Misty
“Briar,” Sarah says weakly, sweeping her thumb over the perfectly pink baby girl’s cheek. Sarah smiles softly, her eyes still glazed with exhaustion and her hair damp with sweat. “And this one–” she reaches for the second baby, another girl, nestled in a traumatized Sydney’s arms. “Celeste.”
“Those are beautiful names,” Aviva says gently, laying another warm rag over Sarah’s forehead.
I’m watching from afar, my trembling hands cupping a mug of calming tea that’s doing nothing for my system. I was a teenager when Sarah came into Sydney’s life. I remember whispers about her falling ill but didn’t understand how horrifically sick she’d really been until now.
Sarah is a Mystic. She’s different. It takes so much more energy to heal her. Healing her sucked my powers dry, and I feel… shockingly empty right now. It was like running a marathon and then getting hit by a bus, but she’s alive, and so are her twins.
Sydney accepts another cup of tea from Ryan with a weak nod. He looks like death itself, unable to look anyone in the eyes. Ryan pours a heavy dram of whiskey in Sydney’s mug and claps him on the shoulder before walking over to where I’m gripping the kitchen table for dear life while Cole stares out the window in silence.
None of us have ever seen anything like that. Even Ryan, the king of saying something totally inappropriate and lighthearted during times like these, has nothing to say except, “The midwife will be back from Endova in a few hours. My scouts caught up to her and are escorting her back.” He sighs, running his fingers through his hair. “Bad timing, I guess. She was heading into Endova to help with a birth there.”
Aviva appears, looking shaken but somewhat recovered. “They’ll be fine in Endova without her. She was only assisting their new midwife.” She debates sinking into a chair beside me but decides against it, glancing out the window instead. It’s still a few hours until morning. A few hours until we’re meant to leave to get Maeve and Logan.
I feel Ryan’s gaze sweeping across our battered group. He clears his throat, leaning against the wall beside Cole. “Aviva and I will go to get the kids. I think it’s best you stay here, Misty.”
“Why?” I ask, my throat quivering like someone took a rake to my vocal cords.
“You saved Sarah’s life. Cole got the babies out, but Sarah and Briar would be dead if it hadn’t been for you. I’d feel better leaving knowing you were here with them in the event she needs more help.”
I look down at my hands still gripping the mug. I take a sip of the tea, then swallow the entire heavily sweetened liquid down, wincing at the taste. “I can barely think straight. She… Sarah needed all of my powers to heal. It’ll be a while–”
“We have one more vial of Isla’s tears,” Aviva cuts in. She looks at Ryan, her lips pressed in a thin line.
Ryan nods solemnly. “We do. If she needs it, give it to her. Meanwhile, rest, eat something, and be prepared to step in if things go south again.”
“What about Sydney?” I ask as Aviva turns, steps back into the kitchen to fetch the kettle, and pours more tea.
“Sydney’s fucked up right now,” Ryan sighs. “But… we don’t have a lot of time. Finding the kids and bringing them home is the priority. Evander is supposed to meet us here in a few hours. He’s bringing back up–a few of his Ghosts–but I don’t want to wait.”
“What are you suggesting?” I ask, prickles of unease coursing through my body, or maybe that’s just the tea thawing my frozen muscles.
He scans his wife, who’s trying to thrust a cup of tea into Cole’s hand. “Aviva and I will go on foot. It’ll take longer than having Sydney or Kenna take us there, but we can’t wait any longer, and I think Sarah could use Kenna’s help, as well.”
I lean back to peek at Sarah, who’s still lying on a nest of blankets on cushions near the fire in the living room, her head tilted back against the couch and her eyes closed. Sydney’s head nods with fatigue. He’s barely able to keep his eyes open. There’s no way he’s going to be able to carry anyone to the distant mountains.
I look up at Cole. He’s watching the sky, the stars. His eyes are glazed in thought, and he looks absolutely beaten. He’s wearing one of Ryan’s shirts, but I can still see the remnants of blood staining his hands. Maybe I’m just imagining that, but still. I’m processing how quickly this happened.
He needs me right now as much as Sarah does.
“Okay,” I say after a moment, nodding. “I’m staying.”
Ryan nods, squeezing my shoulder in passing as he moves toward the living room. He crouches, checking on Sydney, before rising and disappearing into his nearby bedroom. Aviva starts pulling her weapons down from the rustic hangers lining the wall near the front door.
“I just mind-linked with Freya. The babies are fine with Mercy, but can you nurse Lexa for me while I’m gone?” She looks over her shoulder at Sarah. “Mercy’s brewing some raspberry leaf tea for Sarah. She needs to drink it–drink anything, honestly. Her milk hasn’t quite come in yet.”
Ryan returns with a bundle of supplies and sets it on the table, adding, “When Kenna and Evander get here, have Kenna notify Ryatt about what happened so he can get in touch with Mom and Dad.”
I nod along with their instructions, keeping a mental checklist. I sip my tea, watching them move through the house. Aviva disappears into the bedroom and returns wearing one of her Endovian shifting dresses and begins looping her weapons belt and halter over her small, muscled frame.
Ryan returns from upstairs with a strange backpack that's obviously meant to be worn in his wolf form. He starts stuffing supplies inside of it, his face washed in determination.
Silence hugs the cabin when they leave long before the first light of day. Aviva knows her way around the Deadlands and has apparently traveled into those mountains before to hunt in her youth. Still, I’m anxious. Maeve has been missing for days now, and our only consolation is that she’s with Logan, and he’s keeping her safe.
“You need to eat something,” I whisper to Cole while rummaging through the cabinets. I find some bread, cookies, and other dry goods. Everyone here eats their hot meals as a group, and it’s far too early for breakfast.
Cole breaks his gaze away from the window for the first time in over an hour and walks past me, crouching beside Sarah and gently taking her vitals. He’s still in doctor mode. He’s come home like this a few times after his shifts in the hospital… and I know it probably has to do with stress or feeling like he failed. I say nothing until he walks back over to the table and sits down, running his hand through his hair. I pour him a fresh cup of tea and sit beside him, both of us listening to the soft, rhythmic breaths of the family sleeping in the living room.
“You couldn’t have saved her,” I tell him, reaching for his hand. I squeeze his fingers, and thankfully, he squeezes back.
“I realized that pretty quickly; when she started bleeding like that.” He chews his lower lip. “It was the babies that broke me, I think.”
“Sarah’s not the average shifter,” I remind him. “Her body’s different. Her biology isn’t like ours. She’s not a witch, nor a wolf. She’s something else.”
“I know.” He looks down at our joined hands. “This is… important work we’re doing here. What I’m doing here. Ryatt and Isaac keeping the border open between Crescent Falls and Eastonia means… more people like Sarah living in Crescent Falls eventually. People who need something else when it comes to medicine and healing. We’re wholly unprepared for it in Crescent Falls.”
“But you’ll be prepared,” I edge, giving his shoulder a little nudge.
“Maybe you should take up healing,” he sighs, meeting my eyes for the first time all morning. “Your powers are… comparable to Isla’s tears, and those are in shorter and shorter supply these days. They’ll be gone soon, and you’re the only other person who has powers that potent.”
“My tears aren’t like hers. My healing power is in my light. I don’t know how to harness that for… commercial use.”
“I think we need to figure something out… for people like Sarah and her kids. For our kids, probably, if they have powers like yours.”
I haven’t given much thought to whether Addy will grow to have powers. Some people in the family wonder if our powers will weaken in the coming generations, especially in couplings like ours. Cole is a shifter. He doesn’t have gifts. Sydney has a few, but they’re nothing in comparison to his mates. Aviva was normal until recently, and Ryan… Ryan is a beast, he doesn’t have light or healing gifts.
I think of Kenna and her family. Evander is a hybrid fox-wolf shifter. That’s a gift in itself. Kenna is a Shadowsynger and Firestone witch, the most powerful being in our worlds other than her parents. But even Ella’s powers don’t hold a candle to Ryatt’s. He’s a scary guy–a freak of nature.
And Maeve?
She has enough power to destroy our world if she wanted to, and she’s only a baby.
There was so much stock put into whether or not I’d have powers. The public speculation around our family only grew as I got older. It was an enormous burden to carry, so much so that I buried my gifts as deep as I could to live as normally as possible… and for a while, I was able to.
Selfishly, I hope Addy doesn’t have powers. I hope he can have a normal life where all he has to worry about is shifting. I love that we live in suburbia, in a safe pack with my brother leading us so we can just… raise our kid. We can order a pizza when we’re hungry instead of hunting. I can drive to the nearest department store instead of shifting and worrying about where I’m going to find clothes before picking up my groceries.
But I know I can’t live like this forever. I was given these gifts for a reason. Aviva was made by the forge into something no one understands yet for a reason–a reason that may come in the future, when our family is needed again. When we have to rise up to protect ourselves, and our people, our kingdoms.
Sydney groans, which breaks me out of my own thoughts. Cole rises and walks to him on silent feet, their whispered conversation lost over the sound of boiling water I’m using to make oatmeal. Cole walks back to me holding Celeste while Sydney stumbles to the bathroom in search of a shower.
“Look at you,” Cole smiles. “You’re perfect.”
I stand and look down at the baby girl in his arms. She has white hair–a lot of it. So does Briar, her sister, younger by ten minutes. “She looks like Sarah.”
“I know.” Cole’s eyes meet mine, and I have a split second of vision showing me a glimpse of our future, our future girl. She’ll come as easily as Addy did, born into Cole’s loving hands… in our house this time because I will–again–ignore every sign of labor.
“When we have a daughter, I want to name her Josephine,” I whisper, stroking Celeste’s cheek.
“Why?”
“I’ve just loved the name for as long as I can remember. There was a book I used to read repeatedly about a girl named Josie who went on these grand adventures, and I… wanted to be like her because she was strong and funny. So, when it’s our turn again, I’ll have a little Josie of my own.”
Cole kisses my forehead as the first light of morning breeches the top of the mountains, painting the valley in pale pink and violet… and the dark shadows cast by Kenna, Evander, and his Ghosts arriving.