I stop to look up at all four of them, shaking my head. “No, I mean that Ican’t. It’s physically impossible. Think about it. The Undead can’t reproduce because they’re dead.”
“You’re not dead,” Baelfire interjects angrily at the thought.
“I’m also not alive. As a semi-existingthing, I’m…sterile.”
I hesitate, picking at the hem of my black shirt. This isn’t something I’ve ever lingered on. It just became fact after myheart was taken from me. I never considered how this might bother my matches—but everyone knows that legacies prize having heirs.
“If that’s a dealbreaker for you guys—” I begin with a frown.
Everett interrupts. “Do you want children?”
“We just went over this. They’re not an option.”
“But if they were. If there was a way, would you want that,sangfluir?”Silas presses.
I’ve never given it thought before. Daydreaming about a future family isn’t a luxury I’ve had, not when survival alone seemed unlikely. Not to mention, trying to picture me in a maternal lighting is laughable.
But if miracles did exist, my life continued, and my matches wanted to be fathers…
I shrug. Curiosity aside, it’s a moot point.
“The only thing I want right now is every possible moment I can get with all of you.”
For a moment, I worry that’s not the answer they want, especially Baelfire. After all, he’s a shifter, and his family has been struggling to continue their lineage.
Instead, he beams. “Hang on a second. That kinda sounded like a confession of love to me.”
“It certainly did,” Crypt grins when I scowl.
They all tease me as we continue to the Garnet Wizard’s study. Part of me is profoundly relieved that they don’t seem disappointed, but they’re also clearly trying to lighten my mood from everything that just happened.
It’s sweet, but I want to kick their asses for teasing me so much about this. Talking about feelings is one of the purest forms of torture. How do they not get that?
Silas opens the study door for me, and I see that the Garnet Wizard is now middle-aged and jotting down notes of some kind with a quill and ink pot at a desk in one corner of the study. Heglances up and motions at a briefcase on the coffee table beside the same stack of books I noticed before—although now they’re filled with bookmarks.
“Please do help yourself,telum. I have something for you once you are done.”
We walk into the room, but I realize Crypt is stuck outside the threshold. A dreamcatcher hanging beside the desk keeps him from getting any closer, even in Limbo.
“I’m not inviting that one in here,” the wizard says without looking up from his writing. “Though truthfully, I’m surprised I’m allowinganyof you shirtless, dirty, gore-smattered barbarians indoors. One would think you were raised in a barn, Silas.”
“Barnyard animals might’ve taught me more manners than you ever did,” Silas retorts.
The wizard laughs good-naturedly as I unlatch the sides of the briefcase and open the top, studying the velvet-wrapped pieces of smooth, glass-like etherium. The pieces are in various shapes and sizes. Just like the first time I saw this element in Amadeus’s crown, something about it draws me in.
I pick up a piece and unwrap it for a better examination. It gleams in the overhead mage lights, completely transparent but full of promise.
Thank the fucking universe. Now, my plan can go on.
“How have you gathered so much etherium?” I ask.
“Despite the Legacy Council trying to horde it all to themselves, you mean? Why, collecting oddities has long been a hobby of mine. I have always had a fascination with Paradise.”
“Clearly,” I say pointedly, looking at the well-read books on his coffee table.
Everett picks up one of the said tomes, skimming curiously through it as the wizard replies.
“Old favorites of mine. I merely desired a refresher. Now then, is the etherium to your liking?”
