Grace’s steps faltered, and she ground to a halt. Dawn shot me a concerned look, but I winked at her and waved the rest of the group past. “Hey, you guys go on up to the house and tell Gabe and Jasmine we’ll be there in a minute.”
Brandon slapped my shoulder as he passed and I nodded my reassurances. Grace still hadn’t moved from the spot where she had frozen. I threaded my fingers through hers and gave them a gentle squeeze.
“It seems like only yesterday that Aza opened the portal for Lizzie to go home, remember that?” The look in Grace’s eye cut through my core. I tipped my head and brushed a strand of hair off her forehead. “She was so happy—and her husband’s face.”
I felt as if a golf ball had lodged in my throat. “I remember, Gracie. It was amazing. And this is going to be fine too. It’s Jasmine’s choice, Grace. She wants to go with Gabe.”
“And what? Spend an eternity wandering from world to world hunting for Peter’s kind?” Grace’s cheeks flushed, making her even more beautiful as emotion danced across her skin. “They don’t need to leave to find battles to fight. There’s still plenty of unrest right here—bloody resistance fighters blowing up schools and colleges. Why can’t they stay and help Aza and the kids fight those bad guys instead?”
“They’re not kids anymore,” I said. Grace pursed her lips, and I saw a sudden likeness to Eve. I raised my hands. “Sorry. I concede. That point was irrelevant.”
“And unhelpful.” Grace let me pull her into my arms.
I smiled into her hair, savoring the warm smell of coconut shampoo and a sweet, intangible aroma that was just Grace. “And unhelpful. You’re right.”
Grace pressed her face into my chest, and I had to strain to hear her words. “I’m just so tired of losing people, Sam. Eli, Niamh, Jonah, Lizzie. Eve.” She lifted her face to meet my eye. “Emmanuel is working on the other side of the world, Lydia and Frank are so busy supporting the integration program for the victims of the Silent Homes that they couldn’t even be here. Megan and Pierre can only visit a couple of times a year. I just want everybody to stay right here, in Mayo, and come see me every day so I know they’re all right. Is that too much to ask?”
My heart flipped at the sight of her rueful smile. I slipped my fingers under the hem of her dress and stroked her soft skin. “No. That’s a perfectly reasonable request. They should all work at the school with you and Cat and Cain, and they should come and live with us at Hidden Cottage too. And when the baby comes, they should all take turns at breastfeeding it. Especially Luc. I think that’s why he’s been working on those pecs. He’s getting them ready for baby Evie.”
Grace’s mouth contorted and she made a retching sound. “Why? Why would you give me that mental image?”
A look of disgust crossed Grace’s face, and I grinned. “I see a line—I have to cross it. That’s just how it is.”
“I think you might need to see a psychologist. There’ something very sick about the way your mind works,” Grace said.
“Yeah, you know any good shrinks I can see?” I pulled her closer to me, careful not to put pressure on her bump. “I’ve heard the school psych at Shadow Hall is pretty hot, any chance I could make an appointment with her?”
Grace wrinkled her nose at me. “Sorry, I think she pretty much booked up with her infuriatingly gorgeous husband and her reckless niece.”
“Speaking of whom . . .” I tilted my head in the direction of the house. The entire group had gathered with Jasmine and Gabriel beside Aza’s portal, and Dawn was standing at the edge of the lawn and waving for us to hurry up.
“I hate that the responsibility of this new world has fallen on the kids.” Grace’s voice was so quiet that a gust of wind would have stolen the words from my ears. She laid her palms against her belly. “Ozzie, Valerie, Zach, baby Evie, Dawn—especially Dawn. Her gift makes people expect so much from her. Maybe if there was another Seer . . . I feel like this whole new era is resting on her shoulders. And there’s not enough of us left to protect the kids if something goes wrong.”
My throat ached as I searched for the right words, knowing that images of Eve were running through her mind. I kissed her cheeks, and salty tears coated my lips. Grace wound her arms around my neck, and I leaned back to look into her eyes. “This is the life Dawn was meant to live. Niamh showed you in her vision, and Eve was right about choosing her name well. This isn’t the world you and I were born into. The Veil is gone. There’s magic in every city. It’s going to take people time to adjust, maybe longer than we hoped, but it’s a whole new world out there.”
Grace ran her fingertip over my dimples as I spoke and I was struck by a wave of emotion so intense that it almost knocked me off my feet. I had lived this moment before, a thousand times. Once, it had been the nightmare that haunted me when I thought I would not live to see it come to pass, and now, it was the hope I tucked inside the deepest crevice in my soul.
I struggled to control my breathing as Grace ran her nails down my neck and over my chest. She trailed her fingertips down my arm and threaded her fingers through mine, leading me down the slope and toward where our friends waited.
Grace’s words floated on the breeze and brushed against my lips. “You’re right, Sam. It’s a brand new day for our world.” Her hand stroked her belly, and her eyes fixed on her niece who was spinning her katana sword through the air. “And she is the dawn.”
The End
***
Thank you so much for reading The Demon-Born Trilogy, I really hoped you enjoyed Grace’s story. If you did, please leave a review to let me know—your reviews mean the world to me.
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Also by L.C. Hibbett:
Wicked Witch (A Prequel to the Wicked Witches Series-Free if you click on this link)
Also by L.C. Hibbett…
Beauty’s Beasts
Beauty is a beast.
Since Izzy was discharged from active duty, her life has fallen apart. She's lost almost everything she cared about; her research, her friends, her mom. So when one of the local mobs takes her father captive, she'll stop at nothing to free him, even if that means taking on the mysterious men of Blackwood Forest single-handed.
But when Izzy enters the lair of the beasts, she discovers Alexander Blackwood and his men aren't what she expected and for the first time since she got home, Izzy can feel the blood pumping in her veins.
The new men in her life are hiding something from her, and Izzy won't rest until she strips Blackwood and his men bare!
Wicked Destiny
Trouble.
That's how everybody described Destiny O'Neill. Trouble wrapped up in a smart-assed bow. The first black witch born to the Celtic gods in a thousand years, Destiny's tongue was as poisonous as her magic and her parties were the stuff of legend. Until two stripes on a pregnancy test changed everything.
Now all Destiny wants is a normal life. She wants to pass her exams, graduate university, and look after the only people that matter in her life--her daughter and her aunt. She doesn't want to hear about the magical police division or how much her skills could help them. And she's sorry about those missing kids on the news but it's not her problem.
All Destiny needs to do is get past her twenty-first birthday without using her powers, and she will be approved to join the ranks of the free witches and escape The Family, for once and for all.
No problem. Until the boy with the blue eyes crosses her path again . . .
Fans of bad-ass witches, intriguing warlocks, paranormal detectives, and fast-paced action will loved this mesmerizing new paranormal fantasy series from L.C. Hibbett.
*Wicked Destiny is a full-length novel. The Wicked Witches series is an Urban Fantasy Paranormal Mystery series set in the same as Beauty’s Beasts and the other Poison Courts Novels.*
Acknowledgements
This book
exists only by the grace of my two families, the family that created me, and the family I created. I owe my parents and my siblings more thanks than there are stars in the sky. Valerie, Seamus, Shane, and Niamh—thank you for filling my life with madness and joy. To the friends and in-laws who cheered me on from the sidelines, thank you. LCizzle is alive!
To my readers, thank you for taking a chance on my fledgling book. I hope that you enjoyed my story, despite its fragile state. Though I love it, I know this book will be my worst, because the best is yet to come.
Final thanks must go to my incorrigible husband, and my two wild and wonderful daughters. Without you, this book would have been written far quicker and with far better execution, but with not nearly as much heart. I love you all to the moon and back.
The Demon-Born Trilogy: (Complete Paranormal Fantasy Series) Page 68
