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“Ah, trés bonne. C’est une petite fille!” she squeals. “A girl!”
“Let me hold her,” Bethany grunts as the midwife pushes on her belly roughly.
The woman holding the baby approaches her from the opposite side of the table, and I can see the newborn baby’s wide eyes locked on her mother. Bethany smiles as she gathers the wrapped child in her arms and looks down at her.
“Eve,” she breathes, rubbing a fingertip over the child’s forehead. “Her name is Eve.”
“Eden, please. Wake up.”
Jesse’s deep voice breaks through my awe and confusion, and I startle. My eyes pop open, and bright sunlight burns my retinas. I groan and close my eyes, the light too much after the dark interior of the cabin. I feel the steel of Jesse’s thighs beneath me, his strong arm locked around my back as he brushes my hair back from my face.
“Eden,” he breathes. “Jesus. Thank God.”
“Jesse?” I murmur, slowly blinking my eyes back open to see concern etched across his face.
The last few minutes comes back to me in a rush, and I push away from him, my head whipping back and forth to survey my surroundings. I’m outside the building, it’s bright as fuck out here, and Steph, Erik, and Leif are huddled around, looking down at us with visible relief.
“What happened?” I ask, looking back at Jesse.
We’re on the ground, Jesse sitting with me cradled in his lap. He’s still stroking my hair, his eyes searching mine as if to find out if I’m really okay.
“You ran inside that building,” Steph answers when Jesse doesn’t speak. “It’s spelled to keep vampires out, and the magic almost killed you. Jesse ran in and picked you up, getting you out of there before he succumbed to the pain, too.”
My gaze locks on my mate’s, and he nods, confirming Steph’s statement.
“But…where are the women? The baby?”
“What?” Jesse asks, looking thoroughly confused. “What women? What are you talking about?”
“I woke up to screaming,” I say slowly, recalling the whole scene I’d just witnessed. “There was a woman giving birth on a table, and two other women assisting her.”
“Eden,” Steph says softly, and I look up to meet her eyes. “The cabin is empty. I checked it out after Jesse got you out. There’s nothing in there but dust and a few pieces of broken-down furniture.”
“No,” I say squirming until Jesse releases me. Climbing to my feet, I throw out a hand to point a finger at the building. “I was there. She had a baby. A girl. Eve.”
“Eve was the woman’s name?” Jesse asks, cocking his head to study me.
“No,” I say. After a beat, I continue, whispering, “Eve is the baby. The mother’s name is…Bethany.”
Steph gasps, but I ignore her and keep my gaze locked on Jesse’s. He stares right back, then nods slowly, accepting my tale, no matter how crazy it might sound to him.
“Eden.”
Breaking the silent conversation we’re having, I look over at Steph, who’d spoken. She moves in, placing her hands on my shoulders. Her eyes flick back and forth between mine for a few beats, then she gives me an almost imperceptible nod.
“You had a vision,” she announces, and I take a step back.
“A vision?”
Her arms drop to her sides, and she nods again, this time more definitively. “Aunt Bernie told me about how some witches have psychic visions. Some see the future. Others see the past. Not every witch has the ability, but you’re from such a strong bloodline, I’m sure that’s what this is. You saw your ancestor, Bethany Grundelier, giving birth to her secret baby. In that cabin right there.”
“But…it seemed so real,” I breathe. “I watched the whole thing happen right in front of me.”
“You were only in that cabin for about ten seconds,” Jesse says, pulling my attention back to him. “I got you out of there, and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to get you to wake up.”
I look back over at Steph, and she confirms his words with a vigorous nod. When I look first at Leif, then at Erik, they both dip their chins in agreement. Movement from Steph catches my eye, and I look over to see her tapping at the screen of her phone.
She holds it out, face up, and I see Bernadette’s contact info on the screen as a ringing echoes from the speakers.
