Chapter 31

“Don’t lean too far,” Oriel cautioned as Leif excitedly reached for a sapphire jewel tree overhead on the road toward the castle. The boy paid no heed to his warning and grasped onto a branch, flipping right over the side of the topless carriage. Oriel reacted on instinct and grabbed onto the back of the boy’s trousers. He pulled him back up, gave him a stern look, and forced him to sit beside him as the carriage continued to thunder forward, led by the horses and driver up front.

Cosette released a stressed breath and pinched the bridge of her nose as if she just experienced the scare of her lifetime.

“Children are so easy, aren’t they?” he said with an innocent smile. Cosette glared at him.

“I never said it would be easy. I only said I was up to the challenge.” She turned to Leif with a stern expression. “No more scaring me to death. Your hands will stay inside the carriage when it’s moving, understand?”

“Yes, Mama.”

Mama… So he really does think of her that way.

Which guilty him all the more. Why should he be the one to deprive them both of this relationship? And where did he fit in? If they were to adopt Leif, the boy would quickly be without a father.

You don’t know for sure, he reminded himself. After all, they still had one last resource available to them. He should have gone to Nicolae sooner, but fear of word of his sickness reaching Cosette too soon had held him back. That, and he assumed the doctors would know more than The Graces, despite their older ages. If Nicolae, Lucian, and Dracula didn’t know of a remedy, then his fate was sealed. Until then, he refused to give up hope.

Leif turned and looked up at him with big blue eyes. “Mama says you can turn into a bird. I like birds. Will you show me?”

She snorted, and he glanced at her in surprise to find her biting back her amusement. She was…different now, at least since their union ceremony. Not so timid anymore. More open and relaxed. Was this what it felt like to have her trust?

“Did she now?” he asked, returning Leif’s enthusiasm. “I am unable to transform right now. Maybe I can show you later. In the meantime, let’s see if we can find any birds. Like those!” He pointed to several ravens circling overhead. “What kind of birds are they?”

“Umm…black ones!”

“Close.” He chuckled. “They are ravens. If you’re lucky, you might get to see them in the garden with Bumpa.”

He slapped his hand over his mouth. He hadn’t meant to say it. He truly hadn’t. It just slipped out.

Cosette’s jaw dropped. “What did you say, Oriel?”

“I’m not sure what you are referring to.”

“You just referred to Nicolae as Bumpa,” she said with a sly smile. “I think you do want to be a father after all.”

Leif laughed with glee. “Mama and Papa. And Bumpa. We will see Bumpa today?”

He ran a hand down his face and groaned. What had he done? It was a slip of the tongue. It meant nothing at all, but it certainly did some damage. It would only confuse and hurt Leif more should they find another family for him.

He groaned again, but this time it wasn’t from his mix-up. Dizziness and nausea churned inside him from watching the trees fly past in a blur. He clung tightly onto the side of the carriage to keep himself upright.

“Oriel,” Cosette said with alarm, and she moved to his side in an instant, helping him to stay sitting. “Close your eyes. It should help.”

Following orders, he closed his eyes and focused on taking deep, painful breaths. Everything hurt. Fire scalded his muscles every time he moved. His chest felt tight and constricted as he tried to breathe. And the shivers lay just underneath the surface of his skin, waiting to grab him when he least expected it. Even more painful was the realization that he truly would die, leaving behind both Leif and Cosette. And Laurel. And Nicolae. Zachariah. Andrei and Livia. It hurt too much.

She rubbed his back in large, soothing circles. Her touch, her presence… She was the only thing keeping his hope afloat.

It wasn’t long until the carriage rolled to a stop, and she sighed beside him.

“Thank the stars, we’re here. You should see Zachariah.”

“Not yet,” he mumbled as he produced a handkerchief and dabbed at his forehead. It wasn’t the shivers that crept up on him but the sweats. It felt overly hot out here.

“Don’t tell my father you’ve been a terrible mate.” Her finger lifted his chin so he looked into her eyes. “It isn’t true. You’ve been the best mate I could have ever asked for.”

He covered her hand with his. “Thank you.”

He took a few moments to recover before he shakily stepped down from the carriage and laboriously climbed the steps leading to the castle. A waiting servant bowed as they entered the large doors, and he looked nervous. Very nervous.

“Come with me,” the servant said, bowing yet again. “His Graces are waiting to receive you. However, our shah is unable to meet with you.”

Again, Oriel pondered the male’s mannerisms. He didn’t look that awful, did he?

After gesturing to the partially open door leading to a meeting room, the servant bowed and scurried away as if he wanted nothing more than to flee whatever Oriel was about to face.

“Leif, put the vase down,” Cosette demanded as she backtracked down the hallway to wrestle a vase from the boy, who looked on the verge of crying. Oriel couldn’t help but chuckle. Did she still think she was up to the task of being thrown straight into the throes of motherhood?

His attention was interrupted as another boy, perhaps just younger than Leif, darted around the corner with gleeful laughter and ran smack into Oriel. The small boy looked up at him with wide green eyes, and his eyes widened too.

Red hair.

Green eyes.

Oh no.

“Jesper! Where have you run off to?” Willow Degore appeared only a moment later, and she halted in her tracks when she saw Oriel. They stared back at one another, and awkward tension followed. Other than Cosette and a couple other serious relationships, Willow had been the closest he had ever gotten to finding a mate. And being around her felt more than awkward. It was incredibly uncomfortable.

“Good evening, Willow.” He forced a smile.

She didn’t return his smile. Rather, she looked concerned. “You are ill.”

Was he? He hadn’t noticed…

“Just a case of the fevers.” Though he didn’t indicate which fever, exactly, he was referring to. “Nothing to worry about.”

“I don’t know…” she mused. “I’ve had sunlight fever more times than I can count. It comes with the territory of living among the humans near sunlight. Adam has already had to suffer through two bouts of my fevers in the past four years.”

Relief filled him when Leif chose to rush past and tag Jesper on the shoulder, and then they ran off down the hallway, laughing while Cosette stayed back, watching Oriel and Willow warily.

Willow’s eyes widened. “He’s yours?”

He hesitated for a beat too long. “No.” But Willow caught onto the hesitation with a gasp of her own.

“He is! I wasn’t aware you had a child. He looks older than Jesper.”

“I don’t know yet!” he said in a strangled tone, casting a glance over his shoulder where Cosette busied herself with arranging the flowers in the vase Leif had tried to knock down earlier. “He truly is not mine, but Cosette wants to adopt him. I am still unsure.”

A bright smile spread across her face. “I do hope you will. Parenthood is one of the greatest joys I’ve ever had the pleasure of enduring.” Her choice of words enticed a grin to surface from his despair. “Are you waiting on your father-in-law? He looks most displeased.”

Turning around, his heart sank when he found Lucian glaring at him from the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest. Did he find out about the blood fever? Was he cross about it?

Well, he had expected as much. After all, he felt like he had been an awful mate to Cosette.

Without another word to Willow, he tried to ignore Lucian’s glare as he walked toward Cosette, who met him halfway. Her tears began anew, and he wished more than anything to take her ache away.

“We will figure out a way,” he murmured, an attempt to give reassurance. “If anyone knows anything, it will be Nicolae or your father.” He wiped a tear from her cheek, and it was all he could do to tear himself away from her. It pained him physically to be distanced from her, which only mixed in with his other aches and pains.

As soon as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, he faced a furious Lucian and Nicolae who held Lucian’s arm as if holding him back from attacking.

“You better explain yourself,” Lucian spat. “I have never seen a gentleman behave worse than you are behaving right now.”

Oriel was confused. Were they talking about the blood fever?

Or was Lucian angry he spoke to Willow?

Or was it because Cosette had been crying?

He looked to Nicolae for help, but his grandfather’s expression was masked, giving nothing away. Still…he edged toward the blood fever and perhaps the events associated with the union trip. Had Zachariah or Laurel spilled the events to His Graces? Had Dracula after Zachariah warned him about the danger to Jesper?

“It was never my intention to leave her,” he said, starting there. “But I need your help.”

“Need my help?” Lucian thundered. “I would never give you such a thing. I would rather you rot in your own grave.”

He stared wide-eyed at his father-in-law. Did he just hear him right? “You want me to die? I would have thought you wanted your daughter to be taken care of.”

Now Lucian looked confused. “And so she shall be. If you dare go back on your vows, then I—”

“Vows?” he squeaked. “I have a feeling we are talking about two very different things, Your Grace. Do you think I’m trying to leave your daughter? Leave Cosette?”

“You just told me you wanted my help to leave her.”

Groaning, he sank into a chair and pinched the bridge of his nose to ward off his dizziness. Nausea threatened to make him retch. “I would never leave her. Ever. I love Cosette dearly. I think fate has brought us together, and bad luck is trying to drive us apart.”

Lucian’s frown slowly transitioned into a smile. “You love her?”

“Yes. I love her.”

It was as if Lucian’s previous bad mood was forgotten, and he returned to his overly involved disposition. “And does she return your love? Tell me, how has she fared over the past couple of months?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose harder. “I don’t know how she feels about me, but I don’t know why we are talking about this. I have no plans of breaking my vows, and I don’t know why you would think otherwise.”

Both Lucian and Nicolae shared a look. His grandfather answered.

“We were under the impression the only reason you would meet with both of us is to somehow break off the union, which solidified when we saw Cosette crying in the hall. If not the reason, then why have you come?”

Swallowing hard, he dug into his pocket and pulled out his fangs, setting them on the table for his Graces to see. They both stared at the fangs, then at each other, and finally at Oriel.

“Something awful has happened,” he said, pushing back his rising emotions. “I am dying.”

Nicolae’s expression turned serious. “Tell us everything.”