Knight shrugged. “The house is big enough.”
And not suitable for babies. Then again, there was one on the way, so perhaps Lana’s stay could serve as a test-drive of the whole thing.
“Fine. Just make sure she’s away from the party area.”
They exchanged a couple more words, but Beast’s heart wasn’t in it. He needed his peace. Just a moment without anyone nagging h—
The damn phone buzzed again, so much so that it made Hound whine and push his nose at the vibrating pocket. This time Beast aggressively took the cell phone out, intent on switching it off, but Mr. Magpie’s name on the screen made him stop. He took a deep breath and picked up the call.
What could it be? Had Magpie come to an agreement with the local government? Did he find out something from some strange ancient book?
“Beast speaking,” he said, slowing his pace.
“Finally! There I was thinking you were ignoring me on purpose,” Magpie said in a cheerful manner. Whatever intel he could offer, it had to be good.
“I was taking a shower,” he lied, looking out of the window, at the tall trees bathed in warm afternoon sunlight. It would have been a shame if all of that beauty ceased to exist. If there was something that had always brought him peace before Laurent, it was nature. He couldn’t wait to go on a long camping trip, but it would never happen if the world didn’t survive what was coming.
“You didn’t answer any of my emails either.”
Beast frowned. “E-mails? When did you send those?”
“In the past two hours or so.”
Beast rubbed the base of his nose but remained civil. “I don’t work at the desk all day. What are they about? Can you say on the phone?”
Magpie gave a short laugh. “Oh, it’s just a few pictures. I had three interior designers come up with creative ideas for the baby’s room. The color options aren’t clear yet, but I think that steel blue and green would work best for a little boy.”
Beast stopped, watching his dog sniff an empty bottle at the end of the corridor. The hell?
“Plans? Colors? What? Since when is it your problem how I arrange my kid’s room?”
“I imagine you are busy with other matters, so I thought I’d offer my assistance,” Magpie said plainly, leaving Beast to resume his walk with more vigor to work off the growing anger. At least Hound seemed happy with the aggressive pace, as he jumped in place, yelped and went on with his tail wagging.
Beast exhaled, counting to three in silence before he spoke. “Look, I’m happy you’re excited for us, but Marcel is our child. Mine and Laurent’s. I’m sure Laurent would be upset if he found out you were doing this behind his back. You know he’s very particular,” he said, choosing to push it all onto his husband, though the last thing Beast’s son needed was a fancypants room. Kids needed to be content with simple things if they were to survive this harsh world.
Besides, he already had more connections with demons, or however those entities could be called, and didn’t need one sticking their nose into his child’s life. Because it was happening. Beast would have a child, and the sooner he accepted that fact the better.
He stopped when he realized he’d said the name ‘Marcel’ for the first time, and he’d even pronounced the ‘r’ in that silly French way Laurent did.
“Oh? ‘Marcel’? You haven’t told me you’ve named the child. Maybe it was a little hasty of me, but I thought you would have named him in my honor, and already ordered bedding with the ‘JM’ monogram.” He sounded so disappointed Beast could hardly process what he was hearing.
“Look, we value what you did for us, but this is excessive. What does JM even stand for?”
“Jasper Mercier. But luckily, with ‘M’ it could also stand for Magpie. Isn’t that a lovely coincidence? I would even call it destiny if I believed in such a thing.”
“Your name is ‘Jasper’?” Beast frowned so hard his forehead hurt. As least the sky bridge wasn’t far, and it was a place so rarely visited by anyone but Gray and Shadow that maybe he could get some peace there once he finished this ridiculous call.
Magpie laughed. “Did you think me an entity without one? Or that I go by one name, like Liberace?”
“No… I just… it doesn’t matter. The point is that Marcel doesn’t need monograms on his bedding or towels.”
“Perhaps I should commission an M&M’s cake to celebrate his Christening?” Magpie fantasized as if he weren’t listening to Beast at all. “Do you get it? The candy shares his initials.”
“Jasper. You need to be less hands on, all right? Laurent will be upset if this continues.”
There was long silence on the other side of the line, and Beast rather enjoyed it. He reached the sky bridge, leaned against the chipped window sill and took in the vast land that belonged to him. And to Baal.