fangs dropping.
“Hello?” comes a feminine voice, so we share a look. “Seriously, we can hear you. It’s super rude to ignore us.”
“Bella,” someone chastises softly. “Erm, hi! So yeah…can you open the door?”
“Oh, just move. Hey, assholes, it’s us, let us in!” a familiar voice calls.
“Kyro?” I ask, walking towards the entryway. I rip open the door to see not just Kyro, but all of my brothers there…and women? I look them over and glance back at Atlas. “What the fuck?”
“Surprise, asshole,” Slate says, his arm around what looks to be a silver fae.
“The cottage is very…cute,” Ciar offers, peering over my shoulder, and a red-headed woman at his side elbows him.
“Khalid, is Atlas here too?” Calder queries, a smaller redhead next to him.
“Brother,” Mishal greets.
Just then, Remi comes to my side, twirling her blades as she leans into me. “Well, isn’t this a family reunion? You here for the zombies or breakfast? ’Cause we ate it all.”
All their eyebrows rise, and the blue-haired female next to Kyro and the redhead next to Ciar laugh. “Oh, I like her.”
“Let them in,” Atlas rumbles, and we both step aside so our eldest brother can see them all. “It’s about time. Come in, we don’t have long and we have much to discuss.” With that cryptic message, he turns and heads back to the kitchen.
I share a look with my brothers, who all smile knowingly. Atlas is still an asshole. Kyro snorts and walks in, tugging the blue-haired woman behind him. He slaps me on the shoulder on the way past before winking at Remi. “Nice to see you got him to wear his own face.” He fake shivers then. “Creepy when he wears the others. As kids, he used to do it to scare us. He once wore mine and hovered over my bed until I woke up. I nearly wet myself,” he whispers before heading to the kitchen.
Remi laughs as Slate and his woman and the others all troop inside as well. I shut the door and head to the kitchen with Remi. It’s a tight squeeze with Ciar sitting down, his woman on his knee. Slate too. Calder is holding his woman, and the blue-haired girl is on the counter, her legs wrapped around Kyro from behind while Atlas puts the kettle on the stove. I lean back into the wall as Remi hops up on the counter next to me, swinging her legs back and forth.
We are all here.
Lilith tore us apart, and now she is bringing us back together. It fills me with sadness, but also with happiness to see my brothers again. My family is almost whole.
The silence stretches on, none of us knowing what to say, until Remi sighs. “All right, this is super awkward.” She looks at the women. “I’m Remi, this asshole here is Khalid.”
Bella laughs. “Bella, this is Mira.”
“I’m Ro—” The blue-haired woman shares a laugh with Kyro. “Cassandra.”
“Dabria, this is Mishal. Nyre is asleep right now.”
“I’m Alejandra, and this is my wolf, Slate,” the fae introduces.
Remi looks to me then. “This is like a who’s who of hot supes.” She looks at Atlas and pouts. “Tea please.”
All of my brothers flinch, expecting him to explode. After all, he is the oldest, the warrior, the warlock all magic descends from. Before, he would have killed someone for such a slight, for daring to order him around. Instead, he grabs a mug and hands it over to her, and she smiles sweetly before sticking her tongue out at me. Shaking my head, I lean in and kiss her cheek. “Such a brat, amore.”
“Carry on, and I’ll stab you again,” she snaps, her eyes flashing black for a moment before she sips her tea. I turn to see them all staring at us, but when I catch them, they all quickly look away.
Atlas hands out mugs and drinks and finally sits down, looking around at us. “I’m guessing you all know by now?”
“That Lilith is alive?” Kyro inquires, and then narrows his eyes. “How do you know?”
“We saw her,” I offer. “She tried to kill us.”
“Yup, same here.” Kyro sighs and scrubs his head. “What the hell is going on, brother, and what do we do?”
“We don’t know. From what I’ve gathered from Remi and my own eyes, Lilith was—” Atlas’ voice catches, but he powers through. “Burning in the fires of hell when she reached out for help. It seemed the darkness answered and saved her to possess her in return. She’s been