A Shade of Vampire 77 A Fate of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,98

felt upon seeing him alive again. They were bound to tell me all about it soon enough, anyway.

“Oh, it’s so good to have you back, my son,” he whispered in my ear. “I had all the faith in you. Deep down, I knew you’d somehow pull through.”

“Dad… I’m just happy you’re alive again,” I said. “For a moment, I thought I’d never see you again…”

“Tae, my baby!” my mother said as she put her arms around us both, tears tumbling down her cheeks. “You’re a bloody hero!”

Shaking my head, I chuckled. “I’m not a hero, Mom. I wasn’t on my own out there. We all fought hard to get here.”

“Speaking of, join us, missy!” my father exclaimed. His arm shot out and brought Eira into the fold. It made her laugh, but she didn’t fight it. The four of us hugged, thankful to be alive and near each other again, our circumstances infinitely different and better than the last time we’d seen each other out here.

“Death came through, Dad,” I said. “She brought you back.”

“At what cost?” my mother asked, pulling back with a frown. Her concern was so sweet and endearing, I couldn’t even roll my eyes over it, like I normally would’ve. She wiped her tears, ready to tear me a new one in case I’d gotten myself indebted to Death or anyone else. She’d always been adamant about not making deals with a bigger devil in order to defeat a smaller one, so to speak. Of course, we’d not known the Hermessi could be so evil when we’d initiated the Blackout.

“Nothing, Mom. She owed us. She said so herself,” I replied. “It’s over. We’re good. We’ll be okay.”

She pointed at Thieron, which was strapped to my thigh. “While I’m happy to hear that, what is that thing still doing on you?”

“Ah… Kind of a long story.” I sighed, offering an awkward smile. “I promise, it’s nothing bad.”

“Then explain,” she shot back.

“He’s keeping it for Death until she’s free,” Eira interjected, slightly alarmed by how this conversation had descended from joy to all kinds of motherly suspicions.

“Wait, what?!” My mother gasped, her eyes huge and golden. Her reaction made my father laugh. He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close, pressing his lips against her temple for a hot second.

“Nuriya, my love, relax. If our son says it’s okay, we have to trust him,” he replied.

“Yeah, but Thieron—”

“Honey, he just saved us from destruction,” my father interrupted her. “Cut the kid some slack. Go back to being his mom tomorrow, if you really want to reprimand him. Let’s just take this moment in, for now.”

As if suddenly reminded of where we were, my mother softened before my very eyes, a warm smile stretching across her face. It felt incredible to see her like this again. Less than an hour ago, she’d been grieving my father and worried sick about me and the rest of the world. It couldn’t have been easy for her to bounce back to this state.

It was in our most primal nature to stay on the defensive until all peril passed—often, we remained on edge even after it was gone. But our troubles were over. The cut on my back had already healed, thanks to Kelara’s scythe touch, shortly before we’d left her with Death, Nightmare, and Dream.

“What will you do next, Eira?” my mother asked.

Eira shrugged. “I’m not sure. I suppose I should head back to Cerix at some point.”

“You’d leave us?” my father replied, sounding downright offended.

“I… I don’t want to,” Eira conceded, giving me an apologetic look. “I’m just not sure where my place is. Where I belong.”

“Well, technically speaking, you’re both Cerixian and a Hermessi child of that world,” I said. “But you’re also a pretty big part of my life, and I’m sure you’ll be given an honorary GASP member title, too. Your contribution to our victory is undeniable. We wouldn’t have made it without you.”

“That’s my son’s way of saying he loves you and he doesn’t want you to go away,” my mother said, much to my horror. I gawked at her for a moment, wondering what had set her loose. She gave me a wink in return, as if that would fix it.

Eira, however, didn’t seem at all surprised. “Yeah, I kind of figured that one out already,” she replied, a smile fluttering across her lips. “I suppose I could stick around for a little while longer. I mean, my father, whom I might not