A Shade of Vampire 77 A Fate of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,16

start from up there. Otherwise, what was the point of that whole display?

River's suggestion to have all GASP officers evacuate into The Shade had spread quickly after she'd first voiced it. Less than an hour after her voice had come through the comms line and Derek and Sofia had approved, most of our Neraka-based officers were already moving back into The Shade.

It broke me into little pieces to have to do this, but both Caspian and I had agreed that Earth needed our protection in case the ritual was completed. There was nothing left for us to do here, other than wait for our own demise. I'd almost begged Pheng-Pheng to come with us, but she'd chosen to stay with her mother and Manticore siblings. "If Neraka dies tomorrow, we'll die with it. I doubt the Earth will stand a better chance," she'd said, bitterness tinting her voice.

I understood her. The decision made sense, though I loathed the mere thought of losing her and every other Nerakian to the Hermessi. Yet we were here, saying goodbye to our GASP base, as the last of our lieutenants made their way to the portal.

Zane and Fiona were present, with little Sophia cradled in her mother's arms, sleeping soundly, as if everything was fine and peachy in the world. For a moment, I wished I was a kid again—my world as tiny and as precious as hers, with no fear for my safety, thanks to my parents.

"You haven't packed anything," I said, noticing that, unlike most of Neraka's GASP officers, Zane and Fiona had come along with nothing but the clothes on their backs. My stomach churned, likely because somewhere, deep in my mind, I already knew what they were going to say.

"We're not coming," Zane replied, his red eyes darkened to the shade of sour cherries. "I'm staying here, with my people. I've led them until now. I cannot bring myself to leave. But maybe you can convince my beloved wife here not to join me, for the sake of her and our daughter."

I was surprised I hadn't noticed it before, but Fiona's eyes were all puffy. I'd been so busy overseeing the evacuation procedures that I'd paid little to no attention to everything else around me. Fiona had been crying.

"Fi… are you serious?" I asked, my voice barely audible.

"What about Sophia?" Caspian added, genuinely alarmed.

"Please, Fiona, for the millionth time, I beg you: go with them," Zane said to her.

She wouldn't budge, shaking her head with all the stubbornness she'd inherited from multiple generations of absolute fighters. Fiona wasn't famous for changing her mind. My heart was bleeding already.

"I can't," she replied, looking at Zane with glassy eyes. "I can't leave you. I'm sorry. No matter how many times we talk about it, you won't convince me to leave you. No one can."

"Fi… Please…" I managed, and she shot me a desperate glare in return.

"Harper, I can't. My soul is bound to Zane's. I love him. We fought through the worst together. Our marriage was forged in fire… I've tried. Don't think I haven't tried to pull myself away from this. I… I can't."

"Zane, you can both come with us," Caspian said in an attempt to bring them along, part of him unable to cope with the fact that we were losing two of our dearest friends to this blasted ritual. "The Shade and Earth will need all the help they can get. Maybe Taeral will find Death in the meantime and stop this. When he does, you can come back like nothing happened."

Zane chuckled softly. "I'm fond of you, too, Caspian. But you know I would never abandon my people, not even in their darkest hour. I freed them from my father's delusional and hellish reign. I can't."

I'd heard "I can't" too many times, already. Whenever Fiona or Zane said it, something cut through my very soul, making it difficult to even stand, let alone focus. I did understand why Fiona couldn't bring herself to leave Zane here on his own. Love was a powerful thing—and Caspian and I were both more aware of that than anyone else. But Fiona still had baby Sophia. Her daughter.

"What about her?" I asked, looking at the dormant little angel swaddled in delicate white linens, her round cheeks flushed with tiny roses.

Fiona's gaze found me, and there was so much grief, I had to grip Caspian's arm to keep myself upright, without even registering the two people who'd just come through the portal. "I've