A Shade of Vampire 84 A Memory of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,96

now, because the new cycle has only just begun.”

The little girl had a hard time reconciling this suspicion of theirs with who she was. She didn’t feel like the Unending, and she wasn’t sure how that even worked. There were times when she lost herself, when she didn’t remember what she’d done and where she’d been. Could that be what had them so worried?

“You’re right,” the father said. “But we’ll need to seek a personal audience with her, which is difficult these days, especially with the Darkling resurgence. We’re nowhere near another Black Fever outbreak for now, but if Maira begins manifesting more of that darkness, someone will certainly fall ill. If anyone puts two and two together and starts suspecting Maira…”

The little girl’s name was Maira. Maira Razelyon. Her parents were Issa and Georgios Razelyon. By blood, they were Mira and Kemi’s second cousins, and their families’ close relations had led to the little girl being given a name inspired by the Lady Supreme’s own.

Walking away from the door, she went into her room and stopped in front of the mirror. She might have been named in honor of Mira Nasani, but she was nothing like her. Her hair was long and curly, the color of black ink. Her skin was pale, and her eyes were a blue so dark, they appeared almost black. At moments like these, she felt as though she looked more like the Unending.

She wondered how much truth there was in her parents’ suspicions. She remembered moments when she’d felt the sudden cold darkness rush through her, as if she’d just dipped her toes in ice water. At night, she was never really alone. As soon as she put her head down on the pillow, she’d sense the embrace of someone or something filling her with yearning and a sense of familiarity, as if she’d spent her short life missing out on certain parts of herself. It was difficult for her to understand her own nature, but she tried not to give it too much thought.

Her mother had taught her that there was more to life. That she should enjoy the sunlight and the wind, the perfume of flowers and the color of the sky. She should feel the rain on her face, the ocean lapping at her feet, the snow melting in her hands. There were wonderful things, and there were curious things—scary and sad things, too, and they all came with life. Her lessons were why she didn’t keep her mind occupied with her strangeness for long.

She looked at her own reflection for a while. Her nanny had chosen a champagne-colored dress with gold thread embroidery and tulle sleeves. She’d put ribbons in the girl’s hair and a gold pendant on a delicate chain around her neck. For a moment, she didn’t feel like herself anymore. I didn’t feel like myself, either. It felt strange, but there was the faint anticipation of something else coming...

Deep down, I felt sorry for her. She was going to die someday—maybe soon or maybe in ten thousand years or so, like the others. The cycle would be reset. It had already happened. Maira just didn’t know it. Gradually, her image started to change. She grew taller. Older. She wasn’t Maira in the mirror anymore.

The fabric of her dress shifted, losing its color and sparkle. It became white, the purest white I had ever seen, tightly sewn around her bosom and flowing freely down to the floor in translucent layers. Her hourglass figure was faintly visible beneath. Her hair had grown long and straight, each thread made of luscious black silk. Her face… oh, her face was beyond beautiful. Her eyes pierced my soul, hiding countless galaxies and solar systems within them, each twinkling in a myriad of colors. Her lips were blood red and full, capturing a drop of sunlight with a mesmerizing glint.

This wasn’t Maira anymore. It was her. The Unending, and Maira was suddenly terrified and confused. She didn’t understand what was happening, but she didn’t move away from the mirror, either. The woman in the reflection was the Unending, and she held out her hands. Black leather covered her slim and delicate fingers. Each movement was graceful, almost an impression rather than a physical act.

“Maira… you must remember,” the Unending said.

The girl stood frozen in place, staring at her strange reflection.

“You must remember who you are. They’ve done us harm. They’ve trapped and tortured us. If you don’t remember, they will do it again, and each time you wake up, it will become harder to remember.”

“Unending,” Maira murmured. “You’re the Unending.”

“I am you, my darling child. And you are me. Please, remember!”

I felt her agony. Her desperation. I felt it all as though it were mine. But there were other feelings growing inside me, of different intensities. Curiosity. Hopefulness. Love. So much love, I realized, at the sight of this incredible entity. Finally, I was seeing the Unending for who she really was. Her true face, with snow-white skin and cherry lips and dark hair and troubling eyes…

I had fallen in love with Valaine, yes. But I had also fallen in love with the Unending, long before I’d ever set eyes on her. She stood before me now, her reflection rippling in the mirror as she implored the little girl to remember, and I made myself a promise.

A promise that I would stop at nothing until she came back. Until she was free.

“You must remember,” Unending said.

“I’ll help you remember,” I told her, though I wasn’t sure she heard me. After all, I wasn’t really there. This moment had already happened, millions of years ago. This was the past, and it couldn’t be changed.

But then Unending smiled softly. “Tristan, my love…”

My heart stopped. She’d definitely heard me. The Unending had heard me.

“Help me remember,” she said. “Stay with me. Take my hand and help me remember.”

She reached out, her fingers pressing on the other side of the mirror. I touched the cold surface through Maira’s little hand. I wasn’t sure what would happen. Suddenly, everything shifted. The room vanished, Maira included, and all that was left in the middle of the nothingness was the Unending and me, touching each other’s hands.

Power surged through me. Power unlike anything I’d felt before.

“We finally meet face-to-face,” I whispered, my heart swelling.

Unending gave me a faint nod. “I thought this day might never come…”

Her voice echoed through me. I’d made it. I’d found her, and she had found me. Outside, the world was falling apart. The Darklings had caused enough death and suffering to earn themselves eternal damnation. Innocent people had been dying. Reapers had been tortured and forced into forsaking themselves. The universe as we knew it had come to an end a couple of times already.

But in here, it was quiet and peaceful. Just me and the Unending.

I’d made a promise, and I intended to keep it. The next time I went back to the surface, back to the real world, I would do it holding the Unending’s hand. It was time for her to return.

The universe needed her.