A Fey New World (The Godhunter #32) - Amy Sumida Page 0,126

quickly they can heal.

“Oh, stop,” I hushed Sebastian gently as I tickled his brother.

Dominic giggled and the sound made Sebastian go quiet. One of his wings stretched out to touch Dominic. Dominic grabbed the flight feather and pulled. Sebastian started to cry again.

“Dominic!” I chided as I moved Sebastian away from him.

Sebastian was the obvious rascal but Dominic could be sneaky.

“Are you all right in here?” Azrael asked as he stepped into the nursery.

The top floor of Pride Palace was taken up by my bedroom, a kitchenette, a dressing room, a bathroom, and a butterfly garden. However, I had used my territory magic to build towers to either side of my bedroom balcony—making the total number of palace towers six—and above the balcony, I filled the space between the towers with bedrooms for my children. The tower rooms were for my husbands. Like every naughty witch, I liked to keep people in towers. Seriously, though, I wanted my husbands to have private spaces for themselves. Things get complicated when you have multiple husbands.

But not as complicated as multiple children.

Lesya, my eldest child who lived at Pride Palace, had the first nursery, directly above the balcony. When Vero was born, I added another floor for him directly above her. But now, with the twins, I wanted them as close to me as possible so I got Lesya to trade and take the new, highest floor so I could make her bedroom back into a nursery. The prospect of a brand new room convinced her to agree in three seconds flat.

The other good thing about the nurseries, or the children's bedrooms and nursery, was that my husbands were to either side of them—each room opened on both sides onto the tower stairwells. Also, there was a door at the bottom of each stairwell that could be locked. Both of these aspects came in handy often. Currently, the proximity to Azrael's room had summoned him to help me.

“No, we are not all right,” I said over the sound of the squalling baby. “Your son launched himself off the changing table again and has been flying around the ceiling for the last five minutes without his diaper.”

I growled at Sebastian and kissed his belly before I taped his diaper on. Sebastian stopped crying to giggle again.

“Your mother is going to make me clip your wings, Bas,” Azrael chided as he took the baby from me.

Sebastian giggled more.

“I think we really should.” I picked up Dominic and nuzzled him again. “But not my sweet Dominic's,” I cooed at him. “Only naughty boys get their wings clipped.”

“Vervain,” Azrael chided, “we can't actually clip their wings.”

“Why not? They'll grow back, won't they?”

“That's hardly the point.” Azrael laid Sebastian down on the changing table and then went to the mint green dresser.

He opened the top drawer and pulled out one of the padded straps we used to bind the boys' wings. Sebastian scowled at his father as Azrael turned him onto his belly and affixed the strap, securing his wings in a folded position. Sebastian started to cry. The straps had a touch of magic that kept little angel-faeries from vanishing their wings and bringing them back—a trick they learned early on to escape the bindings.

“Stop that,” Azrael said firmly to Sebastian as he turned him over and took the onesie from me.

I had to craft special onesies for the boys with my territory magic so that they'd button around the wings. Let me tell you, parenthood is ten times harder when your children have wings. I wouldn't wish that hell on anyone. Luckily, I had the perfect man to deal with hellish situations.

When Sebastian continued to whine, Azrael tickled him until he forgot about his wings entirely. He got Sebastian dressed and picked him up, following me out of the room and downstairs to the master bedroom. My other men and children were either downstairs or—in the case of Arach and my first set of twins, Rian and Brevyn—in the Faerie Realm. So, Az and our sons had the room to ourselves. I set Dominic down on a play blanket so he could crawl about and he instantly wobbled onto his hands and knees, heading for one of the many toys scattered across the colorful expanse. Azrael did the same with Sebastian and he headed for the same toy Dominic was after.

I shook my head at the angel-faerie who was leaning more to the other side of his father's family tree. Azrael, used to demonic inclinations, grabbed