Page 283 of May: Bloom & Bane

“You will manage, my friends,” Lucifer murmurs, his pale eyes twinkling. “Though I do suggest you begin practicing a lighter touch. Winnie has started on a matching bonnet, and I assure you, it is even more… microscopic.”

“What is a bonnet?” Genuine terror spreads across their face.

Droot hops over without a care in the world. He plucks up the tiny sock from Sage’s fingers and casually slips it over his own head.

I burst into laughter. “You can practice dressing Droot.”

Lucifer watches Droot proudly wearing the sock as a hat, then glances back at Ash and Sage, who are still staring at him like a deer in headlights.

A fond smile tugs at his lips. “Que les dieux les aident.”

“Absolutely not, Jean-Pierre,” Ashán barks. “Don’t pull your French shá now.”

Lucifer smiles innocently. “It was a blessing.”

Ashán narrows his eyes. “... Was it?”

“Mostly.”

I bury my face in my hands, my shoulders shaking as my laughter echoes through the living room. Vaelína gives a tiny wiggle as if she’s dancing along to the sheer absurdity of her fathers and uncle.

“Don’t believe him for a second, Rahnové.” I manage to choke out, looking up through my fingers. “He’s absolutely making fun of you.”

“I knew it,” Sage mutters.

“I assure you, mes chers frères, my sympathy is absolute,” Lucifer says smoothly, though the elegant tilt of his head suggests quite the opposite. He reaches down, using one finger to gently adjust the tiny pink sock on Droot’s head. Droot lets out a proud chirp, puffing out his little chest. “But watching two ancient beings become paralyzed by a handful of yarn is a poetry I could not have anticipated when we first met.”

“You’re getting awfully comfortable, aren’t you, Jean-Claude Van Damme?” Ashán hums.

Lucifer doesn’t so much as blink. “Mon cher… c’est un Belge, pas un Français.”

“Did you just switch languages halfway through correcting me?”

“I felt it was appropriate.”

“How do you know so much about babies, anyway?” Sage asks.

Lucifer’s expression changes. He looks down at the tiny velvet gowns in the basket, carefully smoothing one thumb over the sleeve.

“I spent a very long time believing I would need to know someday.”

I glare at Sage and Ashán.

“I’m sorry, Lucifer.”

“Don’t be.” He glances at my belly. “It seems I simply had to wait for the right little girl.”

My chest aches. I want to hug him. I can feel grief, old and new, twisting through his heart. But I know better. For all their healing, they still can’t bear the touch of anyone but their mate. “She is going to be incredibly lucky to have you.”

He looks up from the basket, the melancholy in his eyes giving way to warmth.

“The luck is mine, ma chère,” he murmurs. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must return to Winnie before she decides to knit an entire wardrobe.”

With one last incline of his head, he turns and glides from the room.

None of us says anything for a long moment.

Ash watches the doorway long after Lucifer disappears. “He would have been a wonderful father.”