Denouement Beauty {Pure Illusion Series: Book 6}

Prologue

"Vali, Vali leave your brother alone!"

"But Mooommmmmmmmmmm! He took the toy Daddy gave me."

Narvi huffed, crossing his arms as his redish gold curls covered part of his eyes while he frowned. He shoved Vali one last time, who fell to the ground and screamed before tackling his older brother.

Sigyn glared at the both of them before grabbing each of the twins by one of their arms. Everyday it was something between the two boys, it was as if they wanted to hate one another.

"I think it's time for all of us to have a timeout."

She sat Vali down in one corner of the room on the floor, forcing him to face the wall. Dragging a kicking and screaming Narvi, she pulled him to the opposite corner of the room after giving him a quick spanking.

"Sit down, both of you and do not say a word. Your father will not be happy when he hears about this."

"Hears about what?" An angelic voice from the door caused a smile to creep across the Queen's face.

The two young princes were about to jump up until they both received glares from their mother.

"Dare I ask what they were up to?" Loki replied, removing his helmet and placing it on one of the dressers.

"Fighting, as usual." Sigyn replied, helping him out of some of his armor and placing it over the back of the couch.

It was Loki's turn to glare at both of them. Vali, seeing the frustration in his father's eyes, began shrinking more in his corner.

" 'Terrible two's' should have actually just been 'terrible three's and a half'. Perhaps we need to cancel our birthday parties boys."

Of course, this only made both of the nearly four-year old princes begin to sob uncontrollably.

It was Sigyn's turn to glare at Loki, her eyes narrowing as the boys howled louder.

"Your turn to deal with them."

He watched her leave the room, slightly frustrated that he was going to have to deal with the temper tantrum that had begun in their room. All he had wanted was to return to his room and attempt to have a peaceful night's rest -something that had been lacking in his life. 

Pinching the bridge of his nose as the yelling continued.

"SILENCE! Or I will cancel your parties and throw out every gift that your mother and I bought."

Almost instantly, the two children dried their eyes and returned to sitting in silence. Sitting down on the bed, his green eyes flickered between the boys while he pondered what to do.

Nearly four years ago when they were first born, he remembered how excited he and Sigyn had first felt at the prospect of being parents to them. The twins had been great for their first few weeks of life and slept most if not the entire night. It was when they were about a month old that their nights became sleepless and moments of intimacy became few and far between.

Now present day, the pair had hardly any time alone together and many of their fights were how they were to raise their sons. They would bicker until they both fell asleep, exhausted, only to wake up and do the same thing over again.

It was why he spent most of his day in the throne room attending council matters or – much to Sigyn's displeasure – time out in the nearby towns with Amora.

Amora had arrived nearly three years ago, just after Narvi and Vali had been born. At first, it did not appear as if she would be useful at all as far as expanding and rebuilding the kingdom. But, as time passed she had begun to provide information valuable to Asgard and was now a sort of liaison between the Nine Realms.