A Clash of Storms (A Shade of Vampire #50)(69)

“You’re a wonderful father, Tejus,” I said soothingly. “Don’t ever think less of yourself over what you’re feeling. It’s not your fault.”

“Do you think we should talk to Corrine about it?” He gazed at me, his dark eyes hopeful.

“I don’t know…” I exhaled. “I mean, we could try—”

Something broke inside me. Like a thick sheet of glass that had stood between me and the emptiness I’d been facing, the unknown mist shattering and dissipating.

A tidal wave of memories crashed into me, leaving me reeling, breathless.

Suddenly… I remembered. Everything. Things I’d never even thought I’d lived through and yet… had all been there.

Phoenix, our first child. Serena, our second. Watching them both grow into the spectacular creatures that they’d become, both capable sentries with effervescent personalities. Vita, Grace and Lawrence’s petite fire fae daughter. Jovi and Aida, Victoria and Bastien’s children. Field, the Hawk brother.

The first twenty years of our lives together had been more than eventful. They’d been downright extraordinary, and we hadn’t even remembered them.

I gasped, tears springing to my eyes as I realized that a little over twenty years had passed since we’d last seen our children, our beloved Serena and Phoenix. I looked at Tejus and recognized his horrified expression because it mirrored mine.

“Tejus, w-what’s happening?” I gasped.

“I… I don’t know.” His voice was trembling. “Hazel… We had a son… and a daughter before Harper… What… What is this?”

I stood, wobbling on my legs from the shock. Memories continued to roll over me like waves of ice water. One after another, each second that I’d been missing from my life. This was the truth hiding behind the emptiness I’d been feeling.

How could this have happened?

My breathing accelerated to the point where I feared a panic attack was imminent. I felt unable to control myself anymore, tears streaming down my burning cheeks. “Tejus! We have children we haven’t seen or heard from in twenty years! We have children we didn’t even know we had! What the hell is happening?!”

“Mom? Dad? What’s wrong?” Harper’s voice from the living room broke my focus.

I stilled, staring at Tejus with wide eyes.

“Tejus… What… What are we going to do?” I whispered. “Where are Phoenix and Serena? How… How do we tell Harper what happened? I mean, we don’t know what happened, so how do we explain this to her?”

A moment passed, and we heard Harper’s feet approaching. She found us holding one another, our faces pale and eyes glazed with tears, as we became more and more aware of the first twenty years of our lives together and the children we’d somehow… forgotten we’d even had.

“Mom.” Harper stared at us with her big bluish green eyes and long black hair caught up in a loose bun. She was almost identical to Serena, though her jawline and shoulders were a bit sharper. But she was just as tall, and her lips and nose and stance all reminded me of her sister. Her frown and the shape of her cheeks and chin reminded me of Phoenix, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I crumbled and broke down, crying uncontrollably. Tejus clutched me tight.

“Mom, Dad, what’s happening? What’s wrong?” Harper came closer, gazing at us in alarm.

“How do we tell her, Tejus?” I sobbed, hiding my face in his chest, no longer able to look my daughter in the eye.

“Hazel, listen… Listen to me,” he croaked, managing to gain control of his own emotions, his fingers pushing my chin up to look at him. “This… This clearly isn’t our fault, okay? Something happened. We’re not horrible people who simply forget they had kids. There’s something… going on… and we’ll get to the bottom of this. We’ll find out what happened, and we’ll find out where they are, and we’ll get our children back, okay?”

A few seconds passed as I lost myself in his dark gaze, regaining some of my composure thanks to his strength. He was just as torn as I was, I could feel him, but his warrior instincts had kicked in faster than mine.

I nodded slowly, and we both turned to look at Harper, who was stunned, staring at us in disbelief.

“‘We’ll get our children back’?” she asked, her voice low.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Tejus took the lead.

“There’s no good way to explain this, darling,” he said. “But long story short, your mother and I have been living with this vague impression that there’s something missing in our lives. Grace and Lawrence have been experiencing the same, along with Victoria and Bastien, and the Hawks. And River and Ben, too…”

“River and Ben?” My gaze darted from Harper to Tejus. I’d never heard my aunt and uncle talking about this before.

“Yeah, we spoke about this a couple of months ago,” Tejus replied with an apologetic expression. “You were already dealing with your gap. I didn’t want to add to your worries. Although now, in hindsight, it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway, since only now are we able to remember Field.”

“Oh, dear,” I gasped. “You’re right, there is definitely something dubious going on here. Who would do such a thing? Who would hate us so much that they would put us through such an ordeal?”