AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I took in the scene… The fullness of Leilani’s face and figure… The bassinet and basket beside the bed were filled with tiny dresses and a rosy pink blanket. My throat worked on a rough swallow, stifling the sob clawing its way up my throat.
Nakoa’s cries quickly quietened to whimpers as she soothed him and finally sat on her bed. When she pulled a tie at the shoulder of her long dress, exposing her breast, heavy with milk, his whimpers were silenced as she brought it to his mouth, and he began to nurse. She watched him, her tears still relentless.
Miroslav sat beside her, his face tight with emotion as he curled his arm around her, pressed a kiss to her temple, and closed his eyes. Tears began to slip down his own cheeks. Too overcome with emotion, he was forced to hang his head in his hands as he leaned, elbows on knees. His shoulders began to shake as he silently wept.
Despite being unable to speak Kahlohani, each word they spoke, The Well, again, seemed to whisper its meaning in my mind wordlessly.
Leilani’s lips trembled as her voice, barely above a whisper, cracked.
“It’s not fair that she’s not here too.”
Miroslav’s hand slipped over her knee and squeezed.
“No. It’s not,” he managed hoarsely.
Soul-crushing grief welled up inside me.
“I feel as though nothing will ever heal this sadness, Miroslav…”
“I know,lohane thili… I know.”
Miroslav took a deep breath, his body stilling before he spread out on the bed beside her where she laid, taking her face in his hands and pressing a soft, lingering kiss to her lips, Nakoa still nursing at her breast.
“Loha au iiana 'oe i keia poa me’ka hopona, poa hanei,”he whispered.
I love you in this life and the next, soul mate.
“And I, you,” she returned softly.
Their watery emotion continued to pour. The only sounds in the room were the soft suckling of Baby Nakoa and the distant rolling thunder. After several painful moments, Miroslav spoke.
“… You cannot stay here much longer. It’s not safe. Come back to the mainland with me. You don’t have to stay in Bastrina…”
“We have time… I will not abandon my people. And Nakoa is not safe close to the capital…”
“Yes, but Mareina is there; their magic and life forces are stronger when they’re near one another. And you know that it is clear in my visions that Nakoa isfromthere. He will need to be a part of that place, those people, know their ways in order to lead…”
The room faded until I found myself blinking down at the glassy surface of The Well. Its previously bright surface, dark. Present day Leilani sat beside me, her eyes lifting to mine.
“Oh my gods...,”I breathed, chest tight with overwhelming emotion.
“What were you shown, darling?”Leilani asked as she leaned closer to me, searching my eyes as if they could verbalize everything I’d just witnessed.
Fat tears sprang to my eyes, promptly diving over the dam of my eyelids as I drew my hand to my mouth to stifle a sob.
Oh, Nakoa.
And Leilani… Miroslav… I couldn’t even begin to fathom what they had been through.
“He doesn’t know, does he?” I whispered, trying to hold back a sob.
Leilani’s eyes slid shut briefly, a soft frown creasing her lips. She didn’t speak for several moments as though trying to work through something before finally looking back up at me, something firm in her gaze.
“You cannot tell him, Mareina…Promise me.Or it could change the course of…Everything.”
Chapter
Forty-Two
