Chapter 136

As time passes our friends start to filter out until it’s finally just the core family here – my family, Jesse’s family, and the new addition of my mates and Ben and Daphne. Our parents dig into the more complicated questions now, asking us about the details of getting me into the Academy and keeping me alive there, and we all happily fill them in on the delicious details.

As we do, mom pulls Luca aside for a moment, fussing over him and patching up his black eye and his busted lip. When he comes back I can tell by his smile that Luca’s likewise under mom’s spell now, and that he no longer has any ridiculous ideas about mom having a favorite between my two mates.

Mom curls up at dad’s side on the couch, where he moved after his last refill, probably so that she would come and sit with him. They’re ridiculously attached to each other, even after all these years. And even if I know that I should be grossed out by how affectionate my parents are…well, honestly I just think it’s kind of sweet.

The youngest Sinclair kids, of course, ignore everything, but I watch with real pleasure as they continue to dash around the room even as the hour grows late. Jackson watches them with fascinated curiosity, clearly wondering where the hell they get the energy. But eventually they settle down too.

It’s only when the clock strikes midnight, and I’m sitting in dad’s armchair with two of Jesse’s siblings passed out in my lap – Bella sleeping blissfully, her head pillowed against my shoulder, and little Chase actually in puppy form stretched out over my leg, his head hanging off my knee – when Cora gasps and starts.

“Oh my god,” she says, looking up at the clock. “Is it seriously that late?”

“No, you’re imagining it,” Roger murmurs into his glass of whiskey, clearly enjoying himself too much to want to go. “Have another drink, love, it’s barely five o’clock –“

“Noooo,” she says, instantly getting up from her spot curled in Roger’s lap and tugging him up with her. “We are getting these children home, because if we don’t they’ll never get up tomorrow –“

“Just stay here!” my mom says, as she always does, sitting up from her place curled at Dad’s side. But Cora just rolls her eyes, because she never takes mom up on her offers to stay in the palace, preferring to be in her own home. “Or, at least leave the children!”

“No, stop trying to steal my kids, Ella,” Cora sighs, clapping her hands and rousing Bella and Chase from their spots on my lap. Her other four – Jesse included – moan, knowing what that sound means. Chase shifts back into his little boy body so that he, too, can join in on the group moan.

“Your mom’s right!” Roger says, hauling himself to his feet and giving a sharp whistle. “Line up, minions! Time for role call!”

“What…” Jackson murmurs, glancing between me and Rafe, “what’s happening?”

“They have too many kids,” Rafe sighs, not bothering to whisper. “So, in order not to lose them, Roger makes them line up in size order and march in a line, like ducklings.”

“Plus, they hate it,” Roger says, grinning over at Jackson, Luca, and Rafe. “And I take great joy in embarrassing my children. Why else have them? We had five more because torturing Jesse was so much fun.”

Each of Cora and Roger’s youngest five kids moan and drag their feet, but line up they do, and I laugh to see them all standing there slump-shouldered, clearly tired but not wanting to go. It’s been an amazing night, after all.

“It used to be worse,” Jesse murmurs, catching Luca’s eye and communicating with his expression the true horror of his childhood. “They used to make us do a little goodnight song and dance, before I realized it was child abuse and started refusing to do it.”

Luca bursts into laughter and so do I, remembering how cute it used to be. God, I’d been so jealous and had begged them to let me in on it, but Roger insisted it was a sibling-only thing. I’d cried for weeks.

“Please,” Luca begs, grinning at Jesse. “Please do the song for me, just once – I’ll never tell a soul.”

Jesse’s about to counter, to refuse to the ends of him, but Uncle Roger interrupts.

“A-hem,” Roger says with deliberate emphasis, turning towards Jesse and gesturing towards the empty spot at the front of the line. “And where is my eldest, my pride, my heir and my joy?”

Jesse squeaks and sits up straight, pressing a hand to his chest. “Dad, I am a grown up now. You cannot expect me to line up with the ducklings, I –“

“You’re coming home, son,” Cora says, crossing her arms and glaring at her eldest child. “Because if I let you stay here, you’ll drink yourself silly with your cousins and then be useless to me in the morning.”

“Mom!” Jesse begs, sending an anxious glance towards Daphne, who pretends not to notice the whole conversation.

“Jesse,” Roger says, his hands on his hips, his voice low and dangerous. “Get in line. Your mom wants you home, so you’re coming home. If it were up to me I’d leave you here, because you always rile the small ones into rebellion, telling them all sorts of nonsense about free will -”

“They deserve to know the truth!” Jesse protests.

“But your mother wants you home. So?” Roger points emphatically to the front of the line.

Daphne, to her credit, does her very best to suppress her smile and pretend that she’s incredibly interested in the trim that adorns the bottom of dad’s armchair. Ben has no such grace and watches eagerly, laughing. But Jesse, realizing that he’s lost this battle, just groans and pushes himself to his feet, slumping to the front of the line.

“Good boy,” Roger murmurs, patting Jesse on the head. Jesse just scowls and smacks his dad’s hand away.

Then Roger whistles again and each of my six cousins straightens their shoulders, standing at attention, and then – at their father’s signal – begin to march out of the room.

“Bye!” Cora calls over her shoulder towards us, completely ignoring the military precision with which her kids are swept out into the hall. “Love you, see you tomorrow or the next day or whenever!”

“Bye!” we all call, and it’s only when I look over at Luca and Jackson’s shocked faces that I realize how weird it is. I burst out laughing myself, because I mean – I’m just so used to the way that Cora and Roger handle their wild pack of kids that I don’t even notice it anymore.

“You guys are such a weird family,” Ben sighs, pulling himself up into Roger and Cora’s abandoned chair. “I love it.” Daphne grins, nodding along with him.

“Who needs a refill?” Rafe asks, smiling happily and getting to his feet. “Daphne?” He raises an eyebrow at her empty glass of wine.

“Nope, nope!” Mom says, getting to her feet herself. “You’re all off to bed!”

“What!?” Rafe gasps. “Mom, it’s our first night home, we’re not going to bed –“

“Oh yes you are!” she says, giving him a super sweet grin.

“Why!?” Rafe protests, throwing out his hand.

“Because I am sleepy,” mom says, pressing a demure hand to her chest and making dad laugh. “And if I don’t stay up to supervise you, Cora is right – you’ll drink yourselves silly and be all useless tomorrow. And we have things to do!” She reaches up a hand, ruffling Rafe’s hair. “Haircuts, first of all.”

“Mommm,” Rafe groans, slumping his shoulders and looking around with embarrassment. “You can’t just make everyone go to bed because you’re tired.”

“Nah, I should go anyway,” Luca says with a sigh, getting to his feet. I sit up straight in surprise.

“What?” I say, staring at him. “You’re not staying here with us?”

“Nah,” he says, giving me a pretty smile and a shrug. “I have my own family here in the city, after all. And I have to get to the gym tomorrow, let my uncle yell at me and beat me into shape before the fight. And her Highness is right,” he says, nodding in deference to my mom, who smiles at him, “if I stay here, I’ll have way too much fun. I have to concentrate.”

Guilt sinks in me as I watch Luca thank my mother for her hospitality and shake my father’s hand, realizing that unlike Jackson and Ben and Daphne, Luca does have family here – and I’ve kept him from them on his first night back from the academy. God, how selfish am I?

“Luca,” I say, getting to my feet as he turns away from my parents. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t even think -”

“No worries, Ariel,” he replies, shaking his head at me with a smile as I move to his side. He wraps an arm around my waist as he nods to the door. “Walk me out?”

I nod, eager, wanting to finish my apology even if he says it’s all right. We walk together out into the hall and I pull the door to our cozy living room shut behind us, standing with him in the darkness of the corridor. There are guards, of course, at either end – but otherwise we’re alone.

Luca’s face breaks into a devilish smile.