Jill flushed pink and extracted herself from Eddie long enough to give me a hug. “I’ve missed you so much!” she said.
“I’ve missed you too,” I told her warmly. Every time I saw her, I was astonished to see how much she had transformed from an awkward girl into a poised princess of the Dragomir line. “But you’ve got to admit, I’ve been pretty good about updates. And I send you pictures every week.”
She grinned. “I know, I know. It’s just a little different not being with you like I used to.”
I planted a kiss on her forehead. “Better for both of us that way, Jailbait.”
I’d held good on my word to Sydney. I’d gone back on my meds, silencing both spirit and Aunt Tatiana. It had also quieted the bond between Jill and me. She still had a sense of me but no longer the intimate view into my heart and mind like she’d once had. Before I could say more to her, a plaintive wail made its way to us.
“The little master awakes,” I said. “Be right back.”
I sprinted out of the room and up the stairs, to the bedroom that doubled as both a nursery and Eddie’s room. I had high enough royal rank to finally be assigned my own guardian, and Eddie, in that noble way of his, had pulled strings to be assigned to us. I’d initially protested because I wanted him to stay at Court and have a semi-normal dating life with Jill. Eddie, however, felt obligated to be with us—both out of friendship to Sydney and me and for all the times Neil had helped him. We’d offered to turn the house’s small study into Eddie’s own bedroom, but he always ended up sleeping in Declan’s room anyway.
“Hey, buddy,” I said, walking over to the crib. Declan stood there in fire truck pajamas, watching me seriously with big brown eyes. His dark curls were tousled from sleep, but he beamed as I approached and lifted him out. “Did you have a good nap? We have guests, you know. Aunt Jill is back.”
Declan leaned his head against me and yawned, not responding. He was only a year and a half and not much of a conversationalist. Only a few of us knew his true age, however. To the rest of the world, we said he was just over a year old.
That was because we were also telling the rest of the world that he was my and Sydney’s son.
Neil had been convinced it was the only way to give Declan a chance at an ordinary life, and we’d finally respected Neil’s wishes to stay in hiding. There was no other family to care for Declan; Nina had never recovered. Even if we’d passed Declan off as Olive’s son, whom we were raising on her behalf, there might still be too many questions about his father. But if we, a Moroi and a human, said we had a dhampir son, there was no reason for anyone to think we weren’t telling the truth.
And so Sydney and I had dropped out of contact with everyone for a while, finally telling the world we had a baby a few months after his supposed birthday. We claimed she’d gotten pregnant right after being rescued from re-education, and then we’d said he came early. We stayed away from people enough that we were able to fudge the dates and make it all seem plausible. If we seemed secretive in our actions, most people assumed it was because we were still nervous about the Alchemists. They’d held good on their word to leave us alone so far, but everyone understood why we might be wary.
It had also helped that we’d had excellent allies. There was no way Sydney and I could’ve pulled all this off without our friends. Rose and Dimitri had helped cover for us back at Court. My mom had been huge in helping watch Declan so that Sydney and I could still pursue other interests. Eddie had also helped take care of him, along with offering us much-needed protection. He was also the only one of us who’d finally gotten in touch with Neil in whatever undisclosed location he was at. Neil still kept his distance but had recently allowed Eddie to send updates and pictures, and our hope was that someday Neil and Declan could be back in each other’s lives.
“Look at him!” squealed Jill when I came down the stairs. “He’s gotten so big!”
Even Rose and Dimitri got in on the baby admiration. Whereas we’d seen Jill recently, it had been months and months since their last visit. Declan was probably a giant to them. “We should’ve brought him a silver stake,” Dimitri said. “I’m surprised Eddie hasn’t taught him already.”
Eddie, his arm resting on Jill, smiled. “We work on it right after morning nap.”
The living room door opened again, and Sydney stepped through, snowflakes in her blond hair, a backpack over one shoulder, and a paper bag in her arms. I quickly handed Declan to Jill and took the bags from Sydney. Inside the paper one, I saw French bread and some fruit. The backpack felt like it had a hundred books in it, which was probably true. She smiled up at me as she took her heavy coat off.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “The roads were bad.”
Underneath the coat, she wore a red wool dress and a nametag reading SYDNEY IVASHKOV, STUDENT DOCENT. “Exciting times at the museum?” I asked.