“Adie!” Sequoia called as soon as he entered Matt and Sera’s house.
Ayden let go of Tess’ hand so he could catch the two-year-old little girl who ran to him, her yellow dress fluttering behind her. He picked her up and held her on his hip. “Hey. Your hair has gotten longer,” he noted, touching a lock of her long brown curls.
“Watch. I can do it!” she said proudly as she held up a hand and conjured an orb of white light in her palm. It was her first spell. Ayden had given it to her almost two months ago.
“That’s really good,” he told her. “That means you’re a mage now.”
She smiled widely and tossed the ball into the air, where it stayed, hovering above her. “Gimme more," she said, excitement sparkling in her large, amber eyes. “You said I get more.”
“Yes. On your birthday. Is it your birthday yet?” Ayden asked with a smirk.
“Yes.”
He laughed. “No, it isn’t. Your birthday was just two months ago, you won’t have another one until next year.”
She crossed her little arms and pouted.
“How about for now, I’ll show you a new trick?” he offered.
“Birthday far away?”
“Not really.”
“Tomorrow?” she asked.
“No. But soon enough.”
She was pacified for now. “You gonna jungle?”
“I will if you want me to, but that’s not my trick. What’s your favorite color?”
“Lellow,” she told him, still unable to pronounce yellow correctly. “Pink!” she said, changing her mind.
He set her down and knelt before her. He held his hand out, palm up, and conjured a light spell like hers, only smaller and pink instead of white.
She clapped and giggled excitedly. “I can have a pink one!”
He grinned then conjured a yellow one in his other hand.
She bounced and laughed again. “I can have lellow!”
“I can’t get you this one. It hasn’t been written down yet.” He glanced at Tess, he had promised he would just play with spell manipulation for now and wait on using arcane writing, even though he explained that things like colored lights weren't too dangerous. But she was still scared of it, so he would wait.
“I wanna lellow,” Sequoia told him.
He chuckled. “You know, you sound just like Tess. And you’re just as spoiled, too.”
“You’re the one that spoils her,” Matt teased as he walked into the living room. Sequoia automatically went to him and held her arms up.
“I think it’s mostly your fault,” Tess said with a smile.
He smirked as he picked up his daughter. She put her little arms around his neck. “Yeah,” he admitted. “Though I prefer to think of it as well loved.”
“That she is,” Tess agreed.
“By the way,” he said to Ayden. “Thanks for giving her that spell,” he grumbled, nodding up at the orb of light that was just starting to flicker out. Her spell didn’t last long since she didn’t have that much mana yet, the fact that she had enough at that age to cast even a light spell for more than a few seconds, was a show of her powerful lineage. “Now she can wake me up in the middle of the night with a bright light in my face.”
Ayden knew Matt wasn’t really upset about it, but he still gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, but you said I could give it to her.”
Matt nodded. “Well, come on, Sera wants to see you.”
“Daddy, I wanna lellow light,” she told him.
He just smiled.
Ayden cast a white light on a nearby picture, so the other colored lights would flicker out and not follow him, then headed up the stairs with Matt.
“Was the baby born?” Tess asked.
“Day before yesterday,” he answered.
“How bad was it?”
He groaned. “I hate her being in pain. But she said it was considered an easy birth,” he told them as he entered his bedroom.
Sera was in bed, sitting against the mahogany headboard with the cream-colored blankets covering her legs and a little infant, swaddled in a white blanket, resting in her arms. Sera beamed at them, practically glowing with happiness. “It’s a boy,” she told them.
Tess went to sit next to her and Ayden sat at the foot of the bed. She gently touched the little boy’s tuffs of blond hair. “What’d you name him?”
“Tristan.”
“I like it. He looks like his dad,” she said, smiling at Matt. “But gods help us if he turns out like him."
“At least he doesn’t have any birthmarks,” Matt said seriously. Matt had been terrified that his child would be born with Malluk’s mark. Malluk preordained the children of those who had committed evil acts and Matt had committed many before his own birthmark was removed. Even worse was that his mother had had the mark too, and had been Malluk’s high priestess. Evil ran in his blood, he said. But Sera knew that even if his changing didn’t save their child from that, she would. Sera was a priestess of Aryst and knew her goddess would prevent that from ever happening.
“I told you he wouldn’t,” Sera said now. “But you always have to worry.”
Matt stroked her long white curls before he sat in an armchair beside the bed. “With good cause,” he murmured.
“Daddy?” Sequoia said, sitting on his lap. She looked even smaller and more delicate when she was in his big arms.
“What?”
“You love me now you have baby?”
He frowned at her. “Are you crazy?” he asked in a playfully stern voice. “There’s nothing in the whole world that would make me stop loving you,” he told her earnestly. “You’ll always be my little girl, no matter what.”
“You love Tris’an too?”
“Yes.” He chuckled when she frowned at that answer. “I love both you and your mom, right?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Now we’ll just add another. Now I love you, and your mom, and your brother. Okay?”
She thought about it for a second, then nodded again. “Okay.” She snuggled closer so that her face was pressed against his chest and her little hand clung to his dark gray t-shirt. He kissed the top of her head and held her to him.
Tess met his gaze from across the bed. She smiled at him and he returned it. When she stood up and rejoined Ayden, he leaned close. “Do you regret it?” he whispered so that only she could hear.
Tess knew he was talking about their decision to give Matt and Sera their daughter. She shook her head. “No.” She turned to look at her husband. “Do you?”
“No.” He glanced back at Sequoia and Matt. “They were meant to be together.”
“Yes,” she agreed wholeheartedly. When he looked back at her she kissed him sweetly, then smiled. “Everything’s perfect.”
