I pressed my hand lightly against Adrienne’s back, urging her forward. The bedroom was beautiful, decorated with ancient textiles passed down by Jules’ mother and mothers before. Mateo laid Jules on the bed, brushing her hair from her face.
“Wait,” Adrienne said, slipping into the room. Mateopaused as she rearranged the pillows into a slope. “This way she can breathe easier.”
His face crumpled for a brief moment before he sniffed loudly and rocked his jaw. “I do not know how to care for her.”
My mate’s hand rested on his shoulder for a brief moment. “You will not be alone.”
He gave her a small, broken smile before she turned to grab a pitcher and bowl from the corner of the room. Those blue eyes caught mine and I bowed. “I will return with Lilith.”
But dread mixed with my grief at the shuttered expression on her face and I wondered if perhaps we were far from any understanding at all.
Chapter Eighteen
“How long?”
Mateo appeared to rouse himself, scrubbing a hand over his face. Lord Azad was barely out of the townhome and I tried not to think of him, of everything that had come to pass. However, Mateo did not look my way, only adjusted the covers around Jules’ sleeping frame. “What do you mean?”
I leaned against the window frame. “How long have you two been together?”
His laugh was soft and so full of heartbreak it made my eyes prick. He touched Jules’ cheek, tracing the line of the bone to her hair. “We are not together.”
“Oh,” I breathed, wrapping my arms around my middle.
Mateo shifted, his shoulders turning toward me a little, but his attention remained fixed to her face. “Jules is steadfast. She viewed her commitment to Peter as lifelong, regardless of if he was in this world or the next.”
Peter…that must have been Lilith’s father. I could not fathom such a commitment, especially when he’d died thirty years ago. “But you love her.”
He nodded. “I do.”
The words left my mouth before I could stop them. “And you would not change her?”
Tension rippled across his shoulders. “I would not be so heartless as to inflict this life on another without their consent—I learned all too young how monstrous such a thing can be.”
“I’m sorry, Mateo.”
He looked up finally, his smile weak. “Do not be.”
After another moment he stood, tugging at the lapels of his jacket and wiping his hand across the dark brown skin of his cheeks. He leaned down, pressing a kiss to Jules’ brow that was so intimate and full of devotion I could not bear to watch him give his goodbye.
“You don’t need to leave,” I said when he’d finished whatever whispers he’d given her.
“It is better I do. But I will come back, perhaps tomorrow or the next night—her daughter does not need a heartbroken vampire wailing in the corner like a ghost.”
Before I could argue, he vanished, the sound of the front door opening and closing the only sign that he had not simply disappeared. I took Mateo’s place at Jules’ side, brushing the back of my fingertips across her burning brow before reaching for the cloth and bowl of water. She did not stir as I placed the dampened fabric over her forehead or when the thudding sound of footsteps approached.
A swirl of brown curls appeared beside me so fast I would have thought Lilith was a vampire too. She climbed onto the bed on Jules’ other side, face already crumpled in grief.
“Maman…” she breathed, trembling as she reached out toward her mother but did not touch. For a moment I was unsure what to do or if I was overstepping by being here, but I’d only half risen before Lilith grabbed my hand and squeezed tight.
Lord Azad slipped into the room, hair windswept and wild around his face. I tried not to stare, but my attention lingered on him all the same. His face was drawn in an expression of sadness so acute it set my eyes burning again, though itfelt insensitive to cry when it was Lilith who was in danger of losing her mother. I had only known Jules for six months—Lord Azad had known Jules her whole life.
It broke my heart further to watch Lilith hold back her tears, unnecessarily tucking the covers higher and then rising to close the drapes. I stood as she tidied the room, gathering a few pieces of Jules’ clothing left over a chair and crossing to her wardrobe. But Lord Azad got there before I could, curling one hand around Lilith’s shoulder and turning her toward him. A sob burst from her and he shushed her, pulling her to his chest while cupping a hand over the back of her head as if she was merely a child.
The back of my neck itched and heat crept up my throat. I swallowed, twisting my fingers into my skirts, and slipped out into the hall, wiping furiously at my eyes with the back of my hand.
Noah appeared at the bottom of the stairs as I opened the door to the top floor, his eyes wide and light brown skin pale. “Where are they?”
I gestured toward the sound of Lilith’s quiet sobs. “In there.”
