My Maddie (Hades Hangmen #8) - Tillie Cole Page 0,102

only faint scars will remain.”

I don’t believe in much,” I confessed. My eyes closed. I was tired. “But I believe in you, Maddie. I’ve always believed in you.” I fell asleep with my hand protecting our baby and Maddie’s head against mine. The flames were in my blood, but they did not burn. Isaiah was in heaven with mama… and now, I could sleep.

Chapter Thirteen

Maddie

Several months later…

“Come here, baby,” I said. Charon ran over to where I was sitting. I clapped my hands and he giggled. He wore a black onesie with the Hades Hangmen emblem on the front. His pitch-black hair was the exact shade as Mae’s. And his eyes were ice-blue. He was beautiful. Talitha and Azrael rolled on the floor, crawling when the mood struck them. Both blonde and blue-eyed, like Lilah and Ky.

“Where are my munchkins?” Sia entered Mae’s home. “Argh!” she praised Azrael when he smiled, drooled and crawled toward her. She picked him up and kissed his cheek. “How’s my little heartbreaker?” She kissed him until he giggled. I could not help but smile. “There he is! There he is!” Sia placed Azrael back on the floor and picked up Talitha. Sia kissed Lilah on the cheek. “How the fuck do you look like that after having twins?” She rolled her eyes, and then set them on Mae. “And you! Where are the dark circles? The haggardness?”

“Hello, Sia,” Mae said and got up to fix Sia a drink. Sia sat beside Beauty and Letti. Adelita was next to Beauty on the other side, and Phebe and Sapphira sat beside them. Bella sat beside me.

“How’re feeling, Madds?” Beauty asked.

“Very large,” I replied, as I cradled my huge stomach. I was three days overdue. I was waiting anxiously to meet our baby. I could not wait.

“Has Sister Ruth finished preparing your home?” Mae asked.

“Yes. And as soon as I go into labor she will come to us. She will inform the hospital too; in case I need their assistance.”

“Shit, darlin’. You’re a braver bitch than me, having a home birth. Give me all the fucking drugs, I say!” Sia said.

Lilah raised her eyebrow. “Do you have something to tell us, Sia?”

“Fuck no! I ain’t ready for kids yet.” She smiled wide and winked. “But I sure as fuck love practicing with my men.”

“Do you have names picked out, Maddie?” Adelita asked.

“Yes.”

“And you ain’t gonna tell us?” Beauty asked, picking Charon up and tickling his stomach. I laughed, as she playfully glowered across the room at me.

“No,” I refused, rubbing my protruding stomach for emphasis. “You will all find out soon enough.”

“Your Auntie Maddie is a tease,” Beauty said, tickling Charon some more. “She’s a tease!” I smiled at my nephew’s happiness. It was infectious. And he was so loved. He was spoiled by everyone at the club. He ran across the room toward Mae and held his arms out for her. She scooped him up in her arms and held him close. My heart squeezed at the sight. I would have that intimacy soon. I never thought that I would have children.

I never believed I could have a life where I would be allowed to keep them. If a cursed had fallen pregnant in The Order, the child would have been taken from the mother and sent elsewhere, never to be seen again—like Rider and Judah had been taken from Ruth, like Sapphira had been taken from Phebe, like we had all been taken from our mothers.

“We are very lucky,” I found myself saying quietly. All talking ceased. Bella reached out and held my hand. Tears filled my eyes. I quickly wiped them away. I met Mae’s, Lilah’s, Bella’s and Phebe’s eyes. “If we remained in The Order we would never have known this kind of love.” I noticed Phebe tense, and my eyes drifted to her. “Or we would mourn the child ripped from our embrace.” Sapphira leaned against Phebe’s side and curled her head into her mother’s arm. I adored Sapphira. She was quiet—too quiet. She had barely attended school before she eventually left.

In fact, over the past few months Sapphira had scarcely left the cabin. Phebe feared she had regressed. Sapphira never talked. Phebe said she believed Sapphira’s brief experience in the outside world had been too much for her to cope with. Rather than helping her take strides, she had pulled back into herself. She had no friends but for Zane and Grace. What little contact she had with Asher had ceased.