on.

Belial watched them for a time, lost in thought.
 
Andy watched her.
 
Helion and Whitney flew overhead.
 
Jacob had gone into hiding again, no one was sure where.
 

Whitney soared through the air and wrote the alphabet with her trailing mist.
 
She got to the letter Z.
 
“How do I turn the smoke effects off?”

Jacob blasted her with cold air from his hiding spot.
 
“Concentrate maybe?”

Whitney smirked at his invisible form.
 
She closed her eyes and flew in a circle.
 
She frowned and the mist faded.
 
She plummeted and yelped.
 
Helion caught her.
 

Her mist came back in a plume.
 
“All right, well, that’s how that works then.”

Helion smiled.
 
“I like the mist.”

Belial put her antique equipment back, going slowly.
 
She hung each piece carefully, unconsciously making her way to the area that Andy occupied.
 

Andy watched her.
 
He stayed quiet, his eyes mostly on the sparring partners.
 
Belial dropped down beside him and tucked her knees to her chest.
 
With the armor off, she was in uncharacteristically casual clothing, wearing only a tank top and cloth shorts.
 
She kicked off her tennis shoes and scrunched up her toes on the stone.
 
She rocked, feeling nervous.
 
Her heart pounded and her hands shook.
 
She had not felt nervous in quite some time.
  

Helion left the room with Whitney.
 
Jacob followed them cautiously.
  

Andy shifted in his spot and leaned back, his hand close to her foot.
 
Belial grabbed one of his long fingers with her toes and squeezed.
 
Andy smiled faintly; his eyes flicked to hers.
 
Belial stared at her feet.
 
She released his finger.
 
He wiggled her pinky toe with his pointer finger.
 
The touch tickled and she trapped his hand under her foot.
 
She smiled.
 

Andy looked at his hand.
 
“You’ve got me.”

Belial did not trust her voice.
 
She nodded.
 
She let him go and scooted across the stone floor.
 
She leaned her head on his shoulder.
 
“I’m sorry for running away.”

Andy shook his head.
 
“Don’t be.
 
I’m just an idiot for, well, being myself.”
 

Belial poked him in the ribs.
 
“You’re not an idiot.”

Andy sighed.
 
“I’ve never said the right things when they should have been said.
 
I’ve never done the right things at the right time.
 
I think my life is a testament on how to live a mistimed life.”

Belial snorted.
 
“You talk too much.”

Andy blushed.
 
“That’s a problem of mine too.”

Belial kissed him lightly on the cheek.
 
He blinked, shocked.
 
She looked away.
 
“Don’t get any ideas.”

Andy nodded stoically.
 
“Right, because that wasn’t a kiss, it was a buddy-buddy high-five with lips and has nothing to do with love or romance.”

“Right.”
 
Belial continued to lean on him.
 

“May I—”

Belial clapped a hand over his mouth.
 
“When you say it, it ruins things, just do it.”

Andy kissed her forehead.
 
Belial looped her arm with his.
 
“See?”

Andy nodded.
 
“Yes, oh wise and sagely pal of mine.”

She laughed.
 
“Dork.”

***

That’s the tenth planet we’ve destroyed.

What did I tell you?
 
You guys have a sick and twisted love life.

Don’t even get me
started
on sick and twisted, Furcas.
 
I
saw
what you two were doing back there.

Furcas laughed.
 
What,
that?
 
That was—

Really, you don’t need to explain it.
 
I know way too much about your personal lives now.

Furcas snorted and did not respond.
 

After watching Lucifer and Ladriam destroy another planet Dahlia piped up,
So did you two as Faith and Patience, ever, you know, have sex?

Oh, now you want to know more.
 
I see how it is.

Shut up never mind.
 
I don’t really want to know.
 
Just forget that I asked.

Furcas laughed against the backdrop of a gas giant and its orbiting moons.
 
Lucifer and Ladriam sang, wrapped up in each other emotionally and in the flesh.
 
They soared through space and plowed into one of the moons.
 
She threw Lucifer end over end and jumped on him as he fell.
 
The force of the impact cracked the small moon, knocking it out of orbit.
 
The two wrestled and jumped to another moon.
 

Dahlia had a hard time telling what was love making and what was friendly beating the hell out of one another.
 
Either way, it ended up in a lot of collateral damage.
 
She watched as Lucifer grabbed Ladriam by her wings and tossed her into another planet.
 
Dahlia sighed.
 
How long do we do this for?
 
I feel like we’ve destroyed an entire solar system.