The Candles Will Protect You

Chapter 24

When we arrived in front of the big house, Ares parked the jeep, then he turned off the engine.

"Do we really have to do this?" He asked bitterly.

"Come on, I'm sure it won't be that bad," I said, putting my hand on top of his.

"You can never be sure about anything that these two do."

"What's the worst that could happen?"

Ares snapped his head towards me, his eyes wide.

"Don't jinx it, Rhea."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not, I just don't want any surprises."

"Well, what could they surprise us with? We know that Bich is pregnant, so what's left?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe she's possessed."

"Ares!"

"Fine, fine, I'll stop."

He pulled the car keys out, then he opened his door.

"Let's get this over with."

He got out of the car, then walked over to my side, opening the door for me.

"Thank you."

"Kill me, please," he groaned.

Raising my bag up, I hit his chest with it.

"Stop it!"

He let out a deep sigh, then he locked the car, taking my hand in his.

"At least I have you here, otherwise I don't think I'd be able to go through this."

"Don't be so negative! We might actually have a good time, you never know," I shrugged.

"I've known them for a while, Rhea. Trust me, I know."

"Let's just hope that you're going to be wrong this time, then."

After another sigh, we finally started walking towards the entrance of their home, which looked normal, unlike their personalities.

The front door was wide open, and the house was already filled with quite a few people.

"Ah, my favourite cousin has arrived at last!"

Turning our heads towards the source of the voice, we spotted Lysias walking towards us with a grin, his mate following behind him with an expressionless face.

When he reached us, he gave Ares a hug, which he wasn't thrilled about, but remained silent about it.

"Hello, Lysias. Congratulations," he nodded, glancing at Bich in the process.

"Thanks, Ary," she gave him a sweet smile, placing her palm on her stomach, which was already kind of big. "Hi, Ria," she greeted me shortly as well without actually looking at me.

"It's Rhea, but hi. Congrats, I'm sure you're going to make a wonderful mother."

"Of course I will," she scoffed. "Don't worry, though, I will be glad to give you some tips when you became one as well. If you ever will, that is..."

"Thanks," I nodded, not being in the mood to bother with her.

"I think we'll sit down, if you don't mind," Ares gave them a polite smile. "I'm sure you want to greet the other guests too."

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead," Lysias nodded. "We'll start in a bit."

Tightening his hold on my hand, Ares guided us towards a sofa and we sat down.

I took a look around our surroundings, and the house's interior looked quite nice, just like the outside, which I have to give them credit for, even if they're not the most likeable people on the planet. At least their style is cool.

Ares and I started chatting to try and kill some time, but after a few minutes, the couple took their place on a little podium that was placed in the living room and after seeing that, the room fell quiet.

"Hello everyone, thank you again for coming to this special event," Lysias greeted the crowd. "As you may know from the invitation, our family is going to gain another member soon, which we're really excited about."

Everyone started clapping, and he looked down at his mate with a smile on his face.

"Exactly," Bich nodded. "And as you can see, we're getting closer and closer to his arrival," she broke out in a smile, her hand resting on her belly.

"Did she just say his?" Ares whispered to me.

"That's right!" Lysias grinned, placing a hand around her waist. "We just found out that our first child is going to be a boy!"

The clapping started again, some people even cheered for them.

"Isn't that just wonderful?" Ares asked sarcastically while clapping his hands together in the most unenthusiastic way he possibly could.

"But that's not all!" Bich continued. "We already decided on a name, which we'd like to share with all of you."

"What are the chances that they're going to name it after me?" Ares asked jokingly.

I just shook my head at him, turning back towards the podium.

"Please look forward to the birth of our son, Hades Vitale!"

The clapping started once again, but Ares didn't even try this time. He just sat there with his eyes wide open, staring at his relative in disbelief.

"I mean... Close enough?" I offered him a light smile.

He didn't react.

"Ares," I tried waving my hand in front of his face to get his attention, but he remained still.

"Did he just..."

"Hey, Ares, don't get-"

"Is he fucking serious?" He raised his voice a little, narrowing his eyebrows.

"Calm down," I put my hand on his shoulder. "It's just a name."

"Just a name?!" He turned towards me. "That's our family tradition, not his!"

"Well, he is a distant cousin of yours, so technically he is family, isn't he?" I tried reasoning with him.

"He did this on purpose," he lowered the tone of his voice. "I can't believe that he even uses his child's name to upset me..."

"As much as I love you, the world doesn't revolve around you, you know. Maybe they just like that name."

"Well, it is fitting," he scoffed.

"Come on, leave the unborn baby alone," I smiled lightly.

"Whatever."

Lysias kissed his mate, then they turned back towards the crowd.

"Thanks again for coming, please enjoy the rest of your stay!"

After he finished speaking, music started playing and people started talking between each other, while others went to congratulate the couple.

Ares stood up from the couch, pulling me up with him.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"Let's get out of here," he said quietly, glancing at his relative to make sure he was busy talking with others.

"We just got here," I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Look, they invited us, we came, we listened to their amazing announcement and now we leave. I've heard enough anyway."

"Fine," I sighed.

After I said that, he wasted no time and started guiding me towards the exit.

"Finally, freedom," he took a big breath of fresh air the moment we got outside. "Now let's get out of here before they notice."