Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 742: Sworn Fealty

Three seconds passed.

Then the pressure vanished. Like a door closing. Like a wind dying. One moment Vespera’s presence was filling the space between them, and the next it was just a tired woman on a couch looking at her son’s girlfriend.

"The pleasure is mine," Vespera said.

Her gaze moved from Nyx to the rest of them. Aria. Luna. Bastet. Calypso. One by one, without hurry.

"I’m grateful to you for taking care of my son throughout all these months, future daughters-in-law."

The words landed like a detonation in a library.

Every woman in the room felt it at the same time. A flutter low in the chest, a rush of heat to the face, the unmistakable sensation of butterflies erupting in places they had no business being, because the Shadow Monarch had just called them daughters and she hadn’t even blinked while doing it.

Aria was off the couch before anyone realized she’d moved.

She crossed the space between the couches and dropped to one knee in front of Vespera, hands clasped together at her chest, tears already falling. Her silver hair caught the light as she bowed her head, and the motion was so fluid and so earnest that it looked rehearsed, except it wasn’t. This was simply what Aria’s body did when the greatest honor of her life arrived without warning.

"Mother-in-law." Her voice shook. "Thank you for accepting me. I swear to you, on everything I am, I will never disappoint you or your son."

Luna stared at her.

"What the fu-" Luna caught herself, glanced sideways at Vespera, and course-corrected. "I mean what’s wrong with you? Also, she called you future daughter-in-law, why did you not say ’future’ as well?!"

Aria ignored the grumbling gremlin.

Kaiden stared confusedly at his Moon Valkyrie too, lost.

Vespera looked down at the girl with an expression that gave away absolutely nothing.

"Finally a human tradition I can get behind wholeheartedly!"

Calypso burst out laughing, bright and loud, and before it had finished she was already off the couch. She crossed to Vespera and dropped to one knee beside Aria with a grin that could have split her face in half.

"This is no human tradition!" Luna scoffed, and was promptly ignored as Calypso slammed a fist against her chest. "Mother-in-law, your son is the greatest man I’ve ever met, and I will protect him and fight beside him until my body turns to dust! You have my word!"

"What the hell..." Luna looked between the two women on the floor.

Bastet rose from Kaiden’s lap with a grace that made the motion look ceremonial and lowered herself to one knee beside the other two. Her tail was straight and still behind her. Her golden eyes were serious.

"Mother-in-law, I am grateful to be accepted into your family." Bastet’s voice carried no playfulness, no warmth, no purring. This was the voice of a woman swearing an oath. "O’ Great Matriarch, I will never bring shame upon you or your son."

Kaiden looked at Nyx. Nyx was watching the scene with bright eyes and a hand over her mouth.

"Girls," Kaiden said slowly. "What are you doing? My mother just spoke a bit stiffly because she’s not used to this, you don’t have to-"

Three heads turned toward him in unison. Aria, Calypso, and Bastet looked at their man with expressions that ranged from tearful to grinning to deadly serious, and all three carried the same underlying message.

"You wouldn’t understand," Aria said, tears still streaming.

"Just be quiet for a moment, Darling," Calypso added.

"This is very important, Master," Bastet finished.

They turned back to Vespera.

Nyx burst into giggles as she stood, walked around the table, and knelt beside the other three. Her grin was enormous.

"I’ll keep your son organized, fed, happy, and out of trouble... As much as possible. That I promise," Nyx said. "Mother-in-law."

Vespera looked at the four women in front of her. Then her head turned. Slowly, until her red eyes found Luna.

Luna was still on the couch. Her arms were crossed.

Vespera said nothing. She just looked at her.

Luna looked back.

"What? Seriously?"

Vespera looked away.

Seeing that the woman was moving on, Luna’s arms tightened. She glanced at the four friends of hers on their knees. At Kaiden, who appeared to have lost control of every relationship in his life simultaneously. At Vespera, whose motherly judgment toward her was growing by the second.

Or so the Storm Gremlin felt.

"Argh, fine!"

She stood, circled the table, and dropped to one knee. Her form was terrible. Her face was red.

"Thanks for saving us on the mountain..." Luna muttered. "And for, you know. Accepting us."

Vespera looked at her, almost expectantly.

Luna’s lips turned wry as they trembled.

"...Mother-in-law."

Vespera’s attention moved.

Five women knelt in a row before the Shadow Monarch as she studied them. Her expression hadn’t changed. Her posture hadn’t shifted. She looked like a queen receiving tribute she hadn’t requested, which was exactly what was happening.

Then she raised her right hand and opened her palm.

Five tendrils of shadow slid from her fingertips. They moved like living things, dark and fluid, curling through the air. Each one found a face. Each one curved against a cheek, cool and impossibly gentle, the touch of a mother who had forgotten how to use her hands and had sent her power instead.

The girls went still. Then, one by one, they looked up.

Five faces tilted up toward the Shadow Monarch with her shadows still resting against their skin.

"The women of my son kneel to no one, not even to me." Vespera’s voice was quiet and absolute. "This is the only time you are permitted to do so. Is that understood?"

Five heads nodded. Fast, without hesitation.

The shadows traced along each cheek one final time, then retreated into her palm and vanished.

Silence held the lounge.

Vespera looked at the five of them, then at her son sitting beside her, visibly stalled.

"So," she said.

The girls perked up, expectant.

"When can I expect grandchildren?"

Five faces went red at the same time.

Nyx’s composure cracked into a grin so wide it transformed her entire face. Bastet’s serious expression melted in the same instant, her ears shooting up and her mouth curling into the kind of smile that showed teeth. "Little kittens from Master..."

"Motherhood..." Aria whispered beneath her breath while her right hand inevitably found its way to her stomach, where she made slow, circular gestures right above the womb tattoo, the mark of the Paragon of Sin.

Her eyes, expectant now, found Kaiden with a thousand unsaid words in them.

Vespera’s eyes moved across all five of them, taking in reactions that ranged from embarrassed to dreamy to overcome with joy.

It was Kaiden’s turn to look at a certain woman with extremely wry eyes.

"You did that on purpose, didn’t you?" he sighed.

"No," the Shadow Monarch decreed, then smiled. "Not at all."

"Mother..." Kaiden exhaled tiredly, shaking his head.

As the girls were standing back up, Luna brought up a topic that was on everyone’s mind.

"With that out of the way... How lucky are we that Natasha appeared on the stream?"

"Yeah!" Nyx nodded along.

"I was really surprised," Kaiden said.

"I organized everything," Vespera anounced.

"...Huh?" Six voices gasped at once.