Chapter 35 THE BOY IN THE PAINTING
GALLAHAN’S POV
“Can we go now?” I asked impatiently as I paced around the pavilion.
“Hush, child,” Zuleika replied, stirring her fifth cup of tea.
“Alright, tea addict,” I jabbed sarcastically.
“Shut up. Let the letter we sent to the Alfieros marinate first. We can’t just barge in to attend their Ascension Rite.”
“It’s been an hour, Zee. Surely that’s enough time already.”
“Well go around sundown.” Zuleika threw me a look that brook no argument. “That is my compromise. Or you can find another way to get to Wolverham on time.”
Maliya only shrugged when I looked at her, unwilling to help me plead my case to Zuleika. It left me growling in frustration, my eyes glowing golden.
But Zuleika stayed unfazed by my temper. “Shift and go for a run to let off some steam. Paint for all I care. We are leaving around sundown, and that’s final.”
Maliya shrugged once again and said, “She’s the boss. Whatever she says goes.”
I sent an angry glare at my friends’ direction and stormed off, fuming with every heavy step I took.
I locked myself in my studio and painted the hours away.
But for the first time, I didn’t paint Willa.
I painted a pair of kids, imagining they were mine and Willa’s.
One was a boy with untamed black hair and round green eyes. The other kid was a replica of the boy. Except, the kid was a girl with wavy and copper-red hair. The boy ended up looking cute and cherubic, with his plump cheeks and innocent gaze. Meanwhile, the girl was more on the pretty side than cute, and she had a pair of eyes that radiated sharp wit.
Both of them donned the light blue and white ceremonial robe that children usually wear for the Ascension Rite.
“Fucking hell,” I breathed out, stepping away from the canvas.
I didn’t know what prompted me to paint them, but maybe it was the foolish and ridiculous hope that I would find Willa during the Ascension Rite.
It was crazy.
Would I really be ready to become a father if I had indeed impregnated Willa back then? Would I really be okay with the fact that I was an absent father all this time? That I had missed five years of their lives? Would I be able to accept this news with grace and maturity? Heck! Would I find it in me to forgive Willa for keeping my children away from me?
Behind me, I heard the door unlock and the knob twisted open.
I knew from the sounds of the footfalls alone that my guests were Zuleika and Maliya. I also knew I was going to hear another remark about my supposed madness.
“Wow… You’ve really gone insane, Gallahan.”
“Maybe I am,” I replied to Maliya without tearing my eyes away from the portrait of my imagined children.
“Perhaps he isn’t all that mad after all,” Zuleika mumbled. “Perhaps this is your inner wolf trying to let you know that you have pups, Gallahan.”
Zuleika’s quiet words made me sharply turn around to face her, only sparing a quick glance at our bags that were floating in mid-air beside her.
“What?” I breathed more than said. “What are you talking about?”
My rib cage could barely contain the wild beating of my heart as my mind reeled and whirled fast, trying to process Zuleika’s words.
The hope that I might have a family with Willa unfurled within my chest, but dread twisted in my gut as I thought of how my own children possibly didn’t know who I was. That perhaps there was someone else who stepped up to become their father.
A harrowing ache and boiling fury also bubbled in my blood just by the mere idea that Willa had kept our children from me. That she had loathed me so much that she would rather have our children grow up to be fatherless than have me as one.
“Zee, don’t play with me. Please. What are you saying? Is there really a chance that…”
Zuleika’s lips stretched into a serene smile as she stared at my painting. “Our coven highly believes in visions, prophecies and divinations, Gallahan. We also believe in the power of intuition. So I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility that perhaps your inner wolf has already sensed the existence of your children even before any parental blood link could form through the Ascension Rite. Maybe your desperation and your devotion to your fated mate fueled you to see the vision of your children. And perhaps the moon goddess has taken pity on you and has slowly guided you to look in the right direction: the Ascension Rites.”
I stood gaping at her for a moment, thinking about the chance that she might be right.
After all, I couldn’t even describe how and why I suddenly had an idea that I might have sired a child with Willa, or how and why I just decided that the Ascension Rite was my way to find her.
“They’re beautiful,” Zuleika suddenly complimented in a murmur.
She then finally prised her gaze from the painting, deigning to look at me with her serene smile still in place.
The sight of such a smile brought out a selfish thought in my head that she should’ve pursued divination and augury to become a high seer like all the women of the Banfey clan, just so her skill set would be more useful to me.
But I quickly quashed the thought almost as soon as it took form, reminding myself that Zuleika had been nothing but supportive and helpful with my insane search for Willa.
‘You are a prat to think of your best friend like that, Gallahan,’ I mentally chastised myself.
Without saying a word back to Zuleika, I turned my head to look at the image on the canvas, wondering if her speculations could possibly be true.
Realizing that I was slowly getting lost in my own thoughts, Zuleika went up to me and patted my arm, saying, “This is just a hunch, of course. But perhaps there is a method to your madness, Gallahan. Maybe tonight’s your lucky night.”
Maliya, who had fallen quiet for a little while now, grinned and flung her arms on my shoulders and Zuleika’s, saying, “Then let’s go and check if I’ve really become an aunt to two cute angels.”
Then, without any warning, Maliya’s magic swirled around us in a bluish-purple fog until all three of us were completely shrouded.
A waspish nag was about to blow out of me because of the suddenness of her magic, but I was sucked and thrown away at the same time as the mist-like manifestation of her magic closed in around us. It hugged us tight like a blanket, forcibly pressing us and our bags together into one magical roll.
It felt like an eternity had passed before Maliya’s magic disappeared, like it was blown away by a strong gust of wind.
“Welcome to Wolverham!” Maliya declared proudly as soon as our feet found solid ground again.
The heavily guarded estate of the Alfiero clan stood before us, but I couldn’t find it in me to spare a glance at it. I couldn’t even care if our bags dropped with a loud thud on the ground, because I immediately doubled over and pathetically gasped for air.
“Fuck,” I heaved. “I will never get used to that.”
Maliya snickered behind her hand, while Zuleika wore a barely concealed smirk.
“Are you alright, sir?”
I quickly straightened up to see the owner of the small and adorably innocent voice, and as soon as my gaze found him, all the air left my lungs.
Because standing in front of me was the boy I painted.