Giselle spins toward me, grabbing my arm. “Did you hear that, Bjorn? We’re gonna have a little spawnling!”
“I heard,” I murmur, voice tight in my chest. “Loud and clear.”
And I did. But more than that, Ifeltit.
The gods may be full, but they are watching. They saw this coming.
Lux meets my gaze.
“I didn’t grow up safe,” Lux says, voice low, steady. “I was used. Beaten. Sold like I didn’t matter. The man who raised me—he ruled with belts and silence. There was no warmth. No safety. Just pain passed down like tradition.”
He glances at Indie, and his hand brushes her stomach with a reverence that almost hurts to see.
“This child… it won’t be born in shadows. It won’t be raised on fear. I’ll give them everything I never had. A home. A family. A fucking childhood.”
I nod, voice low but steady. “Then we do it. Together.”
Lux blinks. “Wait… what?”
He stares at me like I’ve just grown horns—or worse, gone soft. And I get it. Lux isn’t used to anyone standing beside him without needing something in return. He’s always been the one offering the stage, the weapons, the home.
But this time?
This is us offering him something back.
“You’re serious?” he asks, gaze sweeping across our blood-soaked little crew. “You’re all stepping back?”
Giselle leans into my side, her fingers laced through mine, voice airy but sure. “Of course we are. You brought us together, Lux. You gave us this life. This family.”
“Now it’s our turn,” I add, meeting his gaze. “You gave us shelter. Purpose. You let me bring the old gods into this madness, and you never questioned it. You gave useverything. And now—you have something worth protecting.”
His eyes flicker to Indie, to the curve of her stomach beneath her blood-smeared leather. “It’s just… I didn’t expect?—”
“To not be alone in this?” Giselle finishes for him, tilting her head like a feral little priestess. “Tough shit, Daddy. You’re stuck with us.”
Johnny slings an arm around Lux’s shoulder before the man can speak, grinning like a wolf on his best behavior. “You think we’d let you go play house in the woods without us dropping by to teach the kid how to make someone scream in three octaves? Hell no.”
Alaska snorts, looping her arm through Johnny’s. “And someone’s gotta teach it what parts to avoid when eating a person. Can’t have your baby breaking teeth on cartilage.”
Lux looks between us all. His mouth opens. Closes. For once, he’s speechless.
Indie presses a hand to his chest, grounding him. “We’ve all burned long enough. We’ve danced in blood and called it home. But it doesn’t have to end in fire. It can end in love. In something better.”
He swallows hard, jaw clenched. “I swore if I ever had a child—they’d never know that kind of world.”
“You’re making sure of that now,” I say. “By choosing something new. And we’re choosing it with you.”
Johnny wipes a tear that may or may not be real. “Shit, I swear, if this baby doesn’t call me Uncle Johnny, I’ll scream.”
“You screamanyway,” Indie mutters, though there’s a smile in her voice.
Giselle twirls beside me, beaming like a blood-drenched banshee. “We’re gonna build a life where it can learn to bite and laugh and worship the gods properly!”
“And joy,” I add, quietly. “And safety.”
Lux’s voice is thick when he speaks again. “You’d really leave this life… for us?”
I shake my head. “Not just for you. For us.”
