Good, he murmured back to her. We’ll need that later. Then, out loud, he said, “I agree with Issac’s assessment that the humans will soon be involved. It’s inevitable. And they will add an unpredictable angle to the war. A lot of them will also die.” A crude assessment, but true.
“Is there any way to avoid it?” Astasiya appeared even more exhausted now than she had moments ago. “A war, I mean. Do we have to fight the Seraphim?”
He lifted his shoulder. “It remains to be seen. We’re not even sure they’re the ones we should fight.”
“Skye said they would want to kill Elizabeth, but they didn’t attack Hydria,” Issac pointed out. “Perhaps because Osiris got to her first. However, it’s all speculation at this point.”
“I agree,” Sethios replied. “We need to get over the hurdle in the other room and figure out how to help Elizabeth hide from both my father and the Seraphim. After that, we can focus on the potential fight ahead.”
“And Osiris’s request to train me,” Astasiya added gruffly. “I’ve not particularly enjoyed his version of training so far. Pretty sure I’m not interested in learning more from him.”
Sethios snorted. “Trust me, I understand that better than anyone you’ll ever meet.” He’d spent thousands of years beneath his father’s tutelage. While many of his trials were practical in nature, none of them were easy or favorable to endure.
“We should—”
A cry of agony from the bedroom interrupted Caro’s words and had them all turning toward the door. Astasiya was the first to move, the sound coming from her best friend.
She sprinted toward the commotion, only to freeze on the threshold at the sight before her.
Sethios was next at her back, his eyes on all the blood and mournful faces in the room.
Oh, fuck…
The baby wasn’t breathing.
Leela tried to calm everyone down so she could focus, but the others were too emotionally charged to listen.
Only Balthazar seemed able to understand her. His chocolate irises met hers, his chin dipping in confirmation that he could control the situation while she worked. She hadn’t even needed to say anything to him; he just understood her—something she would need to evaluate more thoroughly later. Because it freaked her out how well he read her, in addition to everything else that had occurred since coming in to physical contact with him again.
He knows, she thought for the thousandth time. But how is that possible?
Vera had changed his memories of their time in Brazil.
He shouldn’t know.
But he kept doing things that insinuated he did.
Like calling her Lee and offering her the exact drink they’d shared on the beach in Rio de Janeiro.
She mentally shook herself and stared down at the still infant in her arms. You and I are going to have a conversation, little one, Leela thought at her. Starting with how not to freak out your parents.
Seraphim babies never cried.
They were usually born aware and fully intelligent, marking them as supernatural and unique compared to human births. But Lizzie wasn’t a typical Seraphim. She was created in a lab using technology and genetics that none of them understood or had proper access to.
Case in point—Lizzie had given birth well after her projected due date. Most Seraphim went into labor around week seven or eight. But not Lizzie. Which suggested some mortal genetics had impacted her gestational period.
Leela rocked the silent child, her fertility power igniting to provide the small being the nutrients she needed to return to them.
Seraphic souls couldn’t die, only the body.
And this tiny form had endured quite a bit on her way into the world.
Come on, sweetheart, Leela cooed through her mind. You’re mostly healed. It’s time for your spirit to return.
Time seemed to tick by slowly, the others in the room growing more and more distressed with each passing second. Mostly because they were trying to calm the terrified mother on the bed. Jayson was still lost to Balthazar’s emotional control. But Lizzie was beside herself with horror at having lost their child.
“She’s going to be okay,” Balthazar was saying. “Leela’s confident, which makes me confident.”
