Exaltation (Insight #11)(5)
Jamison refused to let himself feel the relief, not when Raine was still there, when the babe was in her arms.
Raine felt herself fading. Her corporeal form, the twenty-five years of life, was expiring. Soon her essence would be whisked away, and with any hope at all she would emerge in a life unversed in tragedy, one which would allow her to feel the emotions she could see in this babe’s eyes.
“Let me see you hold her,” Raine whispered, weakly reaching for his arm.
Her gaze traveled slowly over Jamison. He was a magnificent man. His outward beauty was only a small reflection of how powerful and breathtaking his soul was. Father to a Queen…a Goddess.
Jamison’s vibrant blue-gray eyes settled on his daughter for the first time. Her skin was flushed; her tiny fists were moving in protest. She was uncomfortable, and clearly felt the coldness of her mother’s embrace. He reached for her without thought.
He had never once held a child, not even his niece. He feared his strength, that he would harm them without knowing. His fear was absent now. A fierce protector emerged in his soul.
The moment the child was cradled in his arms her crying ceased. Her tiny gaze squinted up toward him. He adjusted the blanket around her fragile body and managed to smile, if only to hold back misty tears, which were threatening his stoic image.
His entire life, every moment before this one had lost its meaning. He could only see this child; he could only think to protect her. His long fingers reached to trace her chin, noticing how the babe raised it in a stubborn defiance against the sleep beckoning her.
He glanced to where Raine was, but Raine was gone. He only managed to see the very last of her essence vanish into thin air after it turned to ash. Her death.
His gaze moved back to the babe in his arms as he swayed her gently, silently telling her she could sleep, that daddy would watch over her as she did.
Saige emerged in the doorway.
At first Jamison barely glanced at his sister, but when he saw her appearance, he stared with shock.
Her golden hair had turned to silver. Small laugh lines were now around her lips, more around her eyes, and faint lines adorned her forehead. Moments ago without any makeup to make her look older she barely looked old enough to be a mother. Now she looked like a young grandmother. He noted that even age could not halter her beauty.
“You. You gave her time.”
Saige nodded weakly. “I was unaware whom I gave the time to, only that time was needed.”
“Could you not have told me?”
“I didn’t want to be wrong.” She smiled weakly. “The smoke revealed a name,” Saige offered with a glance to the altar of candles and melted wax that was waving across the book of shadows on the dresser. “Hartlyn Raven BellaRose.” Saige glanced down. “Exaltation. This girl will fight wretched joy.”
“Not if I can help it,” Jamison grated out, telling himself yet another lie.
On the day his powers were anointed he was told by the oracle of the Dominarum coven, the one he commanded now, he would love a womb-less woman and the woman would give him the world, change his very outlook on existence as a whole. Raine had done such a thing. As far as he was concerned, the prophecy had been fulfilled and it had nothing to do with his daughter. He would not allow it to.
Chapter Three
Six blocks away from Royal Street, Emery Sabien was seated on the back stoop of her home on St Louis Street. Thelma Ray was at her side. She was her lifelong neighbor and childhood nanny. As of recently she was the nanny who watched over her infant daughters. Emery vaguely used magic. Even though it was in her blood, she saw it more as a desperate prayer when she did succumb to the power of the universe.
Tonight she was weighing a crossroads. Her entire life she only wanted one of two paths. One was to bask herself in knowledge and travel, for her to weave together the myths of every religion and teach her world that we are all feeling the same thing, only calling it by a different name. The other was family. Not knowing which would be granted to her, she pursued both without rest.
Two weeks ago she was given a grant, one which would give her all she needed to travel and learn the secrets she sought, for no less than the next ten years of her life. It was a dream come true. And it fell on the heels of another miracle.
Emery could not have children. In no way or form could she carry a child to full term. She had explored every alternative there was, finally settling on a surrogate mother. That alone was not an easy accomplishment. Her own upbringing pushed her to search for the perfect host, the perfect energy to carry her child. The woman she found had very few demands. One was simply that Emery was happily in love.
Emery told the woman that, even though she was not married, she cared deeply for Duncan. She offered a vague lie that she had not married him for the fact that her parents were not there to witness it. The lie was twofold. Her parents were deceased. They would never be in physical form when she committed to a man, but she had no doubt she would feel their blessing in the air.
The blessing never emerged around Duncan, not even in the slightest way. Which is why she chose not to use his seed for the process. She went with fate. Before the surrogate option became her only possibility to have a child of her own flesh, before she discovered her body would not allow her to carry a child, she had been working with her family doctor to find the perfect donor. She was never at ease with what was put before her. Not until a day before the surrogate was to go through with the procedure. Her family doctor had sent a messenger with an outline of a wayward donor he had overlooked until then.