My heart leapt at the prospect of Calia being under my roof once more, of us working side by side, unable to ignore each other. “I would like that.”
He seemed preoccupied as he ran the tip of his finger across the dusty leather spines. When I asked what he was looking for, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said, “Just perusing.”
“I do not know what this room could offer you that you have not seen before.” I eyed the books, knowing how many my mother had burned to punish me. “I expect you have seen far greater collections.”
Elios chuckled. “I have, but there is something fascinating about seeing what one has in their own library. I believe it tells much more about the person than they realize.”
I sat and reached for the bottle of whiskey on the table, pouring myself a glass. I gestured toward Elios, who nodded and sat across from me. “If you are looking for information on me, you will not find anything useful here.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Why is that?”
I was unsure how much to tell him or how much he would care to hear, but something about his presence had me spilling the truth of my past. “My mother. These books here? They are filled with political bullshit regarding vampyre rule and D’Arcy family archives. There might be a handful of dictionaries somewhere in the mix. But anything of value to me was destroyed long ago.” I took a sip of the whiskey, letting it burn on the way down.
Elios was silent, considering his words before he spoke once more. “I am sorry about the horrors you faced in your youth, Rion. I confess I am new at being a father, but I could not imagine inflicting pain on a young one.”
“How did you meet her mother?” I asked, needing desperately to change the subject.
The god smiled as he sifted through his distant memories. Calia and I had never talked much about her mother, and I knew little, even from my time with Corvina. Lucius had only deigned to visit his daughter on holidays, and even then, our time was limited to a formal dinner with essential council members. Her mother had tried to visit the manor many times, but was often forced to return to Lucius once he realized her whereabouts.
“It happened by accident. I was visiting Ballard one day, and I walked out of his office and down the staircase to the atrium,” he said, running the tips of his fingers across his lips. “And there she was, thanking the doorman for welcoming her in. Her smilewas warm, genuine. The kind that not many people are capable of offering another.” He shook his head. “I remember standing in the middle of a crowd and watching her walk past, never knowing she had just shaken me to my core.”
Even I could not help myself from painting the picture, realizing with sudden clarity that Calia had been the same way. Though strong and brash, she never treated anyone as though they were less than her.
A trait, I knew now, she must have inherited from her mother.
“I followed her, unable to stop my curiosity. Who was she? Why was she here? What did she want? She ascended to Ballard’s office, and I stood motionless at the door as she asked for the coven to grant her what she wanted most in this world.”
Before I asked, I knew what it was, yet I could not stop the question. “What did she want?”
Elios met my gaze, unflinching as he spoke. “She wanted a child.”
Images of Corvina’s broken body flashed, and I fought against the instinct to run and hide as I normally did when she came up in conversation.
“She requested an elixir from his finest healers, one that would ensure she could conceive and carry a child in her womb. Apparently, she had been trying for years to no avail. She could not afford another broken heart when the pregnancy did not take. I heard the pity in his voice when he told her he could not help, that nothing in the realm of magic could provide the type of miracle she was asking for. The sound of her muffled cries through the door nearly sent me to my knees, and I did not know why. This woman was nothing to me, and yet, at the same time, she was everything.”
“I understand the feeling well,” I said, taking a long sip. “It is inescapable.”
“It is,” he said softly. Sadly. “I knew I could help her, and against my better judgment, I walked into Ballard’s office and offered my services.”
I choked on my whiskey. “You simply offered to sire her child?”
He laughed, crows feet crinkling at his temples. “Gods, no! Can you imagine? I wanted her for reasons unknown to me at the time, but I would never have done something so inconsiderate. Even if some part of me wanted to claim her as mine, she had a husband, and they were trying to have a child. I could never interrupt someone’s life like that.”
“Perhaps you should not have called itoffering your services,” I mumbled.
“Perhaps you are right,” he mused. “Regardless, she was shocked at my intrusion and excused herself, hurrying out of the office and building. Once she was gone, Ballard informed me of the situation—how she had lost a child decades prior, how she had been forced into marriage with Lucius because her family had died and she had no other options, how he”—Elios paused, his jaw clenching as the memory flashed—“beat her when no one looked. She often sought refuge with the covens, seeking their healers because Lucius forbade her from seeking help from the fae. He did not even want another child, claiming he could not bear the disappointment of her failure.”
“Gods,” I whispered, only knowing a fraction of what her mother had gone through. Parental brutality was not uncommon, but it was sickening to see how often it occurred. “Lucius does not deserve to breathe after what he has done.”
Elios was quiet at my admission, a pained expression crossing his features. He said he did not understand the emotions of mortals, but he clearly felt regret for what he could have done differently. “It was easy falling in love with her, you know,” he said quietly. “My mother… She was horribly upsetwhen I informed her of my feelings. It was not unheard of—there are more than a few demi-gods and goddesses walking the earth—however, it came with obvious complications. Our lifespan is infinite. We do not age, for we exist outside the realm of the living. Nothing I could do or offer would allow the gift to be bestowed upon a mortal.”
Was that what Calia was now? A demi-goddess? Even thinking such a thing was strange. I could not quite grasp the concept.
“But in the end, I could not ignore my affections, nor could she. When we joined, I knew life would take root in her belly. It was the happiest day of my life until I realized I would be forced to watch from afar as she returned to Lucius and passed our child off as his. I begged her to leave him, offering the full spectrum of my protection to ensure he would never be able to hurt her or the babe, but she refused. With a hand on her belly, she told me this child would change the world. To do that, she had to return to Lucius and give our child his name.”
My eyes began to water, from the tragedy of loving someone so desperately to the beauty of knowing there would forever be evidence of that love. “Do you think she knew that Calia would be called upon to satisfy the curse? That she would be the one to truly bring peace?”
He shifted in his seat. “I cannot say, and it matters not in the end.”
