Reign of Night (Thorne Hill #7) - Emily Goodwin Page 0,115
be banished in here too?” I ask, shutting the large door behind me. “She’s a tyrant.”
Lucas chuckles. “She means well. And you can only be banished in here if you take your clothes off.”
“Then shouldn’t you take yours off too?”
“I like the way you think,” he says with a smile. “Why do you have balloons?”
“Eliza wants me to blow them up.”
“I’ll help,” he offers and takes a package of hot pink balloons from me.
“Can you blow up a balloon?” I ask, sitting in the window seat.
Lucas looks at me funny. “I know how to blow up a balloon.”
“No, I mean, can you. You don’t breathe.”
He stares at me for a few seconds, making sure I’m serious. “I can still suck in air and blow it out.”
I shake my head, hair falling around my face. “That was a question I never thought I’d ask, and now I feel like I have a nugget of invaluable information: vampires can blow up balloons.” Laughing, I open another package and start blowing up the balloons. Lucas is much faster than me, no surprise there, and we get the balloons all blown up and moved into the foyer just in time to see Eliza hanging pink tulle garland on the balcony railing.
“Oh wow,” I tell her. “It looks great.”
“It will if it’s done on time,” Eliza says with a dramatic sigh.
“What’s left to do?” Lucas asks, looking around the foyer. “It’s a baby shower, not a Christmas party.”
Eliza shoots him a pointed look. “I have to put together the dessert table for the humans, and finish decorating the living room.”
“How can we help?” I ask, ignoring Lucas’s annoyed look.
“Put the tulle skirt on the table in the kitchen,” she says, and I have no idea what that means.
“Okay,” I say anyway, and Lucas and I go into the kitchen. Whatever the caterers are making smells amazing, and the table Eliza wanted us to put a skirt on is moved over in front of the windows in the kitchen. Pink flowers decorate the windows above the table with the words “Oh Baby” cut out in cardboard and painted a sparkling gold hanging above. The table is decorated—save the skirt—and a photo from Elena’s ultrasound is part of the decor, stuck inside a pretty pink frame. There’s another photo of Lucas and me on our wedding day in another pink frame right next to it, and dammit, seeing it is making me emotional.
Eliza might have outdone herself here.
“How do you put a skirt on a table?” I ask Lucas, who shakes his head.
“It’s that thing,” one of the caterers tells us. “I’ve seen it done at a few parties.”
“Oh, thanks,” I tell her and pick up a box and pull out what legitimately looks like a shirt that you attach to the sides of the table. Lucas and I fiddle with it a bit, making sure it’ll be to Eliza’s liking. We help her with the balloon arch, which she adds strings of fairy lights and a shimmery white backdrop to, and then ushers me upstairs to do my makeup.
She goes back down as soon as she’s done, leaving me to change into the dress she got me, which is a long white dress with a pretty floral pattern. It’s flowy and pretty and the most girly thing I’ve ever worn after my wedding dress.
“Care to trade your Hell-crown in for this?” she asks as I walk down the stairs. “And you look beautiful.” She holds up a headband made of flowers.
“Ohhh, that’s pretty! And it’s a hellfire crown.”
Eliza smiles and puts the headband on, messing with my hair until it’s perfect. Lucas has been shooed into the office once again, and something tells me he’s not too broken up about it. I’m sneaking snacks from the kitchen while Eliza rushes around like a crazy person making sure everything is perfect, which it is.
Tabatha and Kristy are the first to arrive, followed by Ruby along with three other witches from our coven. I wasn’t sure who to invite since my social circle is small and I’m fine with it, so Tabatha helped me pick and choose a handful of witches she’s close to, and who live for these types of things. Danielle, Vanessa, and Betty from the store all arrive together, and I don’t think Vanessa was even aware I was pregnant until she got the invite to the shower. Once Abby, Penny, and Melinda arrive, the party officially gets started.