A Shade of Vampire 84 A Memory of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,71
Petra not been such a monster, I would have sought a friendship with her. I knew there was plenty to learn from an Aeternae with her knowledge and experience.
“Ramus will be there. I’m certain of it,” Petra declared.
“And the other Whips?” Esme asked, unmoved by Petra’s deliberate animosity toward her. I admired her courage. It took guts to stay so calm around a powerful Aeternae with dangerous death magic skills who wanted you dead. Granted, Petra was bound, but some risk remained.
“Fennel Ferris is probably back home in one of his district’s poorer villages. If you have a map handy, I’ll point out the rest.”
“Which is Fennel’s district?” Esme asked. The more she spoke, the more irritable Petra became. And the longer I spent in their presence, the better I could feel the sheer hatred that the high priestess harbored toward the vampire she blamed for stealing her son. It was equal parts interesting and disturbing to watch. Little did Petra know that her demeanor toward Esme told me more than anything she could possibly say about her.
“Bring me a map,” Petra hissed.
The door opened, and Sofia appeared in the doorway. Her brow furrowed as she looked at Petra, then at me. “The boys are here.”
“Ah, finally!” Petra exclaimed, her face lighting up.
Sofia stepped aside, leaving room for Ansel, Tudyk, and Moore to pass. The Visentis boys didn’t appear happy to see their mother. Anger flared in their blue eyes. They were deeply hurt, and Petra’s presence wasn’t making anything better. Nevertheless, Sofia had given them the option to come here, and they’d all decided to take it.
Petra cried softly and tried to smile at her sons. “My darlings… I’ve missed you so much.”
“Where have you been?” Ansel asked, scowling at her.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m here now,” she replied.
Esme, Sofia, and I stood silently and watched the interaction unfold. Of the three boys, Ansel was the least excited to see his mother. He was closer to Kalon in that respect. Tudyk seemed to be somewhere in the middle—torn between resentment and longing. Moore had it the worst. Tears welled in his eyes, but he held back, staying close to his brothers. Petra tried to get them to come closer.
“Won’t you give your mother a hug?” she murmured, her eyes twinkling with a mixture of grief and affection. I doubted even Petra would fake those emotions. Despite her many faults, she was a dedicated mother, though even that had fallen under scrutiny lately. I’d heard her tell Danika she would give her shard to one of the boys so he could die in her place. Petra had insisted it was a lie from the beginning, but she was extremely untrustworthy. Everything she said was to be taken with a grain of salt. “Moore, my baby…”
“You lied to us,” the youngest boy said, unable to contain his emotions. His hands were balled into small fists, and he was shaking, tormented by the sight of her. “You lied to us, and now you want us to be happy to see you?”
“I did what I had to do to make sure my family survived,” Petra replied, swallowing back tears of her own. “I will never apologize for trying to protect you.”
“By making us Darklings? That was your way of protecting us? With lies and half-truths?” Ansel scoffed. “We know everything now, Mother. We know the truth about the Unending and what our forefathers did to her. What the Darklings are still doing to her.”
She sighed, lowering her head in a gesture of piety. “I always believed I was doing the right thing. I stand by my actions on the matter, but what Danika wants to do is… well, it’s too much. I had to draw a line.”
“She wants to bring back the Spirit Bender,” Tudyk said. “You don’t want that?”
“Not at the expense of my life. I can’t bear to leave this world, not while my children still need me. And I can do so much better,” Petra said. “If you’d just give me the chance to explain…”
“You lied to us our whole lives,” Ansel insisted, and I felt a surge of pride. He’d come a long way in a short amount of time. If Petra was seeking forgiveness, she’d come to the wrong people for it. “You poisoned our minds, just like Kalon said. You turned us into evil creatures. There’s no coming back from that. The things we did to serve you and the Darklings—Mother, it’s horrific.”