"Again."
After the fourth time, Artemis went to her feet. Then turned toward Ash. "Come, Acheron. Be the first to welcome your son into his new life."
She was right, he was still suspicious of her. All their centuries together, the only thing he'd ever been able to count on was her willingness to hurt him anyway she could.
But he did as she said. He went to Tory and with one more push, his son slid into his hands.
For a full minute, he couldn't breathe as he stared at the tiniest, most perfect creature he'd ever seen in his life.
"Is it a smurf?" Tory asked.
Ash laughed. Since he was blue in his natural god skin, Tory had been joking with him that she wasn't having a baby, but rather a smurf. Artemis cut and sealed the cord, then took the baby and woke him.
He let loose a wail that would have shamed Simi.
Artemis wrapped him in a blanket, then took him to Tory. "Meet your son, Soteria."
Tory stared in wonder at the tiny baby who, even now, looked just like her husband. He was perfect in every way. From the top of his head that was covered with blond fuzz to the bottom of his itsy bitsy toes.
Artemis started to move away.
Tory took her hand to stop her. Her emotions swelled inside, choking her. "Thank you, Artemis. Thank you."
Artemis smiled at her. "I hope he brings you as much happiness and pride as Katra has always brought me."
Ash came closer. "Thank you, Artie."
She inclined her head to him, then moved to leave.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
She paused at Ash's question. "What?"
"Your payment."
Artemis shook her head. "The happiness on your face when first you touched him was enough. I only wish you'd been there when your daughter was born, but that was my fault. I've had a lifetime of joy, hugs and love from her and you missed all of that because of my stupidity and fear. His life is my gift to both of you. Let's hope the future is much kinder to all of us than the past has been." And then she was gone.
Tory stared in confounded disbelief. "What did you do to her?"
Ash shook his head. "I don't think it was my influence."
"Then who? 'Cause that's not the Artemis who came at me over you."
Ash shrugged. "I don't know. She's been hanging out with Nick."
"Nick? As in I-hate-your-guts-Ash-go-die Nick?"
He nodded.
"Whoa." Tory looked down at her son while he kicked and squirmed. There was no way to describe what she felt in that moment. This was her baby. A part of her and Ash. The best part of them.
Ash held his hand so that the baby could wrap his tiny hand around his pinky. "So what are we going call him?"
"Bob."
Ash laughed at the name Zarek used for his son because he detested the name Astrid had picked out. "Really?"
Her smile set his entire world on fire. "No. I think I'd like to name him Sebastos Eudorus."
Ash arched a brow at her choice. "Why that?"
"Sebastos was the name my parents picked out for me, had I been a boy and I always thought it would make a great name for my son. And Eudorus because he was the son of Hermes and Polymele. As a boy he danced in Artemis's chair to celebrate her. When he grew up, he was one of the fiercest, most venerated of Achilles' Myrmidons and Homer wrote more lines about him than anyone else. Plus it means gift of joy, which he is. And while we've had our issues with Artemis, but for her I wouldn't have you and neither of us would have had the baby today."
Only his wife would know all of that off the top of her head. Ash laughed. "Sebastos Eudorus Parthenopaeus. He is really going to hate us when he has to learn to spell all that."
"Probably, but I think I'll call him Sebastian. That way he can grow up and confuse people with his name just like his father does."
"Yeah well, I still haven't figured out how you got Tory out of Soteria." He leaned down and kissed her gently. "Thank you for my son."
Her eyes glistened and the love he saw there never ceased to amaze him. "Thank you for my life."
He could stare into her beautiful face all day.
She patted him lightly on the cheek. "You should probably let the thundering horde in from downstairs. Let them know Artemis didn't kill us."
"All right. You sure you're ready?"
"Absolutely. And before you start posting photos on Facebook for the rest of the Dark-Hunters to see, make sure I have on makeup."
He scoffed. "You don't need makeup to be beautiful."
"And that's part of why I love you so much. But the rest of the world doesn't look at me through silver swirling eyes."
"I love you, Tory. I know I say it a lot, but..."
"I know, baby. I feel the same way about you. Those words never convey what goes through my mind and heart every time I look up and see you sitting in my house. Funny thing is, I always thought my house was full and that there was nothing missing in my life. I had a job I loved. Family who loved me. Good friends to keep me sane. Everything a human could want. And then I met an infuriating, impossible man who added the one thing I didn't know wasn't there."
"Dirty socks on the floor?"
She laughed. "No, the other part of my heart. The last face I see before I go to sleep and the first one I see when I get up. I'm so glad it was you."
Those words both thrilled and scared him. Mostly because he knew firsthand that if love went untended it turned into profound hatred. "And I hope you never change your mind about that."
"Never."
Foolish or not, he believed her. But the one thing he knew for certain. He would never be able to live without her.