Page 12 of Emerald Treats
But then I approached the stroller, and my breath caught in my throat. Both of our girls were dressed like little jack-o-lanterns. Tiny orange dresses with black pumpkin faces and matching green headbands with little twirling vines and a stem. Helia and Salem were adorable all the time, but seeing them in these costumes melted me.
"Red," I growled, my voice rougher than I intended.
She appeared beside me, grinning sheepishly. "Surprise? What do you think about our little pumpkins?"
"Well, fuck me," I muttered under my breath, crouching down beside the stroller.
Salem's bright, icy blue eyes locked onto mine. Her little face scrunched up in what could only be described as pure joy, and she let out a delighted gurgle that went straight to my heart.
Without hesitation, I reached down and carefully lifted Salem from the stroller. She felt so small and warm in my arms, hertiny hands that she was still learning to control, flailed as she focused on the spikes on my head. Suddenly, my embarrassment about the costume evaporated completely. How could I feel ridiculous when my daughter was looking at me like I was her hero?
"Your cuteness should be illegal, little pumpkin dragon," I whispered to her, my voice rougher than usual. She responded with another happy sound, and I felt that familiar tightness in my chest that came with overwhelming love for this tiny person.
Maybe Faris's costume choice wasn't so bad after all.
Chapter 6
Bram
Ijogged over to where our daughters were, desperate to see their costumes. Oh gods, my heart was going to actually explode. Helia gurgled happily as I scooped her up. The vines on her headband peeking through her wispy red curls were the cutest things I'd ever seen.
"There's my little princess," I murmured, pressing a kiss to her forehead before leaning over to Salem, who was joyously lounging in Sloane's arms. "And you, my fierce little dragon."
Salem babbled something that sounded suspiciously like she was agreeing with me, and I couldn't help but grin. "That's right, girls. You're both going to be absolutely magnificent. Beautiful, powerful, unstoppable." I stood, bouncing Helia gently as my voice took on that commanding tone I usually reserved for demon court proceedings. "You'll rule both here and in Besmet, with wisdom and strength. The world won't know what hit them when you two come of age."
Goldie's laughter rang out behind me, warm and melodic. "Bram, love, maybe we should calm down on planning ourdaughters' world domination for a couple more decades? They can't even walk yet."
"It's never too early to set proper expectations," I replied seriously, though I couldn't suppress my own smile.
Sloane nodded. "He's right, Red. Leadership skills start developing—"
A tremendous crash interrupted the impromptu lecture on raising future rulers. I stared at the carnage before me: a flipped table, candy everywhere. Helia was still babbling contentedly in my arms as if the complete destruction of our Halloween display was perfectly normal. My eyes narrowed. There could only be one person responsible for this, but where was he?
I handed Helia to Saige as a kid in a T-Rex costume raced past us with his buddies, all of them laughing.I can only imagine…
I walked over to the mess. "What in the seven hells happened?" I demanded, stepping carefully around scattered candy.
From beneath a tangle of orange tablecloth and what appeared to be half our candy supply, Faris's muffled voice emerged. "There was a... situation."
"A situation?" Goldie repeated, though I could hear the barely contained laughter in her voice.
Faris finally extracted himself from the mess, his vampire cape now twisted around his torso like some sort of Gothic straightjacket. His normally wild hair stuck up at even wilder angles, and he had a piece of candy stuck to his forehead. "A very small, very terrifying situation."
"Terrifying?" I raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"There was a child," Faris began dramatically, gesturing wildly.
"That's how the best horror stories start," Cam deadpanned.
Kai laughed. Faris ignored them. "An innocent-looking child in what I initially thought was a simple ghost costume. Butthen—" He shuddered theatrically. "It started expanding, and I realized it wasn't a ghost at all. It was asheetwithholescut out, but underneath was this massive, inflatable dinosaur costume. A T-Rex, Bram. An enormous, bobbling, roaring T-Rex wearing a tiny ghost sheet like some sort of prehistoric phantom!"
Sloane snorted. "You got spooked by a kid in a dinosaur costume?"
"It was the combination!" Faris protested, attempting to untangle his cape. "The unexpected duality! The cognitive dissonance of expecting a spooky ghost child and getting a bouncing prehistoric predator instead! My reflexes kicked in, I may have jumped backward with supernatural speed, and the tablecloth got caught on my cape clasp and—" He gestured helplessly at the destruction.
"You're telling me," I said slowly, "that a child in a ghost-dinosaur costume managed to take down a blood mage?"
"It was very startling," Faris mumbled, finally freeing himself from the tablecloth.
