I couldn’t help it. I had to see… I wanted to know if anything could be done. I followed the trail of blood upstairs, to Arthur and Vara’s bedroom.
Vara was lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling as if she was barely aware of her surroundings. She took shallow breaths in a daze as Lucien knelt by her side, stroking her hair and murmuring things in Malovian to calm her.
I heard the tinkering of surgical instruments. My throat seized up as I witnessed the scalpels and clamps splaying across the metal tray that Miroslava had placed at the end of the bed.
She wasn’t preparing to stop the bleeding. She was getting ready to operate.
There were so many people filling this room. I was aware of the sharp and quick tones of my grandparents in the background as they barked orders. I didn’t know how Babcia and Bapa had gotten there so fast, nor Arthur, but he was there— he staggered to Vara’s bedside and fell to his knees, grasping her hand as tears trailed from his eyes.
“The rest of you go into the woods. Find the bodies, burn them and scatter the ashes far away,” Babcia barked. “Take a portal to another country to get rid of them. Droga cannot find the evidence here.”
Stefan and Theo hurried out the door, but I barely registered. I was too wrapped up in the sight of Vara as Arthur clutched her weak fingers and sobbed.
My mother was crying. I wished she’d stop wailing right now. Couldn’t she see there was nothing to be done? All I cared for was my brother’s comfort, his sorrow. Why wasn’t she being strong forhim?
Suddenly, my heart gave a stutter, and I felt something in the room physically change.
“Kazim,” Vara wheezed from the bed. “Kalina.”
That’s all she said. Her eyes dimmed, and her mouth fell open as her head dipped back.
“Vara?” Arthur nearly suffocated on her name. He grabbed her shoulder, and shook it lightly. “Come back.Come back.”
Miroslava didn’t stop. She moved quickly as she peeled back the folds of ruined clothing around Vara’s body and said, “I’m sorry. We must operate immediately.”
“Anesthetic—” Arthur choked out.
“She’s already gone, Arthur,” Miroslava said, as gently as she could with as much urgency as she could allow. “The infants are losing oxygen as we speak. I need to get them out. Ethan, Emma, help me.”
I moved as if electrocuted. My limbs jolted as I crossed to the bed— I maneuvered like I had strings pulled by a puppeteer, my body orchestrated by fate and not by my own mind. I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to do, but the next thing I knew, Lucien was laying a clean towel across my outstretched arms.
Miroslava didn’tseemto need any help, and she moved quickly. Vara had lost so much blood that she didn’t even bleed when Miroslava cut into her. Something warm and wriggling was laid into my arms, and the sound of a baby’s cry filled the room.
It was a little girl. The firm weight of a newborn child, screaming for all the world to hear, pressed against my chest. Instinctively, I wrapped the baby in the cloth Lucien had given me, and tucked her close to me. I could feel my heartbeat connect against her skin as her tiny fists angrily waved in the air. I looked down at the baby, to take in her features. Vara’s pale blonde hair stuck up in a mess along the top of her head, and I caught a glimpse of Arthur’s nose. Beyond that, her features were lost to me.
I think Miroslava had cut the cord, but I couldn’t be sure. I wasn’t aware of much else but the sight of this tiny baby kicking in my arms, and her stone-cold mother on the bed. Emotions should’ve been coursing through me, but I felt next to nothing. I think I was in shock.
Ethan’s face was completely baffled as Miroslava placed a little boy in his arms. His eyes took on a visage of wonderment as he looked over the child, who was crying just as loudly as his sibling. The boy looked nearly identical to the daughter I held. Fraternal twins, just like me and Arthur.
I had the feeling something wonderful would happen today, and it did. But something terrible had happened, too. Arthur’s head fell against Vara’s mottled chest as he wept. I clutched Kalina closer to me, feeling my brother’s aching grief for his mate. He’d become a father in the worst possible way. Just this morning, he had hope for a bright future ahead with a brand-new family.
What was left of that future was dust. These children had no mother, and Vara was gone.
Chapter Five
Ethan
Iwas very tired of attending the funerals of friends.
How Arthur had wept. I’d never forget it. The sound of his wails as Vara’s body burned on the pyre became a permanent soundtrack in my mind as the days dragged on. I think the loss destroyed him. Even after Vara’s ashes were scattered to the wind and the remains of the pyre were buried, he moved around like a ghost. I had the thought that since Vara had died, Arthur had gone with her, and his body remained as a lonely, empty vessel here on this earthly plane.
I feared his fate, because if Emma’s prophecy came true, I would be in his place. I promised my wife I wouldn’t lose myself in her loss, but seeing it firsthand happen to someone else made my worst fears amplify. I’d fall apart in her absence, and if there was a chance of recovery, I didn’t know if I’d be strong enough to accept her passing and move on.
Stefan and Theo had taken the bodies of thekarkansto Spain and burned them there, spreading the ashes over the countryside. When they’d gone back in a week to check, Droga’s demons were swarming the area, searching for Emma’s location. Faylin had very quick thinking to get rid of them far outside of Ireland. If we hadn’t, Droga would’ve been here by now.
The only hope we had in all of it was the children, and they were a blessing. The infants required constant care, and were a good distraction.
“Arty, are you sure you don’t want to hold her?” Emma lifted Kalina in her arms. We were in the nursery, a room painted yellow and decorated with white lambs and newborn chicks.
