The squeaky scuff of nurse’s shoes on linoleum floors sounded familiar. I’d never been in a hospital in this life, but I sort of remembered it all as if I had: the clinical smell and the sharp light that seemed to strain the eye; the feel of death and lingering sadness mixed with hope and suffering. It wasn’t a very nice place, and yet, as we passed certain rooms and I sucked in the energy around me, I got the sense that, in some cases, it was the most wonderful place in the world.
“So how do you feel?” David asked, catching up to take my hand. I’d almost forgotten he was here.
“I…” I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t even sure why he asked that.
“You must be happy about Drake coming with you,” he offered. “I know it hurt you that he was wedged so deep up Morgana’s ass—”
I laughed. “Yeah, but I do get it.”
“And it still hurt.”
“I’m okay,” I assured him. “Coming to my rescue in the forest pretty much cancels everything else out.”
David smiled, both of us stopping outside room 22. I was hesitant to go in, unsure what I’d find in there, even though I knew Mike and baby were okay. Something about it all had me spooked, as though he came so much closer to tragedy than any of us realized, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on the bigger picture going on here.
David pushed on the large white door, despite the privacy sign, and it opened to reveal a hulk of a man in a stiff-looking chair, curled around a tiny bundle of blankets. He smiled when he saw me, rolling his elbow out a little to give me a look at the precious little head.
“Oh Mike,” was all I could say, choked up on emotion. He looked wrecked. His skin was kind of red under the weird hospital lighting, and he had blue puffy circles under his eyes that I’d never seen on him before—the same kind I got when I cried a lot. His sandy hair was darker now with an oily sheen, and he had blood on his shirt—obviously the same shirt he was wearing when he brought Em in. I felt bad then that we hadn’t been here to help him.
David reached down and shook Mike’s hand, while I knelt on the ground beside him and touched a fingertip to the baby’s hand. It was curled tight, allowing no one in, so I just kissed it instead.
“She’s so precious, Mike.”
He nodded, yawning. “That she is.”
“And, how are you?” I asked, looking up at him, even though it was obvious. He was worn down by it all, and even though it had all turned out okay, I could tell he wanted to cry. I think David could too, because he backed away and said he’d go call Drake and tell him to bring Mike’s shirt up for him if Vicki was going to be much longer.
“Why, where’s Drake now?” Mike asked.
“Gone to drop the luggage off and bring back the car.”
“Okay.” Mike nodded. “He’ll probably beat Vicki back here then.”
“Yep. That woman could use up the river Nile with the length of her showers.” David laughed.
Alone, as the door closed, our eyes met. It took a moment, but as the trauma of the days passed set in, his chin crinkled. “It’s been tough, Ar.”
I rubbed his knee. “I know. And how’s Em?”
“Ah, she’s stable. Still sleeping,” he said.
Even though I knew she wasn’t there, I still looked over at the empty bed.
“She’s in ICU.”
“Why?”
“Just a precaution, apparently,” he told me. “After what she went through. They’re moving her back down here as soon as she wakes up.”
“When will that be?”
“They don’t know,” he said, his voice shaky. “Uh… she…” He took a deep breath, looking off to the side to clear his eyes. “There’s no reason for her to be asleep now. They actually don’t know why she hasn’t woken up.”
Oh. Shit. Maybe it was Em we should’ve been worried about all this time. I stood up. “I’ll go check on her.”
“Ara.” He snagged my hand as I turned away. “You can help her.”
“I…” I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“You can heal,” he said. “You can bring things back to life and you can heal them too.”
I nodded.
“And if you can’t…”
I squatted down, leaning over his baby to hug him. “I’ll bite her if I can’t heal her. She’ll cope with the change to a Lilithian in that state easier than she will a vampire.”
He nodded, his cheeks wet. “Thank you.”
I kissed his head as I stood up. “You don’t have to thank me.”
I sat with my hand on Emily’s head, trying to reach her. I knew if David was still Vampire, or if Jason were here, he could reach her in that hollow room. Her body was healing, I could feel it, so I didn’t want to interfere with nature just yet, but there was nothing to explain why her mind hadn’t surfaced. I mean, her soul was intact. So what was going on?
“Em?” I tried, figuring that, while her body and soul might be okay, maybe the problem was within her heart. “Em, I don’t know if anyone told you this, but your baby is fine.”
I waited, smiling, expecting her to wake up in that moment. But the monitor keeping track of her heart didn’t change and the room stayed dead with silence.
“And I have a surprise for you. Not only is your beautiful little girl waiting out there for you, so is Mike. But a different Mike,” I added, squeezing her hand. “Em,” I whispered, right into her ear. “I broke the curse. He’s all yours now.”
My arms tightened with frosty bumps then as she squeezed my hand. Excited, I tried again.
“Em, did you hear me? I broke the curse…”
“What?” she said in a groggy, barely-there voice.
“Mike’s free, Em.”
“Where…?” Her eyes inched open, shutting when the light hit them. I reached up behind her bed and flicked it off. “Where am I?”
“You’re in hospital.”
“Why? What are you doing back?”
“Your baby—you had the baby,” I said quickly before she could remember what led to that. “She’s perfect. She’s with Mike.”
“She’s okay?” she said, the monitor picking up.
“Perfectly fine.”
Emily breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing back, and closed her eyes again, the monitor slowing as she fell asleep.
I sat down, staying by her side until Mike eventually popped his head in an hour later, his hair brushed, a clean shirt on.
“You’re still here?” he said.
“Yeah, sorry. No phones in here.” I showed him my phone. “She kinda held onto my hand and hasn’t let go. I figured you’d find me eventually.”
Mike smiled affectionately at her, the obvious pain of all she went through crossing his face with pity. “You shoulda seen her, Ar. She was so strong. So brave.” He sat down on her other side and took her hand, kissing it. “I’ve never seen anyone so brave. When they told us the baby was… she… I was a wreck. I couldn’t stop sobbing, but she just nodded to herself, took it on like something she just had to do, you know? And she got me through it. How does she do that?”
I smiled. “That’s the power of women. They’re tough.”
He nodded. “I always knew that, but I never fully understood it until I saw her suffer through contractions to deliver what we thought, at the time, was going to be a… a stillborn.” He rubbed his face, shaking his head.
A moment of reflection passed this room then and I sat looking at him looking at her. It was obvious. We hadn’t told him yet, so he wouldn’t be aware that what he felt right now was pure love for her, no longer tainted by the curse. It occurred to me then that he would never have loved anyone with all of his heart. It must have been a supreme and unimaginable feeling.
“Hey, Mike?” I said, waiting for him to look at me.
“Yo?”
“We did it.”
“Did what?”
I waited, smiling. “We cured the curse.”
It clicked then. I saw it—saw him touch his chest in response to a feeling he’d obviously had earlier. “So that’s what that was.”
I nodded.
Mike looked at Em, smiling. “I was worried, you know.”
“About?”
“That maybe I wouldn’t love her without the curse.” Emily seemed to smile as he gently brushed her hair back, loving eyes touching every inch of her face. “I thought maybe I held onto our relationship because I was fighting the love I had for you, but…”
“But you love her just the same?” I asked expectantly.
“No.” He stood up and leaned over to kiss her. “I love her more now. And maybe that’s because I just saw her step into shoes no woman could ever fill, or maybe it’s because the curse is gone, but I think it’s both.”
I nodded, standing up when I saw David peek into the room. “I’ll leave you to have some time with her then.”
“Ar?” he said, reaching for my hand.
I walked around the bed and took it.
“Thanks,” he said, kissing my knuckles. “For the first time in my life, I don’t love you the wrong way. So… thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” I smiled. “I’ve never been so happy to hear someone say they don’t love me.”
There was a moment to breathe. As we headed home, my father driving, me in the back and David in the front, I finally took that moment to clarify a few things with myself. Mike was free from my curse. His baby was alive and well. That was the first thing I needed to tell my brain. It was still stuck in panic mode, trying to get to the hospital. I wasn’t sure I’d sleep tonight because of it.
The other thing my brain needed to know was that David was cured too. He still loved me. And he was human. I guess I thought for so long, no, worried for so long, that I might lose him once the bind of that curse was gone, and my brain still hadn’t let it sink in that he wasn’t going anywhere. Ever.
Now, with all of that out of the way, I was so glad to finally be back home again, and I couldn’t wait to see Harry. I couldn’t wait to see Cal and tell him he is David’s cousin. I wanted to feel that joy the way the old Ara would have, but I only felt it the way this new one did—the one that never really knew Arthur but was so happy Cal would finally have family that accepted him. Also happy that David wouldn’t kill Cal or try to catapult him from my life.
When we pulled up in the driveway, David got out and opened my door before I was finished with all the thinking.
“What are we doing here?” I said. “I thought we were picking up Harry?”
“We are,” he said, helping me out. “But Zac’s parents don’t know you exist, and I don’t want Harry having to hold off on hugging you for their sakes.”
“Okay.” I nodded, giving him a gentle hug before walking toward the path. “Are you going too?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. See ya soon then.” I backed away, waving as they took off. But I didn’t go inside. I was desperate to see Harry. I missed him so much while we were away. Getting home to him was always in the back of my mind. So instead of going in for a shower, I stepped up onto the porch and sat on the swing, waiting.
It took nearly half an hour before the car pulled up again, but it felt like an hour. I could see his small silhouette in the darkness of the backseat, moving quickly to push the door open.
“Hi, Harry!”
“Mom!” He jumped out and slammed the door, darting for me.
I ran down the steps and squatted with my arms out, so ready to just wrap him up and kiss his little forehead all over. But as he passed under the light from the porch—reaching out onto the path like a gentle reminder—I saw his face, standing up slowly then with a sick, dizzy feeling.
“The face of the sun will be the light upon your shadows.” The voice echoed in my head like a spell, making the world spin, but as the words ran through me, heard before but not understood, they came at me with different meaning: the face of the ‘son’.
I looked at Harry, dread crossing my features as his excited run slowed to a walk.
It felt as if a camera just zoomed right in on me then, before rushing back out again and filming from a distance, taking me in slowly as it circled. I stood here, the same person I was twenty years ago and the same person I was twenty seconds ago, but different. My mind whirled as it reflected on all the choices I’d made since I woke, but it did so with the wonder and maturity of my old mind, seeing myself then as two people for a moment before I suddenly became one, that panning camera coming full circle, and then it stopped.
“Ara!” David put his hand down hard on my shoulder.
Like riding a roller coaster and coming to an abrupt halt, my head spun. I looked at his face, recognizing it in a different way for the first time. My David. Green eyes, strong jaw, almost invisible dimple in the chin. All the things he’d done to me, for me, in spite of me. He’d changed, and it hurt me to think of the man I left behind that day before I went to those tombs. It hurt me to see him humbled and altered beyond recognition. I hated that he was human right now as much as I loved it, and I wanted to choke him almost as much as I wanted to hold him. I felt like I’d missed him, even though I hadn’t really gone anywhere all this time.
My heart and mind moved away from him then to the eyes of my son. I got down on one knee and drew him closer, gaze flicking over every inch of his face and noting each tiny little change. Almost two years. So much time had passed, and my baby boy wasn’t a baby anymore. He’d turned eight while my mind was away, and the new mind I’d walked with at the time hadn’t even been there to see it. I’d lost so much and yet, here I was, standing on the other side of the nightmare in that tomb, having gained everything back. And more.
I looked down, touching a hand to the delicate life growing within me. A girl, I realized, looking up at David. We were having another little girl.
And Morgana killed the child I carried before.
The moment of rage and heartache passed quickly then, and I stood up, wriggling my toes in these shoes that weren’t mine but, strangely, were. Hearing the road and the birds and the concerned voices of my family, talking at me through ears that hadn’t recognized them in so long, but now did. Breathing air that tasted like home but had only moments ago meant something different to me and, finally, seeing it all with a light on over the darkness now.
I knew them all. I knew the shirt David was wearing—the one I bought on our holiday to Michigan six years ago. I knew the look in Harry’s eye—the fact that he was about to cry, scared he’d done something wrong. I knew why the ring on my finger was melted and I remembered the pain of the moment the flames touched it.
I felt like I’d grieved the tragedy already, though, like the emotions I had right now were out of place, or maybe in the wrong time, and yet I felt a great need to cry.
I pulled David closer and put my face against his shoulder, taking a few breaths—airy and full of fear, like the moments leading to a violent regurgitation. He put his arms around me, screaming for Drake to get Harry inside.
“Now!” he demanded. “Before she has flashbacks!”
My son vanished before my eyes at a speed I knew he’d never travelled before, scooped up and taken away by my father—a man I loved but, only minutes ago, had not understood. Everything he did since my death made sense now. Everything he said. It didn’t hurt anymore because I knew, to the deepest part of my soul, how much he loves me, how much he loves my sister, and I was so glad, despite everything she’d done, that I hadn’t killed her. Hadn’t left her dead. Hadn’t severed the relationship between myself and Drake by failing to let go.
But she killed my baby. It hurt so bad my knees buckled. David followed me to the ground and wrapped himself around me, telling me over and over that it was all right. And it was now. I felt its spirit. Morgana had removed the child’s physical form, but she had not removed its soul.
My eyes widened then as I saw the knife in her hand—curved and twisted like an ugly tree branch, because it was a tree branch, or at least made from one.
“She used the Blade of Eden,” I said.
“The what?” David took my face in both hands.
“The Blade of Eden.” I touched the baby. “I didn’t know at the time.”
“Ara, what are you talking about?”
“This child was meant to be. She couldn’t erase it—couldn’t remove it forever. Its soul didn’t cross over, David. It stayed—it waited here until it could be born again.”
His wide green eyes bled the sadness away, but comprehension didn’t touch them. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s what Lilith tried to kill me with—in the forest that day.”
“When?”
“When I asked for the hand of Blackworth.” My mind flashed back to that moment, linking facts from my past with actions of the present. “It’s a blade—forged from the Tree of Life. Made by me long ago to keep souls on this plane—ones that were needed to do great things, but in another life. It takes the body, but leaves the soul attached to the earth until a remake comes along.”
“A remake? What are you talking about?”
“Sometimes, mistakes are made.” I looked at him. “Sometimes souls are born to the wrong people. Lilith was killing those people and bringing their souls to purgatory—”
“Babies?”
“Not always. But it was hard to get them to cross back over to where we needed them to be. So I made the blade, kept them bound to earth, so I could walk them to the intended family, and they’d wait until it was time.”
“And Morgana knew this? She knew what that blade was?”
I nodded, frowning. “She wanted to hurt us. She wanted to kill me and let Lily be resurrected. She must have known.”
“Known what?”
“To have used that blade, she must have known Lily would bring me back.”
“I doubt it,” he said, then his eyes fixed wider on nothing. “Then again, she knew you could be brought back. She kept a vial of your ashes as a bargaining chip.”
“And got nothing for it, I see.” I felt sick, knowing what had happened to her. “Drake was right, David.”
“About what?”
“You should have been punished for what you did to her.”
He just nodded, saying nothing.
“Who raped her?” I asked, looking him square in the eye. I’d seen it in his eyes when he told me about what happened to her. He’d lied to the naive version of me he was speaking to then, but he couldn’t get the truth past this one.
“His name was Garth Hedly.”
“And was he punished?”
“No,” he said regretfully. “He fled the island that night.”
“And where is he now?”
“I don’t know. But when she wakes, if she ever remembers, she’ll hunt him down.”
“She needs to be allowed to remember.”
“Are you crazy!” he yelled. “She could come after us.”
“She won’t. All hope of resurrecting her mother has been lost, and she knew I would one day awaken. She left our child on this plane to be reborn if ever I was.” I touched my belly. “She means us no harm now, David. Justice, in her eyes, has been served.”
“And what about what Lily did to her in revenge?”
“What else could she have expected?” I said with a shrug. “She killed a child and I would bet that, at no time in all her torture, did she confess that she had not taken its soul.”
“Why… but she could have saved herself if she’d spoken up? It changes everything.”
“I guess we’ll never know.”
“Well, it’s not important right now,” he said, looking up to the sky as it started raining. “We need to get you inside. You need rest.”
“No.” I pushed back and got to my feet. “I need to hold my son and apologize to Vicki for what happened to Sam. And then I need to spend all night looking at you.” I reached over and touched his cheek, hardly able to believe the way he felt under my fingertips. His skin was softer, thinner almost, as if I could feel it aging as the moments passed. He was so much taller and broader. I never realized how young he looked until I saw him now, older. His hair was thicker, darker, and he had lines on his face where he’d been crippled by pain or overcome with laughter since I last saw him. It was like I could see everything he’d experienced without me by the lines on his face, and it made me miss him terribly.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, taking me in with new eyes—eyes that had seen so many things and hadn’t yet healed from them.
“You’re beautiful,” I said. “Being human suits you.”
He laughed, looking down shyly as he did.
“I’ve missed you,” I added, standing on my toes to wrap my arms around his neck.
“Aw, believe me,” he said in that deep, husky whisper, “I missed the hell outta you.”
Vicki took one look at me and she knew, before I said what needed to be said, she knew the words that were on my lips.
“Don’t,” she cried, hugging me tight. “It’s not Elora’s fault.”
“I know.” I nodded. “But I am so so sorry, Mom. I loved Sam and I’m so heartbroken that he’s really gone—”
“I know.” She nodded, sniffling as she drew back. Drake stepped in then and he needed only to smile to say it all. I read everything there on his face that he wanted to say, and all the responses he’d give to anything I had to say.
“It’s good to have you back,” he added, hugging me tight.
“For what it’s worth, Dad, I missed you. I just didn’t even know I did.”
“Or you wouldn’t admit it.”
We smiled at each other, finishing the rest of this conversation without words or even thought.
“Where’s Harry?”
“Finishing his picture.” Vicki nodded to the stairs.
“His picture?”
“He’s been working on something for you for when you came back.” She motioned for me to go up, so I took the rail and each step slowly, with the weight of two-years-passed on my shoulders, truly feeling the wood under my fingertips and breathing the smell of this home deeply. When I reached his room and pushed his door open, Harry was coloring frantically at his desk by the window.
“Harry?”
“Wait.” He put his hand back like a stop sign and continued coloring. “Almost… done!” He spun around and held up a page. “This is for you.”
“What is it?” I asked, coming closer.
“It’s us,” he stated, sitting proudly. “I didn’t want you to miss anything, so while you were gone, I made them for you.”
“Them?” My eyes moved past his happy round face to the stack of paper behind him. “You did all these?”
He nodded as I came to kneel beside him, putting the last drawing he’d done face-down, and handing me one from the top of the pile. I laughed to myself when I saw it, amazed by his talent. At just eight years old, he could already draw as well as me. Well, as well as I could now that Cal had taught me.
I looked at the first picture closely: the day he found out I was dead. His talents developed as the time went on, and slowly, each dark, sad comic strip featured a smile here and there until, just before it was announced that I was alive, there was finally a small yellow sun and even a smile on his dad’s face.
“Daddy was sad without you, Mom.”
“I know,” I said, wiping my cheek. “And I was sad without him. And without you.”
“I wasn’t sad,” he said pragmatically. “Not always, because I knew you’d come back.”
“Did you?” I said absently, because it was never a promise, but I was happy that he’d had faith to get him through.
“I did,” he said, showing me another comic strip—this one of him in bed, talking to a man standing at the foot of it.
My blood ran cold. “Have you shown these to Dad?”
He shook his head.
“To anyone?”
He shook his head again.
“Harry?” I pointed to the likeness of the man I now knew to be Arthur. “Do you know who this is?”
“Of course I do.” He reached to the corkboard behind his desk and plucked off another picture of a man’s face, with bright blue eyes and a warm smile. “It’s Uncle Arthur.”
I laughed, covering my mouth. “So he comes to see you?”
“He comes to see everyone,” he stated. “He was at the hospital, taking care of Aunt Em too.”
“You saw him there?”
He nodded. “I asked him to save the baby.”
“And… did he?”
Harry shook his head. “He said he wasn’t strong enough, but he knew who was. That was when Lilith came.”
“Lilith?” My eyes widened.
“She’s pretty, Mom. And I can see through her.” He laughed.
I felt sick. “So… Lilith saved Uncle Mike’s baby?”
He nodded. “And she said to tell you thank you.”
“For what?”
“For showing her the…”—his nose crinkled like mine did when I’d get confused, his hands out—“the light? But I told her I didn’t know what light she meant, and she just said you’d know.”
Harry and I looked up at the door then. I hadn’t noticed David there until he let out an accidental sob and turned away, quickly leaving before either of us could see him cry.
“Is Dad gonna be okay?”
I nodded. “He’s just tired after everything, that’s all. And he’s really happy to have Mommy back.”
Harry smiled, hopping down off his chair to hug me. “It’s okay, Mom. You can go spend some time with Dad now. I have to go to bed anyway. I have school tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I whispered, squeezing him tight. “I love you, Harry.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
As I backed away and took him in one last time, his face popped with a reminder and he turned back to his desk. “Don’t forget your picture.”
“Thanks, Harry.” I took the page and waited while he climbed into bed. “All set then?”
“All set,” he said, snuggling down. “Night, Mom.”
“Night, sweetheart,” I said, and shut the door, heading for David’s room. But as my gaze swept absently over the picture, I stopped dead and looked back at his door, one step away from going back in there to stare at him. How did he know?
“Everything okay?” David asked, tucking himself in beside me.
“Look.” I showed him the picture and even he looked at Harry’s door, both of us looking back down at the picture again after. There on the page, smiling out at us, was a cartoon version of David, Harry, and me, with a bundle of pink blankets in my arms.
David laughed, placing his hand on my stomach. “So it’s a girl?”
I nodded. “But no one else knows that. Do you think he read it on my mind?”
“No,” Drake said, flicking his hands dry as he came out of the bathroom. “He has the Gift. It runs deep in our blood, after all.”
David and I smiled.
“And I suppose congratulations are in order,” Drake added, offering his hand.
“They certainly are,” David said, cupping his shoulder as they shook hands.
“Congratulations for what?” Vicki asked, taking one glance at the picture before she knew, her mouth popping. “Oh my God!”
I laughed as she squealed, hugging me then hugging David, even pulling my father in for a group hug at the end.
“How many weeks?”
“Barely even four,” I said.
“Then how can Harry have drawn this?” she asked.
“He didn’t sense its gender,” Drake said. “He foresaw it.”
We all looked at the picture, David laughing as he pointed to the words Harry wrote on the top in rainbow colors: And they all lived happily ever after.
“Look on the back,” Vicki said, turning it over. The words there were simple, scribbled beneath a flaming red bird, but for some reason had me concerned.
“But it wasn’t the end.” David read them aloud, his tone rising in question. “Why would he write that? And what’s this bird all about?”
Drake looked closer at it. “It’s a phoenix, I believe.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“A bird—mythical. Rises from the ashes anew.”
I felt a lick of worry wet my soul.
“Never mind that tonight.” David plucked the drawing from my hands and told Vicki to put it on the fridge. “We have some catching up to do.”
I yelped as my knight in shining armor bent down and scooped me off the ground, walking gracefully to the bedroom door and kicking it open before turning and toeing it shut behind us, making the action into a statement all on its own.