I looked into his brown eyes with a wide grin, wondering if he had forgotten that it hadn’t been all that long ago when he had been in Tejus’s shoes—under the scrutiny of my father.
He seemed to catch on to my train of thought as he cracked a small, reluctant smile. “I know… I’m finally showing my years.”
Chuckling, I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “She’ll always be your little girl,” I whispered. “Just like I’ll always be my dad’s.”
He sighed again and averted his gaze toward Hazel and Tejus, a sense of brokenness still suffused in his expression. “I know we were never going to be able to protect her forever,” he muttered. “I suppose a part of me just hoped our children would remain in The Shade, experiencing more peace than we ever did.”
I squeezed my husband’s hand as I joined him in gazing at our daughter. I had hoped for the same… just like my parents had for Ben and me.
You would have thought us Novaks would have learned our lesson by now.
Hoping for normality in the life that we Shadians lived was like hoping for dryness in the rain.
Normal wasn’t what we were, and it wasn’t what we’d ever be.
We lived in the line of fire, and, even with all the anxiety that came with it, I knew we would never have it any other way. Caleb and I had to accept that and be proud to see our children following in our footsteps, even if it was difficult. Their lives wouldn’t be easy, but they would be rewarding.
I cleared my throat, tugging gently on Caleb’s sleeve, coaxing his eyes away from our daughter and back to me.
“That’s enough moping for now, Mr. Achilles,” I said. “Let’s go and get the other human children ready.”
His face was the picture of reluctance, but he nodded. “Okay, dear.”
I smirked, catching his hand and leading him toward the opposite end of the hallway where the kids had been sleeping. Jenney had been watching over them—another sentry who had gone out of her way to make sure my children were well-fed and provided for. Another inhabitant of Nevertide I was grateful for.
Despite my initial reservations, it made me think that perhaps this land truly was worth saving.
Benedict
“I’m taking the crossbow,” I said to no-one in particular. “I think it’s lucky. If they actually let us join the battle this time, I’m going to kick ass.”
“Well, yeah, now it’s been magicked with the immortal water, of course it is,” replied Julian, in the most sarcastic voice he could manage. It didn’t bother me—I knew it was because he was nervous. I wasn’t going to take it personally.
“Are you thinking of taking anything else besides a sword?” I asked.
“Daggers. I found them in the armory—have you been there yet? It’s pretty cool.”
No!
“Why didn’t you tell me there was an armory?” I yelled.
Julian shrugged. “You seemed so pleased with your crossbow.”
I turned away in a huff and saw Yelena sitting on the bay of a window, watching us with a scowl on her face.
“What’s up with you?” I asked.
“Jenney just told me that all the humans are going to be staying behind. Again. I bet they let you go just because you’ve got vampire parents—it’s not fair. It’s not like you’re vampires.”
“Yeah, but we will be,” I pointed out, “and we probably have latent fighting skills like theirs.”
She scoffed, rolling her eyes in disbelief. I thought that was a possibility—how could we not be badass when we had such badass parents? Yelena’s parents were probably school teachers or something. Maybe even dentists.
“What do your parents do?” I asked, wondering why Yelena had never really talked about them much.
She mumbled something I couldn’t quite catch.
“What?”
“I said, they’re accountants.”
I hid a smile. I had been close.
“Don’t laugh!”
“I’m not,” I protested. “It’s just that it’s very different from my parents. That’s all.”
“You’re such an idiot sometimes,” she sighed, turning her face out to the window and ignoring me. I could see her cheeks starting to flush red, and I felt guilty. It wasn’t her fault her parents had boring jobs.
“Do you miss them?” I asked.
She carried on looking out of the window, and I thought she wasn’t going to reply, but after a while she did.
“Sometimes. I don’t know. We never spent much time together as a family anyway. They like computers, a lot. And I’m too noisy.”
“Well,” I replied, feeling generous, “maybe when we get back to Earth you can come and stay in The Shade sometimes, with us. Like on vacation or something.”