Winter's War (Her Guardians series Book 4)(26)
“What did Drake say?” I ask her, and she smiles at me. I haven’t had much time to speak to her alone about everyone’s reactions to the pregnancy. I know everyone knows but not how she told them.
“He was over the moon and told everyone. I’ve never seen him this happy,” she tells me with a bright, happy smile. Alex is almost glowing recently, with what I’m sure are pregnancy hormones.
“Want to know what the army brat said?” Alex asks me, referring to Leigha.
“Something about locking you somewhere safe, I bet,” I reply, knowing what Leigha is like.
“Yep. She insists on training some poor girl to protect me and locking me away,” Alex says. It doesn’t surprise me one bit.
“My mates all say she is amazing at training, that all the people respect and listen to her. Jaxson thinks it’s best to let her and Harris work together permantly to train everyone. They are both very good,” I say.
“Only because they are scared of her and too scared to say anything about her in case either Harris or Drake hear them. Both of them are seriously protective of Leigha,” Alex chuckles, and I remember Leigha training me, I was scared of her, too.
“I think Harris is good for Leigha. He has that playfulness that is good for her. She is too serious on her own,” I reply.
“Like how your mates are good for you. Each one of them. I don’t know, it’s like they make you complete and happy.”
“It’s because I love them. It’s that simple.” I say gently, thinking of them as I smooth my dress down, and there’s a knock at the bedroom door.
“Come in,” I shout.
“It’s time,” Lucifer says as he walks in. Lucifer has a long, black cloak on, with dark-black clothes on underneath, and there is a clip with double wings holding the cloak together near his neck. His large, black wings fold in on themselves, so I can only see the tips of them as he stands waiting for us. There is only him and Gabriel left from the council, and it’s custom for a council member to walk the new queen to the soon to be crowned king. This was explained last night by Dabriel before he left me with Wyatt and went off to play cards and have a few drinks with the other guys.
“Good luck, but you don’t need it. You’re every bit the queen they need, you’re kind, strong, powerful, and most of all, you’re meant for this,” Alex tells me and walks out as I take a deep breath. She is right, but it’s hard to convince myself of it.
“Let’s go,” I tell Lucifer as I walk over, and he offers his elbow, so I link my arm in his.
“I wouldn’t have chosen a better queen for us, even if you are no angel. Only angels have sat on the throne for many years. But, times are changing, we as supernaturals are never going to forget this war or the fact it’s brought us all together,” Lucifer says, and I laugh a little.
“Have I ever told you that the Goddess shows me the past in my dreams sometimes?” I ask him.
“No, you have not,”
“In the past, all supernaturals lived together in the castle. In peace,” I say, knowing that this has worked for the supernaturals in the past, and it will work again. We just need to put our differences aside and work towards our future.
“Can I ask you a favour?” he asks as we walk down the corridor, and he stops us at the top of the stairs. The stairs are lined with flowers, all white, and have been tied to the bannister. Someone has even tied fairy lights around the bannister in-between the flowers and the effect is amazingly beautiful.
“You can ask, but I can’t guarantee I will be able to help,” I reply, knowing as a queen my word is not something I can just hand out to anyone. I’ve come a long way since I first met everyone, and since then, there is a lot of responsibility resting with me.
“My son Josh, is a half and what he is . . . well I don’t want anyone ever knowing. Especially, not him,” Lucifer tells me, and I look up at him.
“Why not?” I ask, because I don’t believe in anyone not knowing who they are, what they are. My own past and who I am was kept from me, and that nearly killed a lot of people.
“Because it would destroy him,” he tells me, his dark eyes watching me, and I don’t know what to say to him.
“Did you love his mother?” I finally ask.
“No, my sister loved his father,” he tells me, and it starts to make some sense now. I know angels only mate to one person, so having a child with another would have to have happened after he was mated. I know this does happen because of what Dabriel told me of his father and his siblings.
“So, he isn’t yours?” I ask gently.
“No, but no one can ever know that. My mate, well she dislikes Josh but won’t ever tell the secret of where he came from. She was bound by my sister before my sister died in childbirth. Angel births are difficult to survive, and with who his father is . . .,” his sentence drifts off when some witches in cloaks walk past us, stopping to bow at me before going down the stairs.
“What is it you wish from me?” I ask him gently when they are gone, understanding that this is big for him to tell me. I have the feeling he never told anyone other than his mate this.
“If I die in this war, protect him as your own. Tell him that his parents are both alive but in a place no one can return from. That they could only be together that way.”