Before I could mull over her words or decide whether I’d tell her about my decision to drink the contents of the vial if we were out of options, another set of footsteps approached from behind us. When I turned, I saw my mother. She looked embarrassed and a little hesitant.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked.
I shook my head.
Gabriella smiled. “Not at all.”
There was an awkward moment when none of us spoke, but Mom finally broke the silence.
“I came up to apologize.”
That caught me off guard, and I shook my head in bewilderment. “What? Why? For what?”
Mom twisted her hands together nervously. “Not only to you, Maddy, but to Gabriella. I saw you over here, and I figured there was no time like the present.”
I blinked. “Mom, what are you talking about?”
“Your father and I—we’ve… I guess we’ve been having a hard time understanding your new life. It’s like we’re sort of watching you from a distance. From outside. I know it’s silly, and we both know that Gabriella isn’t trying to take you away from us, but it’s difficult. There’s been… jealousy. We cannot connect with you in the same way as she can. We can’t help you understand shifter things the way she can. We should have been more understanding about what you were going through. Your fatherand I have been more distant than we should have been, and that wasn’t fair to you. Not when there’s so much going on.
“I wanted to apologize for any hurt we may have caused to either of you. We don’t want to drive a wedge between the two of you. Gabriella is your biological mother, and she gave us so much to keep you safe. It’s not right that we try to step between you. That’s what I came to say. I’m sorry.”
I didn’t say a word. Instead, I walked over and wrapped my arms around her. This was the woman who’d held me as a child. She’d kissed my skinned knees and bandaged my cuts and bruises. I’d cried on her shoulder when things didn’t go well at school or when a boy broke my heart. She was everything a mother could be and more. The only thing that wasn’t there was the blood, and that mattered less than anything. Gabriella had missed out on all those things—she was the one who’d carried me in her womb and had cried herself to sleep for weeks after giving me up. Both these women were my mother. In my mind, I was blessed to have so many people around me that cared for me, and I didn’t want any of them to think they held a lower standing in my eyes.
I kissed Mom on the cheek. “You don’t have to apologize for anything, Mom. It’s good that you love me so much. And I’m glad you said all this. My baby is going to have so much love. They’re lucky to have so many grandparents.”
Mom’s eyes glistened with tears as I turned and beckoned Gabriella over. I took her hand in my left and Mom’s hand in my right. Gabriella and Mom shared a brief look before linking their free hands. The tiny circle we formed comforted me more than I thought possible. I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed this until that very moment.
Afterward, I spent some time watching a crew of guys, led by Tiago’s and Norman’s packs, work on clearing a huge patch of land. They cut trees and hauled away brush. They wereincreasing the size of the training field. Nico and the others had decided to designate it as the battlefield.
Tomorrow, this would all come to a head. Part of it didn’t seem real. A tiny portion of my mind had convinced itself that this would go on and on forever like some awful purgatory. Knowing that we were almost to the end was odd. There was no way to know exactly what the end would look like. Who would live? Who would die? Those questions had kept me awake for the last week.
Once the crew finally finished clearing the land, they drifted off to their bunks for one more good meal and then a night of sleep—if they could calm their minds enough to sleep, that was. All I could hope was that they would get the rest they needed.
I stepped into the house after the sun set. The house was silent. Nico was sitting at the dining room table, and it looked like he’d been waiting for me.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked. Luis, Nico’s family, and the others had been in and out of the house all day.
“I sent them away,” he said.
Looking around and knowing that we were alone, I could feel a crack start to form in my mind. It was all too much—the weight of knowing what was coming; the horror that was about to be visited upon us. I’d done a good job of keeping it locked up behind the dam in my mind, but now that I was alone with Nico, it started to crumble.
He must have seen it in my face because he was up and over to me, wrapping me in his arms in a second. Feeling his strong body against mine, I let it all go. I cried, and everything I was worried about tumbled from my mouth. Our baby, one of us dying, our friends or family dying, what would happen to the world if we lost, and a dozen other things that had been bouncing through my head for days. Nico let me get it all out and comforted me through my entire mini-breakdown.
When it was over, and my tears had mostly dried, he lifted my chin so that he could look at me.
“It will all work out the way it’s supposed to.”
“How do you know that?” I said.
“For sure? I don’t. All I know is that as bad as the world is, it still tends to gravitate towardgood. Evil does win, but usually in the short term. In the long run, good usually triumphs. Eventually. All I know is that we are on the good side. Whatever power and influence Viola might have, it can’t be stronger than being on the right side of history.”
He was so confident. Whether he was talking out of his ass or not, his confidence made it seem better. At least a little. He leaned down and kissed me. It was a soft, almost chaste kiss—something a couple of seven-year-olds might share on a playground. The innocence of it sent a raging fire through me.
“I want you, Nico. Ineedyou.”
A sly smile played on his lips as he took my hand and led me upstairs. My heart pounded as he closed the bedroom door behind us. Somehow, it was like our first time together again. I was nervous and scared and excited all at the same time.
He undressed me in a slow, methodical manner, keeping his eyes on mine most of the time. Once I was naked, I did the same for him. The heat of his body radiated from him as I slid his clothes off. Nico pulled me close, our naked bodies pressed flush against each other. When he kissed me this time, it was hungry, demanding. I tried not to dwell on the thought that this might be the last time I got to be with him. I shoved those thoughts away and allowed myself to simply live in the moment.
