Chapter Fourteen #2
With my heart seizing and eyes unblinking, I turned toward the man who’d appeared. A man with golden hair that fell past his ears and a warm smile on his lips. He held a bundle of flowers in his fist and approached the front door, lightly knocking once.
When the door opened, my knees almost gave out. A petite woman stood on the other side, her wavy blonde hair flowing to her waist with the top half pinned back with a white ribbon. In her arms was a chubby baby with wispy golden hair and freckled cheeks.
“Pardon me, milady.” The man tipped his head to her, still standing on the porch. “But I happened upon these flowers, you see, and wondered if they belonged to you.”
The woman lightly laughed and accepted the bundle, adjusting the baby in her arms. “Supper is ready. Come inside and wash your hands.”
“These hands?” The man flashed a mischievous grin before wiggling his fingers at her. “Ones that have been clawing in the soil?”
The baby giggled.
This can’t be… I struggled letting myself think the thought. Too afraid the scene would unravel the moment I put a name to it. Like a dream you fought to hold onto, not ready to wake up from.
“Evander missed his papa,” the woman said, stepping aside so the man could enter the cottage.
The baby reached for the man, his lower lip trembling.
“Oh no.” The man… my father… laughed and stepped across the threshold. “Not that face. I cannot hold you yet, my darling boy. Your mother says I must first wash my hands.”
“So the fault is mine, is it?” She echoed the laugh before poking the baby’s nose. My nose. “How is it fair that I carried you in my belly for all those months and gave you life, only for you to look just like your father?”
“But he has his mother’s kind heart,” the man responded, pulling them both into his arms.
A cry left my lips as I stood at the foot of the porch, staring up at the parents I’d never gotten the chance to know.
I had no memories of them. Before that very moment, I hadn’t known what they looked like, apart from what other people had told me. I hadn’t been able to recall the sound of their voices. Seeing them was both surreal and a punch to the gut.
“Dad?” I asked, walking up the steps. “Mom?”
Neither of them could see or hear me. I followed behind my dad and stood in the middle of the foyer as he shut the door and locked it.
As they sat at the table for dinner, I dropped into the lone chair across from them, trapped in a state of shock. There was joy there too, though a bittersweet one.
What did seeing my parents have to do with facing my fears and traumas? Hell, I wasn’t even sure if it was a real memory or just something the elixir fabricated.
“The barrier remains strong,” my dad said after they’d eaten dinner and were cleaning up. He washed dishes at the sink, his green eyes flickering toward the kitchen window.
That must’ve been what he’d been doing prior to picking the flowers. Onyx and Varys had said my dad possessed dark magic with a specialty in barrier magic. After fleeing with me and my mom, he’d created a shield around the cottage and the surrounding land.
“What of the men?” my mom asked, worrying her bottom lip. She had laid out a blanket on the floor and sat with Baby-Me on it. “Are they still beyond the barrier?”
A shadow fell over my dad’s face before he quickly chased it away and smiled over at her. “Worry not, my love. They won’t breach it. Our boy is safe here.”
She looked at the baby, the edges of her eyes reddening. “How long must we live in isolation like this?”
“For as long as we have to.” He rinsed off a plate and set it aside to dry. “I know you miss Exalos and the friends you left behind, Cynthia. I, too, have people I miss.”
“Varys?” she asked.
My dad nodded. “Someone else as well.”
A frown dotted her features. “The demon lord.”
My heart clenched in my chest.
“Yes,” he answered, his gaze downcast to the soapy suds in the sink. “Lord Onyx has shown me nothing but kindness in all the years I’ve known him. He’s not the black-hearted beast many claim him to be.”
“Do you think he’d help us?” she asked. “Grant us passage into his realm?”
He breathed out. “Even if he agreed to shelter us, I don’t wish to bring our troubles upon him. Onyx has faced his fair share of war. I refuse to drag him into one of my own making.”
“You did nothing wrong, Eli.” Her frown deepened.
“But I did,” he softly said. “In my attempt to seek peace with King Silas, we traveled to Haran to discuss new terms for the treaty. If I had left the matter alone, the seer in his court would never have seen you, nor would she have sensed the power inside you. Inside Evander.”
“What does King Silas want with our boy?” She poked the baby’s nose and smiled down at him—at me. Tension lingered at the edge of her eyes though. “Is he truly that powerful?”
“Evander is special.” My dad dried his hands and turned to her, resting his hip against the counter.
“There have been others like him in the past. Children born from light and dark and possessing the power to save kingdoms… or turn them to ash. I believe King Silas wishes to use Evander much like a previous king of Haran used one of the former saints to breach the demi-human realm and enslave their people.”
Wait. What? The top of my scalp prickled.
That’s what happened to Lake’s homeland? I’d heard that a former king of Haran invaded their kingdom to steal their resources but hadn’t known he’d used a saint to do it.
“I refuse to believe our sweet boy could ever hurt anyone.” She caressed the baby’s cheek. “He is too pure and good.”
“Both light and dark exist within him, Cyn,” he said, stepping toward her. He knelt on the blanket and gently rubbed the baby’s belly, his smile unsteady. “His future choices determine which way the pendulum will swing.”
A lump wedged in my throat. The power that’d exploded from me in the throne room had felt so… dark. Triggered by my anger toward Cedric. The same happened the other night when hearing about Roth corrupting the knights.
Not once had my powers surfaced for anything good.
Did that mean the pendulum had already chosen a side? That when my powers fully awoke, they’d be corrupted and cruel?
This had to be the buried fear the elixir had wanted to show me. I’d been just a baby at the time, but had the little chub on the blanket understood, on some level, what his parents were discussing?
“All we can do is shower him in love and hope that he’ll grow to be the man we know he can be,” he added, his smile softening as the baby grabbed his finger. “A man who is kind like his mother and who sees the beauty in the life around him.”
“And with his father’s sweet tooth,” she said, then poked his nose like she’d done to Baby-Me earlier. “Which reminds me. How do you feel about an apple tart for dessert?”
He snatched hold of her hand and brought her closer, smiling before he pressed their lips together.
Cheep.
With my eyes misty and throat tight, I looked toward the archway leading from the kitchen. Pumpkin sat there staring at me.
“We have to leave now?” I asked, understanding the purpose of his presence now. For whatever reason, my subconscious mind had chosen the tree critter to guide me through whatever fever dream the elixir had thrown me into.
He wagged his fuzzy tail before dashing toward the front door, his toe beans creating a light thud against the wooden floorboards.
After one last glance at my parents, I followed Pumpkin from the room. And just like before, the scene changed the moment I stepped through the archway.
But I was still in the cottage.
The remnants of sunlight streaming through the windows had vanished.
Instead, lightning flickered on the other side.
A storm raged outside as I stood in the middle of the front parlor.
Alone. No sound but the rain and wind slamming against the house.
I flinched as a crack of thunder rattled the windows.
The front door burst open behind me.
“Cynthia!” my dad exclaimed, soaked from head to toe. He shut the door and rushed toward the hall. “We need to leave. Now.”
The cry of a baby came from the back room before my mom appeared with Baby-Me in her arms.
“What’s happened?” she asked.
“There’s no time to explain.” He handed her a cloak and grabbed a large satchel from the wardrobe, slinging it over his shoulder. A bag that’d been packed and ready to go. “I just need you to trust me.”
“I do trust you,” she said, confusion and fear filling her voice. “But why must we leave during the storm?”
The door flung open again. I thought the wind had blown it open at first. But then hooded figures stepped through the doorway.
Five of them.
“Take Evander and run!” he screamed at her before drawing a sword from the sheath inside the wardrobe.
My knees buckled as I watched the scene play out. The truth of what actually happened the night Nocturne breached the barrier and attacked my parents.
My mom waivered in place, visibly torn between taking me to safety and leaving her husband behind. Baby-Me cried as another crash of thunder shook the cottage.
“How?” my dad asked them.
“Your brother,” one answered in a strangely familiar twang. As he removed his hood, my heart jolted. Black hair, tanned skin, and golden eyes. He looked just like Stryder. It wasn’t the mercenary I knew though. His father, maybe? “He gave us some of his blood to break through your barrier spell.”
“You speak lies,” my dad responded, gritting his teeth. “Eidolon and I may be at odds, but he wouldn’t betray me.”
“Think again,” Not-Stryder said, smirking.
“You see. While you’ve been hiding behind this barrier like a coward, the queen gave birth to a son.
A baby too weak to even breathe on his own.
As you know, Bremloc isn’t known for possessing strong healers.
The kingdom of Haran, however, is. So, a bargain was struck. ”
“What kind of bargain?” My dad glanced back at my mother, his pleading expression clear.