Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(82)

I thought back to that day so long ago. Daniel and I had been together for the first time in years, making love over and over again. I remember my greatest hope had been to never leave his arms again. It had come as a shock to know that a child had been Daniel’s deepest wish. “No, it was Daniel.”

Declan nodded shortly as though he’d had some truth confirmed. “If Daniel wanted a child and that is the wish he put into the magic, then Zoey, you have to know that child was truly yours. He would not want anyone else’s child. That piece of magic was your and Daniel’s baby. It is why the bean si prophecy is clearly about this child. Devinshea is safe. I suppose it is only natural you would not have considered this child to be yours. I would have been confused as well. We do not normally form humans from the magic. That can be unpredictable.”

The faeries had explained all of that to me. They normally molded the magic into something easily controllable, like a tree or a cat. We had seriously screwed up their plans by making a baby. I thought about her. She’d been so sweet but nothing like what I would have expected from a human baby. She hadn’t cried or given me a moment’s trouble. She’d saved me and healed me. If Daniel had believed for one second that child was truly ours, he would never have allowed her to pass through the veil, magical being or not.

It seemed I had lost two children in one day.

“I am going to find them,” Declan announced suddenly. “I promise I will bring your husbands back to you. I have already sent a riding party to the farthest field to look for them. I will search the others. I cannot fly so it might take me a while, but I swear I will not stop until I find them.”

I nodded.

“I apologize for insisting you come here. I should have left Devinshea to his new home. My only excuse is a need to see my kingdom safe…and I wanted my family back. I…well, I am sorry,” Declan said with more sincerity than I had ever heard from him before. He was quiet for a moment before deciding what to say next. “The healer says this will not affect your ability to carry a child in the future. He says you are already healing because of the vampire blood. He doubts a poison alone would have hurt the child. It was the curse the vampire blood in your system could not handle.”

“So it was someone who knew about vampires,” I said quietly.

Declan frowned. “That could be anyone. The newspaper ran a story on Dev’s new goddess and his partner. The taking of vampire blood was a salacious story point. I know who did this, Zoey. It was the Unseelie. The black magic proves it.”

“Because no Seelie ever used black magic,” I heard myself saying, surprised at Declan’s naiveté.

“I am not going to argue with you,” he replied with a sad frown as he took my hand. I didn’t care enough to jerk it back. He squeezed it between his hands. “You and Devinshea will have other babies. You will see. I am so jealous, Zoey. Sometimes, I cannot stand it.”

“I never meant to take your brother from you.” I wished he would go and leave me alone with my thoughts. I wanted to think about Summer, to try to remember everything about the only child Daniel and I would ever have.

Declan got down on his knees so he was staring up at me. “I am jealous of my brother, Zoey. I want what he has. He is so in love. He is happy with you. I was in love once.” Declan shook his head. “She was unsuitable. My people would never have accepted her as their queen. She would never have accepted life as a mistress. I left without a backward glance.”

“Then you didn’t love her.” I hated the coldness in my voice but I couldn’t seem to muster sympathy for him.

“I did not look back.” He got up and straightened his clothes. “But I think of her often. It was the biggest mistake I have ever made and, Zoey, that is saying something.”

When he reached the door, he turned back. He was Declan again, his face a mask of royal will. “Know this, sister, I will see my nephew avenged. Padric is questioning the witnesses, but I know the Unseelie are behind it. There is no question. They have pushed me too far, and I will see them wiped from this plane. I will find my brother and we will prepare for war.”

Declan turned and left.

“We’ll be long gone by then,” Neil murmured, moving his head toward mine. “When Daniel comes back, he’ll pack us all up and we can leave this place. Let them kill each other.”

I said nothing, simply let myself fall deeper into the softness of the bed because no war, no amount of killing or revenge, was ever bringing back my son or my baby girl.

The bean si had been wrong. I didn’t care enough to stop a war.





Chapter Nineteen





Grief, at least for me, has always been a private thing. In the days following my miscarriage, the biggest nuisance in my life was the string of people wanting to comfort me. I heard platitudes and metaphors all ending in some hopeful piece of crap about how I would get through this.

I suffered through Neil and Sarah telling me how I would still be able to have babies and Dev and I would make more. Miria came through with tears in her eyes and told me how hard it had been for her and that I would be all right. I was still young and had all those years of fertility ahead of me. Even Bibi patted my hand and told me the pain would get better.

Someone was always sitting in the chair by my bed or, in Neil’s case, resting beside me. They took turns on Zoey watch and I knew someone had made a schedule.