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Maternal love overtakes me. “He’s asleep. He’ll sleep for a couple of hours. His reading is getting better; he can read entire books now. He can’t wait to show you.” I knew the moment I saw Kevin that he wasn’t Tommy’s. He has all the Vital traits: dark hair, dark eyes, same nose as Talia and Remy. Tommy and Remy both think of themselves as his father. Tommy raises him, but Kevin only ever calls Remy daddy. He always knew Remy was his biological father.

He picks me up and carries me inside, straight to the bedroom I share with Tommy. He lays me on the bed, his hand moving up my legs and gently spreading them. He presses his hand on my belly before sliding my panties off. He kisses my belly and moves his lips down to the scar he gave me years ago.

Every time he’s gone this long, he likes to remind me of who I belong to.

I stare at him, my heart blissfully in love—even after all these years, it’s never wavered. He presses his body into mine, unbuckling his pants and slipping them off. He fucks me hard and fast, like he can’t get enough. He pulls my hands over my head and lifts my leg up, hitting me as deep as he can. He comes deep inside me, and his body relaxes over mine. It will be the first of many times we do this over the next few days. Remy is insatiable when it comes to me.

I can tell something is bothering him, and I graze my nails down his back. “What is it?”

He rolls over and stares at the ceiling. “It’s time, little lamb.”

A wave of nausea nearly paralyzes me. “No…no. I can’t, not yet.”

“You don’t have to go back, but she wants to see him. It’s been six years, Didi. She’s changed, baby, she’s healing. She’s thriving…”

Enough.

I know how this ends…she will turn him into a monster. She will make him kill. The only way I can stop it is if I somehow convince Remy to help me keep him away from her. But that will never happen since his loyalty is always with her—and this just proves it.

“It’s time, little lamb. I’ve put it off as long as I could. But we can’t keep him from her forever. We took an oath…we all did.”

A small sob escapes me as I pull on my nightgown, dressing myself before Kevin wakes up, and Remy does the same. “I’m not ready. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready.”

He lets out a sigh. “Honestly, neither am I. But this is the price we must pay for what we did. She won’t ever let up. She wants a relationship with him.”

I lean my head on his chest. “I wish things didn’t have to be like this.”

His lips brush against mine. “I wouldn’t trade a single thing. This life led me to you, and you gave me our son. I’d do anything to keep you.” I hear Kevin coughing from the hallway, and he appears in the doorway, squealing with delight at seeing his father. He scrambles into bed between us. Remy beams at the sight of him, hugging and tickling him.

“Alright,” Remy says. “Who wants pancakes?”

We head into the kitchen where Remy puts on an apron and whips up pancakes. Once we eat, the two of them go outside and play catch.

I sit on my rocking chair and watch Remy spend time with his son. Tommy will come home tomorrow to join us and spend time with his son, too. Then we’ll go to Kinsmen, and he’ll meet Talia. I can’t stop it, since we’re bound by an oath that tethers our very souls.

That’s the day everything will change…my innocent son will one day be a name whispered in fear. He will invoke the spirit and hand her a heart on a platter. My dear son, Kevin Landry, will one day become Shadowface.