Heir of Night (The Thorne Hill)

“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 have to 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.”