This chapter is dedicated to @Sacogun! Thank you so much for the supergift!

Just after Lucas sent out the photos of the three men fawning over Little Alexis like anxious mother hens to Ezekiel, the approaching female duo pulled at his attention.

It was the young and newest witch queen, Lilith, and her female bodyguard. Seeing her arrive, Lucas wondered how Kyle, who was still focussed on the baby, would react to her presence.

Lucas' first reaction was to quickly glance over at the young prince next to him and as expected, a split second later, Kyle seemed to have gotten struck by lightning for a moment at the sight of the silver-haired witch approaching them. 'Good lord Alexander…' Lucas muttered within himself. Could Alexander not have known about the matters between these two? Impossible that he did not know. So why had he invited them at the same time? Did he just want to see a show happen?

Lucas did not expect the witch queen to be here at all. Was Alexander trying to play matchmaker or something? He was quite certain that Alexander already knew what was up between Kyle and Lilith. And most importantly, he also knew that Ezekiel obviously did not want these two to end up together, as it was forbidden!

Abigail had approached Lilith as soon as she saw her.

She had met Lilith way before she became the witch queen. Alicia had introduced the girl to her back then and she also had met her during Alicia's funeral.

Abi knew that Lilith was like a little sister to Alicia, so she had her invited to come for the party as well. She had told this of course to Alex first and her husband had said there was no problem at all in inviting the witch queen over. Of course, he had not explained the matter between the youngsters to his wife.

"I'm so glad that you managed to come and join us, Lilith!" Abi said as she held Lilith's hands in hers.

Lilith beamed at Abi. "There is no way I can reject your invitation. I am crazy excited to see the twins too." She said and Abi hugged her.

Then she led the two ladies towards the twins.

Lilith halted for a moment as she met Kyle's intense gaze that were like searchlights on her face.

She subconsciously held her breath as she flashed him a small and neutral smile. It did not help at all that she had seen him at school just the other day.

He smiled back faintly, and she noticed a tinge of intense emotions flashing across his eyes until he seemed to force himself to look away and return his gaze back to the baby that he was holding in his arms.

Looking him holding a babe there… it was a sight that she had never expected to see. He looked a little bit stiff, but the view was so wholesome that it made her heart swell with an inexplicable emotion. The picture he made with the baby was so bittersweet that it almost brought tears to her eyes. She only held her tears back by sheer willpower and pretended to only be interested in the baby and not in the young and handsome man who was holding the babe.

"Do you want to hold Alice?" Abi pulled her attention back to the present and she immediately smiled, nodding enthusiastically.

"Of course! That's why I am here, aren't I?" She said and laughed out brightly, truly meaning what she said.

"Come, sit here." Kai gestured to her before grabbing a chair for her. Lilith paused for a moment as she looked at the man who had some resemblance to Kyle.

"I'm Kai. We haven't met before, but I heard you're a good friend of my brother." Kai said as he offered her his hand, waiting to shake it.

Lilith took his hand and gave him a firm handshake. "A pleasure to meet you, Kai. I'm Lilith."

"A pleasure to meet you, too, young lady." He gestured her to sit right next to Kyle before Abi placed Alicia in her arms. Once again, Alex and Kai acted like mother hens in instructing Lilith how to hold Alice properly. And seeing them act that way caused Lilith to end up chuckling because well, she already knew how to hold a baby. She had experience in babysitting when she was younger. However, she did not say anything and just listened good naturedly at the two grown men jabbering away, continuing to give her instructions.

"Don't mind them, especially my husband. He's just a bit too anxious." Abi whispered to her, and Lilith just grinned back, letting Abi know she completely understood and did not have any issues with it. "Alright, Kelly and I are still in the midst of preparing something. So I need to get back there." Abi winked at her and then she left everyone and returned to the stage again where Kelly was waiting.

"Hi there, Alice…" Lilith whispered fondly to her as she let the sleeping baby curl her small fingers around her forefinger. She was truly happy to see them in person. And she could not help but remember Alicia as she looked at this baby girl. Not only because Alice was named after Alicia but also because she knew that Alicia had been dreaming to see these little ones one day. She still remembered the look in Alicia's face as she watched over the babies through the crystal ball.

"You seem… pretty familiar in holding a baby." Kyle's voice echoed from her side, and she felt her heartbeat skipped a couple of beats.

She managed a smile as she turned to face him.

"I had once helped a mother babysit her baby before…" She momentarily forgot what else she wanted to say as their gaze held each other's.

"How have you been?" he cleared his throat before asking. His grey eyes seemed to be speaking thousands of unsaid words and feelings and emotions that it was hard for her to even look away. Her eyes seemed to be glued to him.

"I'm good. How about you?" she replied simply.

He dropped his eyes to her lips before quickly turning away. "Good." Was all he managed to say. It was really such a good thing that Alexis was in his arms right now, because he might have already grabbed Lilith by now and ran off with her somewhere to question her, to remind her about everything he had told her that time when he had bid her goodbye. That if he ever met her again… that if their path ever crossed again, he would definitely…

"Oh… they're finally here." Alex's booming voice dragged everyone's attention towards another pair that had arrived.

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A/N: Don't forget to vote with your Golden Tickets spellbounders! Let's keep our top 1 till the month ends! :flexed_biceps: