Heir of Night by Emily Goodwin
Chapter 28
“They’re both okay?” Kristy asks, breaking the momentary silence that filled the room. “Callie and the baby?”
“Yes,” Michael assures everyone. “Do not purposely try to rush anything, Callie.”
“Trust me, I won’t. The nursery isn’t set up yet.”
“We can work on that today,” Lucas tells me, thinking it will ease some of the stress and shock. It does and doesn’t at the same time. I’m feeling all panicked that things won’t get done in time, but at the same time, telling myself we can get to the nursery next week is reassuring in a way.
Because things won’t change yet.
Becoming a parent is a big fucking deal. Yes, Lucas and I are excited to start our little family, and yes, I have no doubt we will end up being the kind of parents I wished I had when I was a kid. But I can’t deny how much this will change things.
I’d promised myself from a young age I’d never be one of “those moms” whose social life drastically changes after they have a baby, and being a mom takes over their identity. I’m kidding myself thinking I can keep going on as normal, aren’t I?
“War and Famine,” I say, changing the subject. “They’ve already collected souls. What about the others?”
“Death will be the last Horseman to descend upon the earth,” Michael says, voice sullen.
“The others work subtly, but, uh, what about Death?” I lean against Lucas, knowing I’m not going to like the answer. “What does he do?”
“He magnifies what the other Horsemen have already done. Those who are hungry will starve. The sick will become even more contagious, even after death, and the wars sparked will become even more fatal And he’s a fan of causing natural disasters.”
“Well, isn’t he a ray of sunshine?” I let out a deep sigh. “So, uh, what do we do?”
“You mean what are the archangels going to do?” Lucas corrects and looks at my father. “What are you going to do?”
“I am rallying support from my brothers and sisters. We were the ones who cast the Horsemen in the caverns of Hell before.”
“Then do it again,” Lucas bellows.
“It’s not that simple,” Michael replies calmly. “The Horsemen are growing stronger every day, making it necessary to get support from the others. Uriel presents strong arguments against it and has several of my siblings convinced Lucifer will escape with more demons the moment we open the gates.”
“But Lucifer isn’t in Hell,” I say.
“The only way to prove that would be to betray my brother.” Michael moves over to the window, looking outside. “And right now, he’s the only other archangel on our side.”
“What about Camille or whatever?” I ask.
“Chamuel,” Julian says. “We believe she can be swayed, but we must be careful. Bringing the others to earth to fight the Horsemen is a surefire way for them to hear demonic chatter about you.”
“This is about more than just me,” I counter. “Save one person or save the earth? That’s not even a question. Save the freaking world, okay?”
“It’s more than that.” Michael pushes his broad shoulders back and turns to us. “Eliminating the Nephilim and punishing those responsible for her existence and for keeping her hidden will be deemed more important than fighting the Horsemen by my siblings.”
“So our relatives are all dicks,” I spit. “At least I never have to worry about making small talk with Uncle Uriel at a holiday dinner.” The headache starts to come back, and I close my eyes, bringing a hand up to rub the space between my eyebrows.
“I thought angels were supposed to be guardians and full of love,” Kristy mumbles to herself, slowly shaking her head back and forth. “We grew up differently, being witches, but how many times have you heard someone say to just have faith?”
“Over the years, I have seen religions rise and fall,” Lucas continues her sentiment. “Cities have been built and destroyed over beliefs.”
“There is no right or wrong when it comes to where you put your faith,” Michael tells us, and his words bring me an instant sense of comfort.
“Just don’t pray to me,” I try to joke. “I might hear your prayer, but I’m a hot fucking mess most of the time and probably can’t help.”
“At least you got the hot part down.” Lucas gently nudges me, and the knot in my chest loosens a tad. I can feel my heart racing, and I’m trying hard to chill the fuck out, but the harder I try, the more it frustrates me that I can’t.
“The nursery,” Michael says suddenly. “Show it to me.”
“You want to see the unfinished nursery?” I look at him dubiously.
He smiles warmly. “I do. Your mother wanted to set one up for you.”
“She didn’t get to.”
“No.” Some of the light in Michael’s eyes dims.
I watch my father look back out the window, a million questions running through my mind. What was his relationship with my mother like? Did he fly down into her bedroom at night and leave before sunrise? Did they go out on dates? How did my mom explain her pregnancy?
“She made you a quilt,” he says softly. “She was a terrible seamstress.” The light comes back to his face. “We would sit and watch the moon rise while she stitched little black squares of fabric together.”
“Oh my god. That was my baby blanket!” I feel a tug on my heart immediately when I think about it. “There were little stars in each corner and words embroidered in gold thread along the hem.” I close my eyes, remembering the way each letter felt when I ran my finger over it. “It said something about the moon, I think.”
“You could read what it said?” Michael asks, sounding surprised.
“Yeah. I learned to read when I was like five or six, I think. Abby read to me a lot. Why, is that young to be able to read?”
“That was written in Enochian. I didn’t think you’d be able to read it with all of your divinity locked away.”
“What did it say?”
“Know I am watching over you like the moon watches over the night, bringing the light of the day to the darkness.” Michael’s eyes get a little misty. “Your mother loved you very much.”
I tip my head down, choking back tears and losing my battle. They roll down my cheeks and splash onto my belly. Lucas wraps his other arm around me.
“I wish I had that blanket,” I squeak out and sniffle, waiting a beat before going on. “I don’t know what happened to it, or any of my stuff.”
“Maybe Abby knows,” Kristy suggests. “She brought you some photos, didn’t she?”
“Yeah. I can ask.” I wipe my eyes and lean back. “The nursery, right. It’s painted light purple, but now I’m thinking maybe we repaint it midnight blue and do a constellation theme.”
Lucas helps me to my feet. “Decorate it how you like, because I promise you, the baby won’t care.”
“Maybe I’ll do an enchanted forest theme with unicorns then.”
“Would you like a unicorn for the baby?” Julian asks, and Kristy and I get way too excited at his question.
“They’re real?” she asks. “Unicorns are real?”
“They don’t exist in this realm,” Julian says. “Not anymore.” He looks at my father. “I believe they escaped to the fairy realm nearly two thousand years ago.”
“But they can exist here, right?” I ask way too eagerly.
“You have talked about getting horses,” Kristy notes. “You have the space for it.”
“Yes, horses,” Lucas reminds. “Not unicorns.”
“All I’m saying,” Kristy goes on, “is if you get the chance to get an actual unicorn, you jump on it.”
“We already have a hellhound,” Lucas grumbles, and I laugh. He takes my hand again, and we lead the way upstairs into the nursery. The crib—the white one that we originally ordered—was replaced, but we haven’t put it together yet. The matching changing table came in just a few days ago and is still in a box as well.
“There’s nothing here,” Julian states the obvious.
“It will come along,” Michael says quickly, looking around the room. “Your mother liked historic homes too. You’re a lot more like her than you realize.”
“I wish I could have known her.” I put my hands on my stomach and remember the reason my mother went to the dark side in the first place. “I have an aunt. Lucifer told me the whole reason my mom used black magic was to save her sister. My aunt…does she know about me?”
“She did.”
“Oh, is she dead?”
“No. We decided it would be best to remove any memories of you.” Michael picks up a framed ultrasound photo. “Your aunt Amara was the only one who knew the truth about you.”
“Aunt Amara,” I whisper. “Did she have kids? They’d be my cousins.” My mind gets way ahead of itself. “Could I meet them? They don’t need to know I’m your daughter. I can say I don’t know who my father is and I was adopted, which I pretty much was. Although there will be holes in that story because everyone thinks I’m a Martin and basically already was adopted by the Greystones, so I’d have to say I was adopted twice.” I nod at my own web of lies. “The Martins adopted me and then sent me back once they realized I had magic.”
“You don’t send kids back, Cal,” Kristy tells me. “It’s not like an animal shelter where you can have them for a few years and get rid of them when you don’t want them.”
Lucas’s hand lands on the small of my back. “There’s a reason your father erased all memories of you.”
“I know,” I say with a yawn. “Like I have time for a family reunion anyway.”
“You should rest,” Michael tells me. “And I should go. It’s too risky to spend more time here.” He strides over and puts both hands on my shoulders. “You are my daughter, Callista. You are kind and strong and everything your mother wished for you to be. When you feel alone, look at the moon. You’ll know your mother is watching over you.” He kisses my forehead, steps back, and disappears.
“What did he say?” Lucas asks, making me realize Michael must have spoken in Enochian. “It made you cry.”
“Everything makes me cry right now, if you haven’t noticed.”
Kristy gives me a lopsided grin. “It’s definitely a different version of Callie. But, um, things are okay?”
“Yeah. I never realized how much I could miss someone I’ve never met.”
Julian picks up the big box with the crib in it so he can look at the picture on the packaging. “Would you like help putting this together?”
I rest both hands on my stomach and smile. “Yeah. That would be nice. You and Lucas can put together the furniture, and Kristy and I can work on the little stuff?” I look at my best friend. “As long as you don’t mind.”
She smiles. “Of course I don’t.”
“You guys didn’t haveto do this.” I close the door behind Nicole. She and Naomi brought over dinner so I wouldn’t have to cook.
“I know.” Naomi grins. “We’re just that good of friends.”
“Hey, I’ve been here all day,” Kristy sasses, and we laugh. “I even stayed when Callie napped.”
“You napped too.” I laugh. “That’s the first time since our university studies that we’ve passed out in a bed together.”
“I liked snuggling with Binx then. Having all three of your familiars with us took up more space than I would have guessed.”
“Try having Scarlet in there with you,” Lucas grumbles, and we laugh. We all go into the kitchen and sit at the island. It’s big enough to comfortably seat six people, though two of our party won’t eat anything. Julian is still in the living room, going through the books we brought from the Academy weeks ago. The amulet is fixed and can act as a seal, and he thinks there might be a way to amplify the power so we can use it to trap all four of the Horsemen at once and keep them locked up until we can get the gates open again.
“Nicole says you saw your father today?” Naomi looks at two bottles of wine I brought up from the wine cellar and goes with an aged red.
“Yeah. Julian was able to get his attention and bring him here. He can never stay long, but I’ll take what I can get.”
“How are you so calm around him and your uncle?” Nicole asks. “I feel like saying I fangirl is the wrong use of the phrase, but I kinda feel that way.”
“I know what you mean,” I tell her and get a serving spoon from the drawer. Our places are already set, and we take our seats. “They’re family to me.” I shrug. “Being around other angels feels right, like we’re herd animals or something that like to be with our own kind.”
“Your father is a hottie,” Naomi tells me. “I can see why your mom was so drawn to her forbidden love affair.”
“Gross,” I say and shovel a big spoonful of food onto my plate.
“I didn’t think Michael was your type.” Kristy takes the casserole dish from me.
“Because he’s an archangel?” Naomi asks, lips twisting into a smirk.
“Because he’s a guy.” Kristy fills her plate and passes the food down.
Naomi shrugs one shoulder. “Oh, I admire the male species from time to time. I just don’t want to date them. He’s not human. I might make an exception.”
“You are not dating my dad,” I retort. “It’s bad enough Eliza wants to corrupt Julian.”
“I didn’t say I’d date your dad. I just might swing the other way for a night.”
I shudder, and everyone laughs. “He still gets sad when he talks about my mom. It’s sweet in a heartbreaking way.”
“Lucifer had your mom’s dark spell book, and she ended up with Michael. How did that all happen?” Nicole asks carefully.
“I don’t know all the details,” I start. “Just that she turned to black magic to try and break a spell that bound her to her sister. She got addicted to the dark power, and Michael was sent to save her soul. And, well, we know he did a little more than that.”
“Sent by who?” Nicole asks, and then it dawns on her. “Oh my god, Callie.”
“What?”
“You’re here because of a literal divine intervention.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re jumping on Kristy’s bandwagon. I’m not the savior. Trust me on that. Badass bitch, yeah, I’ll own it. But savior…nope. Saviors are pure and good all around, and I’m definitely not that.”
“Especially not after you did that thing for me the other night.” Lucas smirks coyly from across the kitchen. “You should do it again tonight.”
“We do a lot of things. Which one are you talking about?”
“You know,” Lucas says and raises his eyebrows.
“Oh, I do know.” I run my eyes up and down Lucas’s body, getting turned on at the thought of getting naked with him again. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”
Kristy looks at me. “Do I even want to know?”
“I’m going to guess no,” Naomi says. “But I want to. It’s a sex thing, right?”
“Right,” I say with a nod. “Lucas is really into Star Wars, so I dressed up like a Jedi and used the force to have my way with him.” I hold out my hand, telekinetically giving Lucas a little shove. His eyes light up, and now he’s looking at me like he’s going to devour me right here and now. And fuck, I want him to. “I enchanted a lightsaber and everything.”
“And suddenly my sex life seems boring,” Naomi quips, and we laugh.
“It’s better than mine,” Kristy grumbles. “Mine is nonexistent.” She sinks her fork into a piece of pasta.
“You’re too picky,” Nicole goes on. “Just find a decent-looking guy to hook up with. It’s what’s getting me through the later part of my twenties.”
“One-nighters aren’t my thing.” She takes a bite of her food. “Though,” she starts when she’s finished chewing, “Daniel has been texting me. I like him and all, but there’s no fiery passion.” She uses her fork to point to me. “I definitely won’t be role playing anything with him.”
“Maybe that’s what you need to spark said fiery passion,” Nicole suggests.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “It won’t work because you’re meant to be with Evander.”
Kristy rolls her eyes. “Stop it with that.”
“Nope,” I say right back, trying not to smile. “You two are meant to be.”
“Only because you’ve deemed it so.” She chuckles.
We talk and laugh about how difficult it is to date now that we’re all getting older, and everyone agrees that Lucas and I have set unrealistic couple goals when it comes to romance. It’s a nice escape to hang out with my friends, and they leave shortly after dinner—which they brought and cleaned up so I wouldn’t have to, and basically forced me to change into PJs and get ready for bed on their way out.
Lucas is in the office on his phone, and I find Julian still in the library. He’s sitting on the floor with over a dozen books laid out in front of him.
“Need any help?” I ask, coming up behind him.
“I’ve gone through everything twice now,” he says and gets up.
“And did it give you any insight on what to do about the Horsemen?”
“Not on how they were created. Those books are very interesting. My interactions with humans have been limited, as you know. That includes witchcraft.”
“Oh, right, that makes sense.”
“You seem troubled,” he says.
“Well, aren’t we all right now?” A strangled laugh escaped me. “Though I am wondering something specific. Are the gates still closed?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“Because I can do this.” I hold out my hand and summon the blue hellfire. “It doesn’t feel like normal hellfire.”
Julian inches forward, holding out his hand, and sticks his fingers into the flames. It burns his skin, and the wounds heal instantly when he pulls his hand back. “The gates are still closed, and you’re right, it doesn’t feel like normal hellfire.”
“If the gates are closed and nothing is going in and out of Hell, then that would mean I can’t summon hellfire, right?”
“I believe so.”
“Then where is this coming from?” I flip my hand over, playing with the flames.
“I don’t know.” Julian looks from the fire to my eyes. “But it’s somewhere other than Hell.”