A Gift of Three (A Shade of Vampire #42)(56)

Enough.

I stood up quickly, trying to shake the vision from my mind. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been real.

I turned toward the small hand basin, running the tap and splashing my face and wrists with cold water. When I had calmed down, I turned the faucet off and looked up at my reflection in the small, cracked mirror on the wall. I looked pale—paler than usual, but that might have been the moonlight. Dark shadows circled my eyes, which were red-rimmed and scratchy.

A cloud moved in front of the moon, and the light dimmed. My face suddenly looked distorted. I thought it was another trick of the light, but then my reflection started to flicker and blur. I shook my head, thinking I was hallucinating. Then, backing away from the mirror, I tensed, struck by an absolute and total fear.

There was a face staring back at me.

It was a woman, with eyes that had the palest blue irises they looked almost completely white. Her hair moved around her as if it was underwater or caught in a gentle breeze—it, too, was white. The impression was like a photograph that had been in the sun too long, all of her features bleached to a strange ethereal nothingness.

The woman in the mirror opened her mouth, and I heard a voice inside my head, so quiet and breathless it was like one continual hush or whisper.

“Vita? Is that you?” the woman asked. “Can you hear me?”

I stared at the mirror open-mouthed, too shocked and horrified to formulate a reply. It took me a few moments before I could croak out a reply, but before the words left my mouth, the image started to flicker again. The woman’s eyes widened in horror—and perhaps pain? The next moment, the image gave one last flicker and vanished completely.

“No!” I cried out, my hand reaching for the glass, as if I could drag her back. But she was gone, and it was only my own stricken face that stared back at me.

I stood still, panting as adrenaline coursed through me. The woman I’d just seen perfectly matched the description of someone who had been described to me countless times as a child…and the only thing that made any sense at all was that I’d somehow just managed to meet the Nevertide Oracle.





Hazel





We said our goodbyes to my family, Corrine, Ibrahim and the rest before heading toward our treehouse. I leaned my head against Tejus’s arm as we walked, relishing the peace and quiet of The Shade after the party. It had been so much fun, but in true fae style, it had been a party of excess, and though I had loved every moment of it, I was glad to be home.

“I swear Varga and Elonora have grown so fast…I keep thinking of them as toddlers,” I sighed, recalling Ash and Ruby’s children at the party. They had seemed so grown up—how had the time gone so quickly?

“I know,” Tejus replied. “And Varga is more like his father every day. I wonder if he’d like to stay in The Shade for a while? He did mention it. Be good for him to train with Ben, Caleb and Derek. We could do with some fresh blood.”

“More warriors to train?” I asked, smiling. My husband and my uncle Benjamin had done a good job at getting the Hawk boys and Benedict in good shape over the years, and I supposed it did make sense for Varga, and Elonora if she wished, to train with the others.

“Always,” he replied.

We walked along in silence, my body moving closer to my husband’s as I anticipated getting into our home and enjoying some alone time. My mind drifted to Nuriya and Sherus’s new baby boy—how delighted Nuriya had been to become a mother, and how she deserved such happiness after so many trials in her long life.

“Tejus,” I murmured softly, my heart pounding in my chest as I tried to form the words—words I had been contemplating for a while now. “I want to change. Back… I mean, into just a sentry.”

He stopped walking and turned to me, his dark eyes shining.

“Does this mean what I think it does?” he asked, his hands running up my arms till his fingers brushed against the back of my neck. A delicious shiver flew up my spine.

“Yes.” I nodded, biting my bottom lip as I waited for his reaction.

“Thank God,” he replied, drawing me closer into his arms. “I can’t wait to start a family with you, Hazel,” he murmured into my hair.

He drew me into a kiss, my body crushed against his as he lifted me off my feet with the force of his embrace. My hands tangled in his hair, feeling the muscles of his shoulders beneath his shirt. I couldn’t wait to start the baby-making process—I was going to love every single blissful second of it.

“So, shall we start practicing now?” he asked, breaking away and smiling down at me.

“Right now,” I replied with a grin.

He carried me all the way to our treehouse apartment without stopping, but for once, even his vampire speed didn’t seem fast enough.



*

Feeling calm and loose-limbed, I padded into the kitchen to get a glass of water. I stretched, yawning, a warm glow spreading throughout my body as I anticipated the talk I’d be having with Corrine tomorrow. I didn’t really know why Tejus and I had put it off for so long… I guessed because there was really no hurry. We had all the time in the world to have children, and it was nice to enjoy our married life together, just the two of us. But it was time. Seeing Nuriya’s happiness and Ruby’s—how she and Ash made such great parents—I couldn’t deny Tejus and myself the same gift any longer.