It felt weird being back at my high school, especially since everything looked the same as it had back when I knew nothing about magic or the world of Gifted. Everything except the students. The freshmen today looked like college students had when I was in school. Or maybe I just felt that way because Clara was the one graduating, and no matter how many milestones I watched her reach, I still thought of her as my baby sister.
“There they are,” Gabriel waved over to where Sam and Deanna were saving us seats, his fiery red hair and her platinum pixie making them hard to miss. Gabriel put his hand out to help me up the bleachers, which made me roll my eyes, even if I have been a little clumsier lately. He says I glow, but I’m pretty sure I look like a whale and he’s just too in love with me to mention it.
“How was Italy?” Deanna asked of our babymoon, once the hugs were out of the way.
“I think I ate my weight in pasta, but it was so worth it,” I shared, tickling Ethan who was in his father’s lap, giggling at my comment. I don’t know what promise or mission had made Sam Gifted, but not long after we got back from Henry’s, we noticed him growing older right along with Deanna, as if I hadn’t watched him die. I know from Gabriel that you don’t lose your Gift when you become human again, but Sam never mentioned it.
“It shows,” Sam teased, nodding to my very pregnant stomach and garnering a new fit of giggles.
Once Clara’s graduation was over, we went back to the manor for a celebratory dinner, but my sister-niece spent most of the meal going over all the things she should do on her graduation trip to Europe. She and her friends were trying to cover twelve countries in twenty-one days, and I happen to have been to all of them. Every year, during my summer breaks from Harvard, Gabriel and I chose a different place I had always dreamed of visiting and explored it to our heart’s content. He almost always knew someone in the area who could show us how the locals live, but most of the time we just wandered around and stumbled onto amazing little gems off the beaten path. Now that I wasn’t going to die from a Curse and Gabriel wasn’t going to live forever, we made it a point to live our lives to the fullest.
“And which one was your favorite?” Clara asked me with her best friend, Eloise, hanging on every word. “Italy?” she guessed, since the babymoon was our second time in Embry’s birthplace.
“It’s very romantic,” I explained, looking over to Deanna to gauge her reaction, but she was no longer in the dining room. “It’s the perfect place to escape with someone you love, but I’ve been told it’s also a cool place to be wooed by a…”
“For she’s a jolly good fellow…” the singing interrupted my suggestion that Clara have an Italian fling, which was probably for the best.
“You still haven’t figured out a better song?” Clara asked as we finished our off-key rendition and Deanna put the cake down in front of her.
“Found it,” Sam rushed into the dining room with a video camera and pointed it at his daughter. “We’re going to have to do the singing over again,” he told us.
“Dad,” Clara said, making two syllables of the word as she rolled her eyes. It was the standard response from a teenager embarrassed by her parents when her friends come over. But unlike her friends who laughed with her, Clara and I both knew how lucky she was to have her dad there to fuss over her.
“One day, you’ll be happy you can look back at how cute you were as a child. All the fun, happy memories,” I pointed out as Gabriel came and wrapped his arms around me from behind, resting his hands on my stomach and his head on my shoulder.
“They hardly ever use them to embarrass you,” Gabriel added, teasing her and getting a smile. I watched her friends from school stare at him until he caught them, at which point they looked away and giggled.
“Did your dad follow you around with a video camera?” Clara asked me.
“My dad wasn’t as cool as yours,” I said. She knew my dad wasn’t in the picture now, but she assumed he used to be, like Sam’s dad. She rolled her eyes at me, not agreeing with my assessment of her father.
“Also, we were born in a time when video cameras were these huge things that you had to lug around, and transfer onto VHS if you wanted to watch them,” Deanna shared, with Ethan now perched on her hip. He was trying so hard not to fall asleep because of all the excitement, but it might be a little too much for a four-year-old.
“Can we watch them?” Clara asked, always curious about the past, probably because we had all decided not to talk about it. Especially not with her.
“Not unless you have a VCR,” Gabriel said apologetically, knowing full well that we had one back at the plantation. I went through all the old home videos and photographs when Gabriel and I moved into our newly renovated home. I wouldn’t say we had a shrine to the women that came before me, but we had a room that housed all of my ancestor’s artefacts. One day I would tell our kids about them, the women who made me who I am, and ultimately brought Gabriel and I together.
“What’s a VCR?” Clara asked with a smile.
“Way before your time,” I assured her, knowing that she knew and was just trying to make us feel our age.
“You guys must be really old.”
“You have no idea, sweetie,” Gabriel said, kissing her forehead. He sometimes slipped, and Clara would look at him funny, as if she was about to point out that there was no way he had met JFK, but then she would decide against it and let him backtrack to say he read it in a book or saw it in a movie. She probably knew way more than any of us were giving her credit for, but she was smart, and seemed to understand that it wasn’t a happy story we were keeping from her.
After Sam got his video of Clara blowing out her candles and making a wish, he turned the camera on me. I was about to wish Clara a happy birthday on camera, assuming it was some kind of video testimonial, but they started singing again.
“My birthday isn’t for months,” I pointed out as they put the large cake in front of me.
“It’s not a birthday cake,” Clara argued, eying my stomach as I read the icing on the cake.
“A baby shower,” I turned to Deanna.
“Clara didn’t want us to do it while she was in Europe, and today was the only day everyone could show up.”
“I love you kid,” I took Clara in for a hug. “But this is your graduation.”
“And you can tell that to my niece or nephew so they know I love them the most,” she gave me a big smile before nodding over to where Keisha, Ingrid, Etta, Delia, Angela, Jen and Sarah were standing with their husbands, and some of my co-workers from the hospital. I was touched, even before Gabriel brought Charlie over, followed by Eric, his wife, and their two adorable sons.
I got up from the table and went to hug them all. It was getting harder and harder with Keisha; who’s twins with Tennison were due any day now.
After the cake, Clara went to celebrate with her friends from school, while Deanna hosted an alcohol and guy-friendly baby shower. It was very entertaining watching my husband try to figure out modern-day diapers, since the last time he changed one was probably centuries ago.
I ended up by the doorway into the living room, watching all of my worlds intermingling. Delia and her husband were laughing with Keisha and Tennison, Caleb and Etta were in their glory playing hide and seek with Ethan, Ingrid was using her Gift of illusions on Sarah, who was staring at a painting like it was a television screen… even Alaric was promising Deanna that Clara could come to him if anything happened while she was in London.
I loved seeing the house so full of people, but it’s always at the big occasions like these that I get nostalgic, remembering the people we lost, and how far we’ve come.
It took me a long time to stop blaming myself for some of the things I did, but instead of dwelling on it, I now try to make up for it, by putting more good out into the world than I took away. It means a lot of late nights at the hospital, but it isn’t so bad when your husband is there with you. And Clara makes sure we take Sundays off to be there for a family dinner.
We missed a few last year, when Gabriel and I spent six months in Africa. Alaric’s charity sponsored a mission to build houses and provide medical aid, so Gabriel and I went as doctors, Caleb brought his muscles and I have a suspicion Etta came in case I needed emergency healing. Luckily, Kiara’s Curse was indeed lifted, and I made it to the ridiculous party everyone threw for my twenty-ninth birthday. Many people asked why we were going all out for a random, non-milestone birthday, but most of them understood.
“Where are you?” Gabriel asked me when he came over with a sizeable piece of cake and two forks, waking me from my daydream.
“I’m back,” I said with a smile, grabbing the fork and taking a bite.
“Want me to whisk you away from all the celebrating?” He offered after swallowing an abnormally large piece.
“I like it,” I assured him. “A wise old man once told me to celebrate everything.”
“Embry was right,” he smiled sadly at me. “But I’m not sure he would appreciate you calling him an old man.”
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting old. I happen to be married to a much older gentleman who is waiting for me to catch up.”
“Is that so?” he asked, putting the plate down to take me in his arms.
“I have my whole life ahead of me, and I plan on taking advantage of that with you,” I said, leaning in for a kiss. When we pulled apart, I looked into his eyes, his beautiful brown eyes, and brushed my fingers through his slightly graying sideburns.
“If you keep obsessing over my gray hairs, you’ll give me a complex,” he warned.
“You know I love watching you go gray. It reminds me that…”
“That we’re all going to die?” he finished for me.
“No, that we get to live. We aren’t surviving anymore, we’re settling down, having kids and families, then one day, in a very long time, we will die peacefully in our sleep of old age.”
“Sounds perfect,” he said, kissing me.
The End
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Lucy’s story may be over, but the Gifted adventures continue in First Life , the first book of The Gifted Chronicles…