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Cassian and Azriel were asleep. It was the middle of the night and after hours and hours of drinking Rhysand’s best port, Cassian somehow ended up asleep in Azriel’s bed at the River House with the Shadowsinger sprawled across the carpet. Cassian had only been asleep a few hours – his internal clock knew it was still night time – and so he was very confused when a bright light shone through his closed eyelids. He mushed his face further into the pillow and waved half-heartedly towards Azriel on the floor.
‘Turn the light off.’ Cassian mumbled, still half asleep.
‘G’tsleep.’ Azriel said.
‘Light off.’
‘I didn’t put the light on.’ Azriel sounded slightly more awake but still refused to move from his spot on the floor.
‘Then what the hell is that?’
Cassian was too out of it to open his eyes and so, with a big sigh, Azriel cracked open one eyelid. He was met with a smiling baby.
Nyx had somehow escaped his crib and was sitting happily beside Azriel’s face on the floor. His eyes were bright, his hair a mess and he was glowing. Glowing.
The logical part of Azriel’s brain knew this wasn’t a surprise. While he had never seen Feyre’s skin shine as brightly, he knew his High Lady had a tendency to give off a soft glow whenever she was particularly happy. It seemed her gift had passed onto her son. Despite this logic, the other part of his brain was what caused him to squawk loudly and back into the bedside table.
Cassian’s eyes shot open in response and he jumped out of bed into a fighting stance. Nyx just gurgled loudly and clapped his hands.
Cassian immediately relaxed and face planted back into the bed with a loud groan. Azriel on the other hand scooted back over to Nyx and pulled him onto his lap.
‘How long have you been here, little man?’ his voice was still thick with sleep.
Aside from a toothy grin, Nyx didn’t respond. He did however glow a little brighter when Azriel ducked his head to land a kiss on his hair.
After a few moments, Nyx got up on his chubby legs and reached over to Cassian’s arm which dangled off the edge of the bed. Despite his dramatics, Cassian had not in fact gone back to sleep and smiled affectionately at his nephew.
‘How did he get out of his crib?’ Cassian asked.
‘Well, he got into the High Lord’s meeting last week so maybe he just winnowed out.’
‘Feyre is going to freak out. They should probably ward their bedroom so Nyx isn’t accidentally scarred for life.’
‘Bold of you to assume they keep it in the bedroom.’ Azriel chuckled. ‘Or that they even have time for sex what with this nightmare always so full of energy.’ Azriel’s shadows tickled the wide-eyed toddler and were rewarded with a high pitch screech of joy as he fell onto his bottom. He crawled back onto Azriel’s lap and settled himself comfortably against the Shadowsinger.
‘Don’t say the word sex in front of the baby.’
‘Oh sure, coming from the guy who cursed up a storm this evening when he stubbed his toe in the study – in front of the baby.’
‘Don’t tell Rhys.’
Don’t tell me what? Rhysand’s voice echoed between the mind of both Cassian and Azriel.
‘Nothing, why are you awake?’ Cassian was quick to change the subject.
Feyre went to the nursery to check on the baby.
‘He’s not in the nursery.’ Azriel said. ‘Your son has become an escape artist. Come to my room.’
A moment later both Azriel and Cassian heard hurried footsteps outside in the passage. The door flung open to reveal both wide-eyed parents. Rhys was shirtless and Feyre wore a dark blue floor-length nightgown. Her hair was probably once in a braid down her back but was now in a tangled mess over her shoulder. As soon as she saw Nyx happily smiling up at her from Azriel’s lap she slumped over against the door frame. Azriel just lifted a chubby baby hand and waved it around.
‘Say “Hi mama and dada”.’
‘Rhys, he’s going to give me a heart attack one of these days.’ Feyre sighed.
‘At least this time he stayed in the house.’ Rhys said in an attempt to ease his mate. When Azriel and Cassian looked at him questioningly, Rhys explained further. ‘Yesterday he winnowed to Mor and Emerie at a restaurant across the Sidra. This morning he found Gwyn and Nesta in one of the corners of the library up in the House of Wind.’’
Azriel let out a low whistle while Nyx continued playing obliviously with a few tendrils of shadow.
‘Thank the Cauldron Helion put that tracking spell on him or we would have been searching for hours.’
Feyre walked over to the bed and gently patted Nyx’s head as she passed.
‘Move.’ She pushed Cassian’s shoulder but he didn’t budge. ‘Move or I’ll sit on you.’
‘Say please.’ Cassian grinned.
Feyre summoned a few icicles onto her fingertips and touched them to Cassian’s neck.
‘Fuck!’
‘Stop swearing in front of the baby, you ass.’ Azriel chastised. He pressed his palms over Nyx’s ears, although the gesture was a bit late.
Feyre managed to nudge Cassian over and scooted under the covers of Azriel’s bed. Rhys settled on the floor between Azriel and the bed and Nyx immediately threw himself over so he lay half in Azriel’s lap and half in his father’s. He turned up and smiled happily at the two of them.
‘Look at you glowing.’ Rhys whispered down with pride, tickling Nyx’s stomach lightly. Nyx squirmed away from his father but glowed brighter at the praise. Feyre smiled down at them from her spot on the bed. ‘You’re the happiest baby.’ Rhys cooed. ‘Aren’t you the happiest baby?’
Nyx babbled an unintelligible response and Rhys switched from tickling to rubbing soothing circles across his stomach.
‘Why aren’t you with Nesta tonight?’ Rhys asked Cassian, who was nothing more than a lump of blankets and wings behind Feyre.
‘I don’t spend every night with Nesta, you know.’ Cassian grumbled.
‘The Valkryies are having a sleepover,’ Azriel explained. ‘Cassian and I have been banned from the House of Wind until tomorrow.’ He sounded just as put out as Cassian was, which was surprising.
‘Do you have a problem with them having a sleepover?’ Feyre asked. She reached her hand over to Rhysand and gently ran her fingers through his hair as she spoke.
‘Ignore him.’ Cassian said while attempting not to laugh. ‘He’s just being a sore loser.’
‘I haven’t lost yet.’ Azriel objected.
‘Lost what?’ Feyre inquired further.
‘He, and the Valkyries have a bet going. If Gwyn can find and steal Truthteller from wherever he hid it in the house, Azriel has to bring them with us on our next trip to Illyria. He thinks this sleepover is just a ploy for the three of them to tear the house apart and look for it.’
‘Why not just take them anyway?’ Rhys asked suspiciously. ‘Their training is pretty much complete now.’
‘You know how those brutes are, especially with females.’ Azriel sighed. ‘I don’t want to expose Gw– any of them to that.’
‘Oh, so this is about Gwyn?’ Feyre smiled mischievously and reached past Rhysand to poke Azriel lightly on the cheek.
‘Don’t start.’ Azriel returned Feyre’s grin with a deadpan stare. However, Rhysand was close enough to see a light blush on the Shadowsinger’s cheeks. ‘Gwyn and I are just friends.’
Cassian snorted.
Luckily for Azriel Nyx chose this moment to speak up. ‘Dada, ars.’ He was a lot more subdued now than earlier. He had stopped glowing at some point after his parents had come in and was now just laying comfortably across Rhysand and Azriel’s laps, the room now dark in the absence of his light.
‘You want to see the stars?’
‘Aren’t you tired, my love?’ Feyre asked her son gently.
‘No, ars Mama.’
Rhys stroked his son’s head and gently waved his fingers over Nyx’s face. After a moment a puff of black smoke appeared – Nyx smiled brilliantly. The smoke began traveling upwards, growing in size until it covered the ceiling and stilled. Rhys snapped his fingers and stars appeared, twinkling within the black velvet to create a vivid night sky.
It was a tactic they used often to distract Nyx at bedtime. Being as loud and energetic as he was made getting the toddler to bed a very difficult task. Feyre tried letting him stay up instead of forcing him to sleep but all it resulted in was a very cranky baby the next day. After hours and hours of crying and temper tantrums, the entire inner circle vowed to never allow Nyx to stay awake all night again.
Luckily for Nyx, he had a host of aunts and uncles who were more than happy to lull him to sleep. Cassian and Mor rocked him gently in their arms. Azriel soothed him with his shadows. Nesta and Elain sang softly until he calmed down. None of these things beat the pure joy expressed whenever Rhys and Feyre showed him the night sky. He could stare up at the stars for hours and his parents often took him outside to the gardens in the early evening to do just that. When winter settled in and the temperature dropped, they substituted the real thing with a magical alternative.
The five of them looked up at the display above them in silence and it wasn’t long before they each started nodding off. Nyx was the first to close his eyes, his wings tucked in tightly as he let out a light snore. Feyre was next, her hand still in Rhysand’s hair as she closed her eyes and her breathing evened out.
Cassian, Rhys, and Azriel remained awake a bit longer, happy to bask in this little moment of happiness with their family. After everything that had happened over the years – the wars, the pain, the loss – moments like this seemed almost unreal. The three of them sat in each other’s company, warm and content. With one look at his brothers, at his mate, at his sleeping child across his legs, Rhysand knew that everything they had gone through was worth it.
The love and pride in his chest were so great it seemed ready to burst outward but Rhys simply closed his eyes. His head dropped onto Azriel’s shoulder and in a few minutes, they were all asleep.