Staring down at the swirling, light blue liquid, Hortencia’s last words shrilled in my mind:
“When the road forks, your route will be clear. Either a destroyer or hero of realms you shall be.”
As the black mist thickened into a fog and began to glide toward me, it couldn’t have been clearer that this was my fork in the road. Once it reached me, the Elder would surround me just as it had done when I was a newborn. Only this time, it wouldn’t leave me.
As for my route… the oracle had said that there would be two.
But in my eyes, there was only one.
Forcing open the glass vial, I shut my eyes and thrust the opening to my lips. I filled my mouth with the elixir and took rapid gulp after gulp. It felt like acid on my tongue, burning down my throat as I swallowed.
A bloodcurdling scream emanated from the black fog and it gathered speed, but as I forced down the last of the liquid, the Elder was too late.
Chapter 31: Vivienne
Derek and Sofia still hadn’t returned. I knew how much it would mean to my brother to be here for the birth of my child. It saddened me to think that he’d likely miss it. Corrine was expecting my waters to break at any time. She’d been in and out of the room all day, and she was due to pay another visit within the next hour to check in on me.
As I rested in my and Xavier’s bed, I looked down at my large stomach, protruding beneath a cotton nightgown. Xavier leaned against the headboard next to me on the mattress, his arms around me, gently stroking my belly. Liana sat in a rocking chair on my right. No words could express the joy I’d felt to be reunited with my best friend again. Of course she’d been thrilled to see that I was expecting a baby. I could still hardly believe that she was here, returned with Cameron and her two beautiful children. And yet, as we talked that night, my mind kept drifting elsewhere.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that something on our island wasn’t… right. But at the same time I could not quite put a finger on what it was. I felt a deep sense of unrest, and my dreams had been strange of late. My brother Lucas kept recurring in them. Lucas had died almost twenty years ago. I rarely dreamt or even thought much about him these days. My older brother seemed like a lifetime away—and for the most part, that former life was one I wished to forget.
Then, as we had stood near the Port bidding farewell to Derek, Sofia and the rest before they embarked on their journey with the dragons, I could have sworn that I saw a long, bodiless shadow on the beach nearby. Standing. Watching. But then I’d blinked, and it was gone.
When Derek had asked me what was the matter, I’d shrugged it off as simply me being sensitive due to my pregnancy. And really, perhaps that was all that it was.
“Viv!” Liana gasped, shooting to her feet. She was staring down at the bedsheets. “Your water has broken.”
Xavier leapt up to examine them as I looked down. Liana was right.
“We need to go to Corrine!” Xavier exclaimed, his irises shimmering with excitement. He scooped me up in his arms and carried me out of the penthouse. Descending in the elevator and arriving on the forest ground, Xavier swept me along the tree-lined path.
Anticipation and nervousness filled me. As much as I’d learnt about childbirth since Xavier and I had conceived, there was just no way to fully prepare myself for the experience. I tightened my grip around my husband’s neck and pressed my lips against his jawline. At least I have my love by my side.
As we passed the Port on our way to the witch’s home, I caught a glimpse of the ocean and the hunters’ naval ships in the distance. I wasn’t sure whether it was just a product of my imagination, or of the frenzy my mind had gone into at the thought of meeting my child, but I could have sworn that I spied another long, dark shadow sweeping across the jetty. Then Xavier turned a corner, and my eyes were drawn away.
Whether or not I’d imagined it, I realized then that there was more to my urgency for Derek to return than just for him to meet his newborn niece or nephew.
I didn’t feel safe with my brother and the dragons gone.