Theia had curled quite happily in Olivia’s lap and was chatting away, still holding onto Hester’s old poppet which never seemed to be far from her side. Logan, ever the unstoppably ball of energy was jumping up and down beside, her trampolining on the couch when he suddenly disappeared in a poof of purple smoke.
‘Oh no you don’t,’ Olivia flicked her hand and Logan re-appeared on the floor, standing in front of her, looking slightly bewildered as to who had stopped his fun.
‘How did you do that?’ Jake frowned.
Olivia winked at him before turning back to her son, her tone stern but her eyes indulgent.
‘No witch smoke until you’re old enough,’ she told him firmly, watching as he plopped himself down unceremoniously on the floor and started to wail.
‘Whoa,’ Jake stared down at Logan, having been on the receiving end of his tantrums many times. ‘Good luck with that.’
‘He’ll get over it,’ Olivia shrugged as she stroked Theia’s dark curls. ‘It’s not safe for him to be smoking in and out, until he can understand the word danger.’
Olivia glanced up as Elias strolled back into the room. He stared down at the wailing toddler in bemusement.
‘Said no, did you?’
‘Stopped him from using witch smoke,’ Olivia replied.
‘Ooh,’ Elias winced, ‘he’s not going to like that. It’s addictive once you get the hang of it.’
Theo leaned down and scooped Logan off the floor, as the boy wrapped his arms around his father and sobbed quietly into the crook of his neck, until with a final hiccup, he dozed off.
‘What’s that,’ Olivia nodded toward the small square package in Elias’s hand, wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.
‘A gift for you,’ he handed it to her. ‘I forgot to give it to you on the plane and I figured you’d want to have it, now you’re home.’
Glancing down, a curious smile playing across her lips, she loosened the string and opened the paper to find an old antique photo frame and inside was the picture Mr Pierce had taken of them at Christmas.
Her hand covered her mouth and her eyes misted as she looked at it for the first time. With the Christmas tree in the center, Scarlett stood to the left making bunny ears behind Elias’s head. He was sitting in the chair, staring across, with a look of stunned wonder on his face. To the right she was pulling a stupid face and sticking her tongue out, and sitting in front of her, smiling widely as she laughed, was Eve.
‘Oh,’ she whispered as Scarlett leaned over from where she was perched on the arm of the couch and looked with a smile.
Olivia turned to look up at Theo, but he was staring at the photo in glassy eyed shock.
‘Theo?’ she frowned, ‘what is it?’
‘That girl?’ he replied tightly, ‘the one sitting in front of you. Who is she?’
‘That’s Eve,’ Olivia replied in confusion.
‘She was my wife,’ Elias spoke softly from across the room. ‘She died, a long time ago.’
Theo was staring at the photo his eyes wide.
‘What is it?’ Olivia asked again worriedly. Theo looked even paler, if that was possible.
‘The girl in the photo,’ he swallowed slowly, ‘I know her.’
‘That’s not possible Theo,’ Olivia frowned. ‘This photograph was taken over a hundred and fifty years ago. Eve died seventy years ago, an old woman.’
‘No, she didn’t,’ Elias amended.
‘What?’ Olivia shook her head in confusion, ‘you said she died seventy years ago. That would have made her what, nearly ninety?’
‘Actually, she was 109 years old, but Eve didn’t age,’ he told her quietly. ‘The day she died, she looked exactly the same as the last time you saw her.’
‘How is that possible?’
‘Sirens live as long as they want to,’ Elias replied. ‘They’re not human.’
‘Then how did she die if it wasn’t from old age?’ Olivia asked tightly, although deep down she already knew the answer.
‘Faraday,’ Elias replied darkly.
‘This woman Theo,’ Scarlett turned to him. ‘How did you know her?’
‘They called her Six,’ he looked up at his brother. ‘She was with me in Rome. She told me she’d been a prisoner for a long time. She could barely speak; I lip read mostly. She had a demon collar to suppress her abilities. She must have worn it for a long time because she had a lot of scar tissue around her neck, where it had rubbed raw and then healed, but she could translate any language. That’s why they brought her to me, to translate the prophecy.’
Elias’s face turned ashen as he stared at his brother.
‘Logan,’ Theo whispered, ‘Eve is still alive.’
About the Author
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