Bound by Secrets

by Angela M Hudson

  “And you’d leave Morgana to help me?”

  Drake laughed as though that was an utterly ridiculous question. “Of course, Amara.”

  She smiled, nodding to herself.

  “Come then.” He tucked her arm under his and started walking. “We have very little time to waste.”

  * * *

  The journey home by helicopter and then private jet could take anywhere up to twenty-five hours, give or take. I spent the entire flight doing the math, calculating the wind speeds and trying to determine if we’d make it on time. We made it there safely within twenty-two hours, but yet it may not have been enough. Ara could bring a leaf back to life after two weeks, but something with a soul needed to be brought back before the soul crossed over, which gave us less than twenty-four hours. She could fail terribly at this and it would leave her dead inside for the rest of her days. Drake should not have put this on her. And who was to say Mike would even let her try? Not everyone agreed with necromancy.

  “Ara.” I gripped her hand firmly, waking her from a deep stare out the car window. Her eyes were drawn with exhaustion, her upper lip moist in the scorching December sun, since the cheap-ass taxi driver took us the long way around to the hospital in his shitty car with a broken air-conditioner. “Stop worrying. Everything will be fine.”

  “Why hasn’t he called?” She looked at her phone again. “It’s been twenty-two hours and… nothing.”

  “He might be busy. If the baby survived, he might just be with—” I stopped short when the phone rang, seeing Mike’s name on the screen. I didn’t want her to answer it; whatever he said on the other end of that line held the power to completely break Ara. She would never forgive herself for not being here. She would never forgive herself for having another child when they lost theirs.

  Ara didn’t hesitate to answer, her hands shaking as she lifted the phone to her ear. “Mike!”

  A silent second passed.

  “Oh my God!” she squeaked, folding over and sobbing into her knees.

  I tried to pry the phone from her hand, but she wouldn’t let me, shaking her head as she sobbed.

  “Ara?” I heard Mike say. “Ara?”

  “I’m here,” she said, composing herself as she sat up again. “Why didn’t you call?”

  “Look at your messages.”

  She frowned, drawing the phone down from her ear to thumb through the messages. And there, only just coming through after the phone was on airplane mode, was a dozen or so messages from Mike. She opened them quickly and covered her mouth. I leaned in and my body reacted the same way as hers when I saw a picture of a deeply overcome Mike with a very pink but very alive baby girl in his arms.

  “I was so worried,” she said.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call,” Mike said. I pressed my ear to the other side of the phone to listen in. “I’ve been with the baby in neonatal. Em’s still not awake.”

  “Is she okay?” Ara asked.

  “She’ll be fine. She’s just exhausted and on a lot of meds.”

  Ara nodded. “We’re on our way. We’ll be at the hospital in five minutes.”

  “We’re on the second floor—maternity ward.”

  “Okay. Should I grab Harry on the way? I bet he’s worried.”

  “We called him—told him the news. He’s okay. He’s at Zac’s.”

  “Where’s Vicki?”

  “She was up here with me, but she’s just headed home for a shower and some clean clothes for me.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you soon then, Mike. And congratulations.”

  “Thanks,” he said softly, the hours of wear on his soul coming out through his voice.

  Ara hung up the phone and we all looked at her, even the taxi driver.

  “Relieved?” Drake said, releasing his smile.

  “Very.”

  61

  Ara

  The squeaky scuff of nurse’s shoes on linoleum floors sounded familiar. I’d never been in a hospital in this life, but I sort of remembered it all as if I had: the clinical smell and the sharp light that seemed to strain the eye; the feel of death and lingering sadness mixed with hope and suffering. It wasn’t a very nice place, and yet, as we passed certain rooms and I sucked in the energy around me, I got the sense that, in some cases, it was the most wonderful place in the world.

  “So how do you feel?” David asked, catching up to take my hand. I’d almost forgotten he was here.

  “I…” I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t even sure why he asked that.

  “You must be happy about Drake coming with you,” he offered. “I know it hurt you that he was wedged so deep up Morgana’s ass—”

  I laughed. “Yeah, but I do get it.”

  “And it still hurt.”

  “I’m okay,” I assured him. “Coming to my rescue in the forest pretty much cancels everything else out.”

  David smiled, both of us stopping outside room 22. I was hesitant to go in, unsure what I’d find in there, even though I knew Mike and baby were okay. Something about it all had me spooked, as though he came so much closer to tragedy than any of us realized, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on the bigger picture going on here.

  David pushed on the large white door, despite the privacy sign, and it opened to reveal a hulk of a man in a stiff-looking chair, curled around a tiny bundle of blankets. He smiled when he saw me, rolling his elbow out a little to give me a look at the precious little head.

  “Oh Mike,” was all I could say, choked up on emotion. He looked wrecked. His skin was kind of red under the weird hospital lighting, and he had blue puffy circles under his eyes that I’d never seen on him before—the same kind I got when I cried a lot. His sandy hair was darker now with an oily sheen, and he had blood on his shirt—obviously the same shirt he was wearing when he brought Em in. I felt bad then that we hadn’t been here to help him.

  David reached down and shook Mike’s hand, while I knelt on the ground beside him and touched a fingertip to the baby’s hand. It was curled tight, allowing no one in, so I just kissed it instead.

  “She’s so precious, Mike.”

  He nodded, yawning. “That she is.”

  “And, how are you?” I asked, looking up at him, even though it was obvious. He was worn down by it all, and even though it had all turned out okay, I could tell he wanted to cry. I think David could too, because he backed away and said he’d go call Drake and tell him to bring Mike’s shirt up for him if Vicki was going to be much longer.

  “Why, where’s Drake now?” Mike asked.

  “Gone to drop the luggage off and bring back the car.”

  “Okay.” Mike nodded. “He’ll probably beat Vicki back here then.”

  “Yep. That woman could use up the river Nile with the length of her showers.” David laughed.

  Alone, as the door closed, our eyes met. It took a moment, but as the trauma of the days passed set in, his chin crinkled. “It’s been tough, Ar.”

  I rubbed his knee. “I know. And how’s Em?”

  “Ah, she’s stable. Still sleeping,” he said.

  Even though I knew she wasn’t there, I still looked over at the empty bed.

  “She’s in ICU.”

  “Why?”

  “Just a precaution, apparently,” he told me. “After what she went through. They’re moving her back down here as soon as she wakes up.”

  “When will that be?”

  “They don’t know,” he said, his voice shaky. “Uh… she…” He took a deep breath, looking off to the side to clear his eyes. “There’s no reason for her to be asleep now. They actually don’t know why she hasn’t woken up.”

  Oh. Shit. Maybe it was Em we should’ve been worried about all this time. I stood up. “I’ll go check on her.”

  “Ara.” He snagged my hand as I turned away. “You can help her.”

  “I…” I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

  “You can heal,” he said. “You can bring things back to life and you can heal them too.”
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  I nodded.

  “And if you can’t…”

  I squatted down, leaning over his baby to hug him. “I’ll bite her if I can’t heal her. She’ll cope with the change to a Lilithian in that state easier than she will a vampire.”

  He nodded, his cheeks wet. “Thank you.”

  I kissed his head as I stood up. “You don’t have to thank me.”

  * * *

  I sat with my hand on Emily’s head, trying to reach her. I knew if David was still Vampire, or if Jason were here, he could reach her in that hollow room. Her body was healing, I could feel it, so I didn’t want to interfere with nature just yet, but there was nothing to explain why her mind hadn’t surfaced. I mean, her soul was intact. So what was going on?

  “Em?” I tried, figuring that, while her body and soul might be okay, maybe the problem was within her heart. “Em, I don’t know if anyone told you this, but your baby is fine.”

  I waited, smiling, expecting her to wake up in that moment. But the monitor keeping track of her heart didn’t change and the room stayed dead with silence.

  “And I have a surprise for you. Not only is your beautiful little girl waiting out there for you, so is Mike. But a different Mike,” I added, squeezing her hand. “Em,” I whispered, right into her ear. “I broke the curse. He’s all yours now.”

  My arms tightened with frosty bumps then as she squeezed my hand. Excited, I tried again.

  “Em, did you hear me? I broke the curse…”

  “What?” she said in a groggy, barely-there voice.

  “Mike’s free, Em.”

  “Where…?” Her eyes inched open, shutting when the light hit them. I reached up behind her bed and flicked it off. “Where am I?”

  “You’re in hospital.”

  “Why? What are you doing back?”

  “Your baby—you had the baby,” I said quickly before she could remember what led to that. “She’s perfect. She’s with Mike.”

  “She’s okay?” she said, the monitor picking up.

  “Perfectly fine.”

  Emily breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing back, and closed her eyes again, the monitor slowing as she fell asleep.

  I sat down, staying by her side until Mike eventually popped his head in an hour later, his hair brushed, a clean shirt on.

  “You’re still here?” he said.

  “Yeah, sorry. No phones in here.” I showed him my phone. “She kinda held onto my hand and hasn’t let go. I figured you’d find me eventually.”

  Mike smiled affectionately at her, the obvious pain of all she went through crossing his face with pity. “You shoulda seen her, Ar. She was so strong. So brave.” He sat down on her other side and took her hand, kissing it. “I’ve never seen anyone so brave. When they told us the baby was… she… I was a wreck. I couldn’t stop sobbing, but she just nodded to herself, took it on like something she just had to do, you know? And she got me through it. How does she do that?”

  I smiled. “That’s the power of women. They’re tough.”

  He nodded. “I always knew that, but I never fully understood it until I saw her suffer through contractions to deliver what we thought, at the time, was going to be a… a stillborn.” He rubbed his face, shaking his head.

  A moment of reflection passed this room then and I sat looking at him looking at her. It was obvious. We hadn’t told him yet, so he wouldn’t be aware that what he felt right now was pure love for her, no longer tainted by the curse. It occurred to me then that he would never have loved anyone with all of his heart. It must have been a supreme and unimaginable feeling.

  “Hey, Mike?” I said, waiting for him to look at me.

  “Yo?”

  “We did it.”

  “Did what?”

  I waited, smiling. “We cured the curse.”

  It clicked then. I saw it—saw him touch his chest in response to a feeling he’d obviously had earlier. “So that’s what that was.”

  I nodded.

  Mike looked at Em, smiling. “I was worried, you know.”

  “About?”

  “That maybe I wouldn’t love her without the curse.” Emily seemed to smile as he gently brushed her hair back, loving eyes touching every inch of her face. “I thought maybe I held onto our relationship because I was fighting the love I had for you, but…”

  “But you love her just the same?” I asked expectantly.

  “No.” He stood up and leaned over to kiss her. “I love her more now. And maybe that’s because I just saw her step into shoes no woman could ever fill, or maybe it’s because the curse is gone, but I think it’s both.”

  I nodded, standing up when I saw David peek into the room. “I’ll leave you to have some time with her then.”

  “Ar?” he said, reaching for my hand.

  I walked around the bed and took it.

  “Thanks,” he said, kissing my knuckles. “For the first time in my life, I don’t love you the wrong way. So… thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” I smiled. “I’ve never been so happy to hear someone say they don’t love me.”

  * * *

  There was a moment to breathe. As we headed home, my father driving, me in the back and David in the front, I finally took that moment to clarify a few things with myself. Mike was free from my curse. His baby was alive and well. That was the first thing I needed to tell my brain. It was still stuck in panic mode, trying to get to the hospital. I wasn’t sure I’d sleep tonight because of it.

  The other thing my brain needed to know was that David was cured too. He still loved me. And he was human. I guess I thought for so long, no, worried for so long, that I might lose him once the bind of that curse was gone, and my brain still hadn’t let it sink in that he wasn’t going anywhere. Ever.

  Now, with all of that out of the way, I was so glad to finally be back home again, and I couldn’t wait to see Harry. I couldn’t wait to see Cal and tell him he is David’s cousin. I wanted to feel that joy the way the old Ara would have, but I only felt it the way this new one did—the one that never really knew Arthur but was so happy Cal would finally have family that accepted him. Also happy that David wouldn’t kill Cal or try to catapult him from my life.

  When we pulled up in the driveway, David got out and opened my door before I was finished with all the thinking.

  “What are we doing here?” I said. “I thought we were picking up Harry?”

  “We are,” he said, helping me out. “But Zac’s parents don’t know you exist, and I don’t want Harry having to hold off on hugging you for their sakes.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, giving him a gentle hug before walking toward the path. “Are you going too?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. See ya soon then.” I backed away, waving as they took off. But I didn’t go inside. I was desperate to see Harry. I missed him so much while we were away. Getting home to him was always in the back of my mind. So instead of going in for a shower, I stepped up onto the porch and sat on the swing, waiting.

  It took nearly half an hour before the car pulled up again, but it felt like an hour. I could see his small silhouette in the darkness of the backseat, moving quickly to push the door open.

  “Hi, Harry!”

  “Mom!” He jumped out and slammed the door, darting for me.

  I ran down the steps and squatted with my arms out, so ready to just wrap him up and kiss his little forehead all over. But as he passed under the light from the porch—reaching out onto the path like a gentle reminder—I saw his face, standing up slowly then with a sick, dizzy feeling.

  “The face of the sun will be the light upon your shadows.” The voice echoed in my head like a spell, making the world spin, but as the words ran through me, heard before but not understood, they came at me with different meaning: the face of the ‘son’.

  I looked at Harry, dread crossing my features as his excited run slowed to a walk.

  It felt as if a camera just zoomed right in on me then, before rushing back
out again and filming from a distance, taking me in slowly as it circled. I stood here, the same person I was twenty years ago and the same person I was twenty seconds ago, but different. My mind whirled as it reflected on all the choices I’d made since I woke, but it did so with the wonder and maturity of my old mind, seeing myself then as two people for a moment before I suddenly became one, that panning camera coming full circle, and then it stopped.

  “Ara!” David put his hand down hard on my shoulder.

  Like riding a roller coaster and coming to an abrupt halt, my head spun. I looked at his face, recognizing it in a different way for the first time. My David. Green eyes, strong jaw, almost invisible dimple in the chin. All the things he’d done to me, for me, in spite of me. He’d changed, and it hurt me to think of the man I left behind that day before I went to those tombs. It hurt me to see him humbled and altered beyond recognition. I hated that he was human right now as much as I loved it, and I wanted to choke him almost as much as I wanted to hold him. I felt like I’d missed him, even though I hadn’t really gone anywhere all this time.

  My heart and mind moved away from him then to the eyes of my son. I got down on one knee and drew him closer, gaze flicking over every inch of his face and noting each tiny little change. Almost two years. So much time had passed, and my baby boy wasn’t a baby anymore. He’d turned eight while my mind was away, and the new mind I’d walked with at the time hadn’t even been there to see it. I’d lost so much and yet, here I was, standing on the other side of the nightmare in that tomb, having gained everything back. And more.

  I looked down, touching a hand to the delicate life growing within me. A girl, I realized, looking up at David. We were having another little girl.

  And Morgana killed the child I carried before.

  The moment of rage and heartache passed quickly then, and I stood up, wriggling my toes in these shoes that weren’t mine but, strangely, were. Hearing the road and the birds and the concerned voices of my family, talking at me through ears that hadn’t recognized them in so long, but now did. Breathing air that tasted like home but had only moments ago meant something different to me and, finally, seeing it all with a light on over the darkness now.