Seventy-Eight
Evelina
Evelina was goingto have Daimon’s child. Without him.
She threw the bundle across the room and screamed in frustration.
Annora stirred beside her, rolling over. “Evelina?” She quickly sat up, her throat scratchy from sleep. “What’s—” Her breath caught. Slowly, she slid off the bed and walked over to the bundle of flowers. She picked it up and looked back at Evelina. “This means…”
Evelina nodded her head and pulled her knees to her chest. “I can’t do this,” she said into her hands. “I can’t do this without him.”
Annora placed a hand on her shoulder. “Who?” she said gently. Her voice was filled with understanding.
Evelina looked up at her. Her lip wobbled and she felt a rush of new tears threatening to spill over. She swallowed and answered, “Daimon.”
Annora’s bright gray eyes stared back at her, wide and filled with shock. “Daimon,” she repeated slowly. “But Daimon is…”
Evelina took in a shaky breath and said, “He isn’t dead, Annora.”
Annora’s brows pinched together as the words hung in the air. “Then where is he?”
Evelina never planned on telling anyone what Daimon had done, who he had become. But she could trust Annora more than she could trust anyone. She had grown up with Daimon, her parents taking him under their wing. If anyone could understand, it would be her.
“Daimon is the son of Nyx,” Evelina finally said. “He became the ruler of the Shadow Realm to help secure the border, to try and keep the rebels from crossing. He bought us time to regroup, but he can never leave.”
The last words felt like poison on her tongue.
Annora was quiet for a moment, her eyes bouncing between Evelina’s. “But if he’s there and you’re here…”
“I’ve seen him on the Harvest Moon every year since Moros died,” Evelina said slowly. “I thought it was a dream, my mind wanting to believe he wasn’t lost to me forever. It was only in passing, small glimpses without any real contact before. But this past Harvest Moon…” She chewed on her lip as Annora gasped. “It was like he was here with me. I could hear him—touch him.”
Annora sat heavily beside her and leaned against the wall. She blew out a long breath, processing the words.
“What am I going to do?” Evelina whispered. “Daimon is in the Shadow Realm. When it comes time for the child’s Essence to be blessed at the temple, there will be no hiding it then.”
People would fear the child. They wouldn’t accept the magic inside it.
Annora crossed the room and sat beside her on the bed. She wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close.
“I cannot lose this child.” Evelina’s voice cracked.
Annora squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen,” she said quietly. “We can say the father died?”
“But then the Essence would lift to the skies, to Caelum,” Evelina whispered. “The way Daimon described it, the Essencethat came out of him went to his mother, while the line that was supposed to seek out his father just…cut off.”
Annora was quiet for a moment. Evelina could practically hear her trying to figure out what to do.
“His magic cut off,” Evelina said slowly. “As if his father didn’t have Essence at all.”
Then her heart raced. It was possible the child only hadoneparent with magic.
She twisted toward Annora and gasped. “What if the father was human? We would still need a way to hide the shadows, but this would at least explain only my Essence surfacing.”
Annora shook her head. “That’s a big risk, Evelina. With the war, the rebels, the curse… Moros? It would be an outrage.”
Evelina swallowed. “But having the child of the Lord of Shadows would be undeniably worse. He may as well be one of the dark gods now.”
“Even if it worked, Eve…” Annora spoke slowly, clearly trying to dissuade her from the idea. “What human would even agree to this?”
