Live Like Legends (LIVING LEGEND #3)

Chapter 35

I stepped through Natalia’s front door, instantly greeted by the High Priestess. Her hair flowed down her shoulders in a multitude of twists, thin strands of glitter string woven throughout. She gave me a smile that had me releasing some of the tension I’d been harboring from my shoulders.

I reached behind me, digging into my back pocket for the notebook. She tilted her head to the side as she looked down at it. Her smile began to disappear and her face started to carry a more apologetic expression.

“Nicholas, I already thought I told you…”

I stopped her. “I know what you said, but could you at least try?”

She pressed her lips together. “I understand you trusting me with this and I do believe this holds Jonah’s magic, but even as powerful as I am, I cannot and will not intrude on this matter.”

I let out a heavy sigh, realizing this conversation was never going to end in my favor. I held onto the notebook a little tighter, wishing that something in these blank pages would tell me anything at all.

Natalia placed her hand on my shoulder, not paying any mind to the busy Enchanters around her. “I know you want to stop Ariel by figuring this out, but you can’t let this fill up your entire mind.”

I nodded. “I know, I know. Believe me, I have other things to focus my energy on. It’s just…this holds Jonah’s power. This flimsy, slightly worn notebook, holds all the power that Ariel is trying to just claim without any right to it. It’s just not fair to be so close, but feel like you have nothing to show for it.”

Natalia took my arm and pulled me towards the left, out near the balcony. “If you want to consider the bright side, we both know that whenever that power would like to reveal itself from its place in the book it will never go to Ariel. All my years of knowing Jonah and I can confidently say that as regal as he was, he was also clever and smart. He would never let magic of that caliber land in the hands of someone like that.”

“You’re right,” I agreed, wrapping one of my hands around the railing as I looked out at the front yard. “What he wanted, his power and everything else doesn’t really matter if it’s locked away and we have no idea how to coax it to come out.”

“I am a strong believer in things revealing themselves when the time is right.” She nudged my shoulder. “It makes the moments when you had any doubt laughable.”

I tapped the notebook against the railing, flipping it open and fumbling through the empty pages. “Why would he do it like this though?”

Natalia raised her delicate eyebrows at me.

“Why would he entrap his powers in this notebook? Why not just have it go straight into the person he entrusted?” I furrowed my brows, my head hurting from all the times I’d gone over this.

The High Priestess turned, leaning her back against the railing. “Things are so much easier when you have an heir to bequeath something like extraordinary powers to. Jonah didn’t have that so his decision was much more personal, less about magical nepotism. Perhaps…” She rubbed her lips together as if she was considering what she wanted to say, “perhaps his successor isn’t an executive at all.”

I pressed my tongue into my cheek, mulling this over. Natalia pushed away from the railing and moved to stand in front of me. “Even if Ariel gets through with this awful ceremony, he can always be removed by the real successor. Timing is everything to things such as this.”

A throat cleared near the door. We both looked over at Zane who stood with his hands clasped in front of him. “Xander has been looking for you.”

Natalia gave him a small nod before turning back to me. “If it helps, I’m still trying to figure out how to retrieve your memories. I know you didn’t ask me to and maybe, you don’t even want that, but I’ve felt awful about it. If there is something I will meddle in, it’s my mother’s magic.”

“You rebel,” I joked. “Dani made a point earlier before I came here. This might not be the best time to be harboring things in my room, so…” I held the notebook out to her.

She took it, running her fingers along the leather. “I’ll keep it safe for as long as I can.” She started to turn away, but I said her name, causing her to turn back towards me.

“I am curious. The whole memories thing. I don’t really know if I’m completely ready to see everything I don’t remember, but I’m curious enough for you to keep trying. I would like to think our mothers were close enough to where Moira would leave something open. Like you said a while back, magic has loopholes.”

Zane, who had been standing silently in the doorway, held his hand out when Natalia gave him the notebook. She mumbled something about taking it straight to her room, which he nodded and hurried away.

“I have to get to Xander, but please stay as long as you need.” She gave me a genuine smile.

“Thanks, but I’m seeing my father.” I hadn’t told my dad that I was coming to see him, but if we planned on any sort of normalcy, then I had never really planned my visits before so why start now?

“Good. And you? You’re good?” She leaned against the door frame.

I shrugged. “More or less.” I rubbed the back of my neck, giving her a lopsided smile.

“And what about her?” She asked this as if she had an inkling that I likely always had Dani on my mind. She was not wrong.

My smile faltered. “She’s…okay. You’ve met Dani, you know how she is.”

Natalia smiled fondly. “I do. She survived when she was meant to crumble and that is honorable. I do hope she knows that.”

There was a glint in her honey-colored eyes that had me wondering if that last part was something she wanted me to hold onto. Natalia gave me a quick wave of her hand before she departed, leaving me to my own thoughts. I had decided that I could just fly off the balcony and head to my house when a voice caused me to halt.

“Nick,” Beetee shuffled out to the balcony, her arms wrapped around herself.

I raised my eyebrows. “Hey, are you okay?”

She nodded, pieces of her pink hair flapping in the breeze. “I had a talk with my moms while you guys were off getting Dani. We talked about Daya and pretty much everything under the sun.”

I had been completely engrossed in getting Dani situated and trying not to hover over her, that I had pushed the Beetee/Daya issue to the back of my mind. “How did that go?”

“Better than expected. They are the most understanding women I know. They’re my parents, Nick, I just…”

I rushed over to her as she started to sniffle. “Woah, hey, you said they took things well. That’s a big step, you don’t need to rush anything. I just so happen to be excellent at prolonging things because I’m not ready.”

She coughed out a tiny laugh. A few tears left her eyes as she sniffed. “They told me that…that they think it would be good for me to talk to her. They said she deserves to know who I am but that it’s my decision how I proceed after that. If I don’t want any sort of relationship, then I don’t have to and if I do, then they fully support me.”

“That’s really good, Beetee.”

She looked up at me with sadness swimming around in her lilac eyes. “Nick, I want to talk to her. Regardless of how my moms feel, I just don’t want to have a great time getting to know Daya and Alex, but then I start to drift away from my moms because Daya is my family , by blood.”

I placed my hands on both of her arms and squeezed. She rubbed underneath her nose, her face a little blotchy from her on and off crying. “Daya is your family, but so are your moms. They raised you, they taught you things and let you be this oddly bubbly snake shifting hybrid that cares so much about other people, that you created a hostel to keep creatures safe. You can have them both.” I shook her just a little to get her attention. “You also have all of us, you know. You won’t be replacing the family you’ve always known; you’ll be adding to it.”

She cried a little harder, wrapping her arms around me. I looked over her shoulder to see her moms at the door, waiting. They looked hesitant as if they wanted to make sure it was okay to proceed towards their daughter. I pulled back, watching as she smiled at me.

Beetee glanced over her shoulder, noticing her moms. “How long have you guys been there?”

The one with white hair, Willa, shrugged. “Not long.”

Her other mom, Louise, walked over to her daughter. “We just wanted to make sure you were alright, that’s all.”

Beetee looked at all of us and nodded. “I’m okay.” She focused on me. “Where are you headed?”

I looked in the direction of the North Village. “Uh, my house.”

Beetee stuck her tongue out, licking at her bottom lip. “Can I go with you?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but it was like the words were caught in my throat. Beetee continued. “Can we all go with you? I don’t want to intrude on your time with your dad, but I don’t think I’ll ever have the nerve to go over there.”

Willa shook her head. “Honey, we don’t have to go with?—”

“No, if Daya is going to know me, then she is going to have to know you as well.”

I scanned the three women, discovering that nothing more was going to be said and the decision was made. I huffed out a laugh. “Well, then I guess I’m not flying.”

My father opened up the door, ready to embrace me in a hug, when he stopped. His eyes glanced over my shoulder at Beetee and her moms behind me. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion when he looked back at me.

I clucked my tongue. “It’s a long story, but it’s an interesting one.”

My father moved to the side without another word, ushering us in. Daya and Alex sat on the couch, empty plates littered with crumbs on the coffee table in front of them. There was a soft grumble that came from my stomach. I could admit that I had wanted to come here to talk to my father and because I was hungry.

“Nicholas, it is so good to see you.” Daya smiled at me and then looked over at Beetee. “And you brought friends?”

I pointed at her from over my shoulder. “Uh, yeah, you all remember Beetee and her moms, Louise and Willa.”

The two women awkwardly waved, while Beetee plastered a friendly smile on her face.

Alex snorted. “Oh yeah, no one can forget the giant fucking snake in our backyard.”

Beetee’s lilac eyes bulged, her face turning red as if she was embarrassed. “Oh my…I’m sorry, Ariel was just…and I….”

My father came over, placing his hand at her elbow. She stopped stuttering and pressed her lips together, giving him an apologetic expression. “Sweetheart, it’s alright. You got Ariel to flee with his tail between his legs. I’m kind of impressed.”

“I second that. That was probably the second best moment of my entire life. It comes in right behind getting to play with a hellhound for a few hours,” Alex chimed in, propping her hand under her chin as she rested her arm on the back of the couch.

Daya bit her bottom lip, peeking over at Beetee. “I’m not the biggest fan of snakes, but as Maurice said, you are an impressive sight.”

I had a feeling that all Beetee got from this interaction was that Daya didn’t like snakes, therefore, Daya didn’t like her . It was irrational thinking, but Beetee was the type of creature that was all emotion.

She shuffled over to me, her moms close behind her. Her voice was low, like a whisper.

“Nick, I don’t think I can do this,” she said at the same time my father announced, “you all don’t need to stand, we have enough chairs and food if you’re hungry.”

I looked from my father to the pink-haired demon who looked like she wanted to bolt out of my house at any moment.

Daya got off the couch and sidled up next to me. “Are you alright, honey? I’m sorry if what I said offended you in any way.”

Beetee shook her head, turning her head to give her moms a swift nod as if confirming something silently between the three of them. She took in a deep breath, letting it settle in her chest before she blew it out. “There is something you need to know…or well, that we need to talk about.”

Daya tilted her head to the side. “You need to speak to me about something?” Her voice was light and filled with understanding, even though she was about to be hit with something that would alter her life.

Willa cleared her throat. “Actually, Louise and I are the ones who really need to speak with you, first and foremost.”

I could see my father from across the room, his eyes narrowed. I knew he wanted to pull me outside for answers but for now, he would just listen. Alex did the same, but her body was currently bent over the back of the couch, intrigue written all over her facial features.

“What exactly is going on?” Daya asked, worry laced in her voice.

Louise spoke next, “I’ve never been the type to try to make things sound pretty, so I’ll just say it. When we were looking for a way out from under Lilith’s reign, she asked us to do one last task. She wanted us to go find a baby and remove it from existence. We couldn’t go through with it, so we raised it. We raised that beautiful baby girl away from Lilith and never looked back.” She brushed Beetee’s pink hair away from her shoulder, so that she could stroke her cheek.

“I don’t understand what that has to do with me. It’s a beautiful story and I commend you on not doing something so horrendous, but…” Daya started, but her whiskey-colored eyes moved to Beetee. She started to look as if she was rearranging all the puzzle pieces she had just been given, continuously placing them in different spots until something made sense. “Did you say Lilith wanted you to take a baby?”

Beetee’s moms nodded. Beetee herself remained quiet.

“And you brought it to Purgatory to raise it….raise her ?” Daya moved so that she was now right in front of Beetee. The pink-haired demon looked down at the ground, fiddling with the ends of her dress.

“Lilith told us the hybrid child would ruin her. Our Beetee would never do such things. If she wanted to showcase the immense power she had then we would let her, but she didn’t. Thank Satan for it, because raising a snake shifter is difficult enough,” Louise said, squeezing her daughters hand.

“Hybrid…” Daya’s words halted when I heard her voice crack. Her eyes were glassy as she tucked her fingers under Beetee’s chin, lifting her face upwards. Daya pressed her lips together as she examined Beetee’s features. My father’s girlfriend tore her eyes away from Beetee to look at me, silently asking if it was true. She was asking if the suspicions her mind was conjuring up were authentic.

I simply nodded.

She still gently held onto Beetee’s chin, moving her hand to place her palm on her cheek. “You act just like her, you know. My cousin, your mother…she had this way of acting a little shy and she didn’t like to step on toes, but when she loved, oh did she do it with her whole heart.”

“That sounds just like our Beetee,” Willa said, placing her hand over her chest.

My father slowly made his way over to us, assessing the situation. “So what you’re saying is you’re the baby that the whole massacre in Oculus was over? You’ve been alive this whole time?”

“She didn’t know. We kept her in the dark for her own safety,” Louise said, defensively.

My father raised his hands as if he meant no harm. “I get it. Believe me, I fully understand protecting your child by any means necessary.” He didn’t look at me even though I knew he wanted to.

“We would have come to talk to you sooner, but there was just a lot going on and we all wanted this to be her decision,” I added, not really knowing the trajectory that this moment was heading towards.

Daya nodded as if she was absorbing every tiny piece of this conversation. She placed her hands at her face, discreetly wiping away her tears. “Layla would have done the same thing, if she had been in your position. I am eternally grateful for what you did.”

“Layla?” Beetee questioned, her voice small, like she was testing out the name on her lips.

Daya tucked a piece of her dark hair behind her ear. “Oh. That’s your mothers name, Layla. She and your father loved each other very much and boy, did they love you.”

Beetee’s eyes were shiny and her lip quivered as if she was holding herself together with the tiniest thread. “I wanted to say something while I was staying at Natalia’s, but I couldn’t. I should have said something after we all came back from the Dani mission.” She shook her head, gathering her thoughts. “I just don’t know what to say or where to go from here. I don’t want to intrude on the family you already have…”

“Oh, honey no. Absolutely not. Distance and time will never make you any less a part of my family. It seems as though you have been raised by some wonderful women and I wouldn’t want to force myself on you when it seems you’ve had a pretty good life.” Daya smiled over at Louise and Willa, who granted her their own smiles back.

Alex hummed from her place on the couch. “So, what you’re saying is that I’m related to a snake shifter?”

Daya ran her finger over her eyes, removing the last bit of tears. She gave her daughter a stern look. “Alex.”

Her daughter giggled. “I know this is a heartfelt moment and I would love to know every single detail of this entire thing, but come on, we all need to admit that makes me ten times cooler in the eyes of literally everyone.” Her eyes widened with amusement. She removed the humorous tone from her voice after a minute and gave Beetee a soft smile. “If you are nervous about the snake thing, my mom has always hoped that you were alive, so I think she will learn to get over her fear. When it comes to family, the woman would do practically anything.”

“Yes, yes she would.” My father leaned in to kiss Daya on the cheek.

Daya started to open her mouth to say something, but Beetee’s incoming hug stopped her. I could see from the way her arm muscles tightened that she was putting all the strength she had into that embrace. Daya hugged her back with just as much fierceness. Neither of them said anything, but words didn’t seem quite as important right now. Willa and Louise looked on, like they were happy that they were no longer harboring this secret from their daughter; they were happy she could be whole. Beetee could have the family that raised her and the family that shared her blood.

Both women pulled away, the air in the room feeling lighter. Daya held Beetee’s face between her palms. “How about we all sit down and I tell you all about your mom and dad. And then you can tell me everything I need to know about you.”

“She is quite the entrepreneur,” Willa chimed in, wagging her finger.

“Mom…” Beetee whined, blushing. She turned around while Daya laughed and motioned towards the couch.

“Nice tattoo,” Alex complimented, eyeing Beetee’s back.

Daya pointed at her daughter. “Don’t even think about it.”

Alex stuck her tongue out, winking at Beetee. “We’ll talk.”

While they got settled on the couch, my father sidled up next to me. “You look like you thought that might take a turn for the worst.”

I let out a small laugh. “Eh, I guess. I had every right to be worried that she might just decide to shift right in the middle of the living room.”

My father held his stomach as he laughed. “Daya’s snake fear would either get worse or be instantly cured if that happened.” He ruffled my hair, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me close to him. “Should we go listen in on their conversation?”

“Um, I actually wanted to talk to you.”

“About?”

“Dani.”

My father nodded, looking over towards the chattering woman in his living room. He ran his index finger over his mustache before he nodded his head towards the backyard. I followed him out, rubbing my palms over the front of my pants.

“How are you guys doing over there, under Ariel’s thumb?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Alright, surprisingly, Ariel isn’t the issue. Well, he isn’t the main issue. I can handle Ariel. He is a dick, but he is slightly predictable in how he operates. Dani is different….” I looked up at the sky, putting my hands on my hips. “And I love that about her. I love that she is this unpredictable creature that keeps me on my toes, but I can’t help but wish that this situation was easier to read. I wish that it was, well….much more?—”

“Predictable?” My father finished, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, I guess.”

My father sighed. “You want to give her the world. You would damn near carry it all on your shoulders while she walked ahead of you if you could.” He chuckled. “I felt the same way about your mother and there was a sort of pride in that kind of love, but Nick, there is also pride in understanding that women like Dani, they don’t want you to just hand them the world or show off your muscles and hold it on your shoulders. They know you can do all that.”

“I think Dimitri shattered her confidence.”

“And I think that hurts worse than any physical scar he could ever leave her with.”

“How do I fix it?”

My father walked over to me, placing his hand on my shoulder and bringing me forward. He tilted his head down so his forehead could touch mine. “You have decided to fall in love with a woman who can fight for herself which means when she’s been pushed down, you help her get back up, but not by instantly taking her in your arms and carrying her. You help her by reminding her of who she is and the kind of power she has. Then and only then can you give her the option to be carried.” He squeezed my shoulder before pulling away.

“She’s not weak.” I was talking to myself, but my father heard me.

“She isn’t. I know that and you know that. But are you so sure that she knows that?”

Words I’d said to her pre-Dimitri’s invasion sprang into my mind.

I’m not going anywhere, Dani. If Lilith or fucking Dimitri find out about you and come here, I’m right here. I want you to be ready, but I also want you to know I’m here even if you falter.

She was faltering, but she was strong enough to remember who she was. And I would be there to make sure she never forgot again.