I sigh. “If he comes back and we are…good…I need you to be okay with him as well,” I say cautiously. It is the first time I have broached this subject with Devon. Frederick already knows and accepts whatever may come. My love is nothing but practical and wise to my feelings.
“Maybe,” Devon growls, avoiding my gaze.
That means no. I know him far too well.
“I love you,” I say gently.
“I love you too,” he answers with a smile and then goes back to Marguerite who takes his outstretched hand quickly. Not out of jealousy over his words to me, but out of not wanting to be apart from her lover for very long. I know exactly how she feels. I have to be touching Frederick all the time to feel whole. To know that he is there and that he loves me and that I am safe.
They disappear, leaving me alone momentarily before Frederick appears behind me. He wraps his arms around me and kisses my neck. I smile and breathe in his feral scent. It turns me on something fierce, but there is no time for that. I can sense Thia coming and she is anxious to get this show on the road.
“When will you tell him?” he asks me the question I know he has been dying to ask.
“When I feel it’s right,” I reply vaguely and pat his hand, pulling away to greet my daughter.
“Savvie gone?” she asks. She doesn’t mean to be rude, but her sister was the only thing standing in the way of her reuniting with her father.
“Yes,” I say with a nod.
“Let’s go,” she almost barks at me and I take in a deep breath. I run my hand through my shoulder length hair, happy that it has once again grown long enough to tie back (and be pulled in the throes of passion). I pull it into a ponytail and fasten it with a band. I smooth down by black pants and black silk blouse.
I nod, when I feel ready enough and call out for Remiel. He appears with Delinda hanging off his arm. He nods at me grimly.
Delinda gives me a shaky smile. I know she wants to come as well to protect me and her sister should things go awry, but I don’t want her in the line of fire. Constantine would never hurt his own daughter so I know she will be safe.
Remiel holds his hands out and we each take one. I smile at Frederick, trying to be reassuring, but I think it comes out more like a grimace, which he returns. He opens his mouth to protest his absence once more, but I shake my head before he can get the words out. His presence will only make things worse.
And then we are gone from his sight.
Remiel has Astralled us to… Ponte?
“He was here the whole time?” I ask incredulously.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he scoffs. “I brought him here a few moments ago.”
“Oh,” I say feeling foolish as my cheeks heat up. I take him in, lying on what used to be our bed. Looking peaceful and just has devastatingly handsome as always. I feel a pang and I
choke back the sob. I haven’t laid eyes on him since I left Ponte all those years ago. I just couldn’t after what he did. He hurt me terribly, even though I understand, at least in part, his actions.
“Arathia. Give me a minute, please.”
She huffs at me, desperate to wake him up, but I need to say something to him first.
“Go!” I almost shout at her and she slinks off with a face of thunder.
“Stay,” I instruct Remiel. Just in case.
I walk over to my sleeping husband and I can’t resist taking my hand and stroking his face with the back of it and then laying it to rest on his chest. It rises and falls every few seconds.
“I am sorry,” I say to him. “I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but I need to say this to you while you are still and quiet.” I smile despite myself. “I am so, so sorry that I hurt you. It was unintentional, as it always is. I never meant for things to turn out that way but know that it was a mistake. The action not the result,” I add fiercely knowing how awful that just sounded. “I have loved you since I first saw you and that hasn’t changed, but I no longer trust you and that is why this has happened to you. For a thousand years, you had been nothing but my savior, and then you tried to kill me. My trust in you shattered and I hate that more than anything. But I know that your trust in me also broke and for that I have deep regret. I have only ever wanted to please you and make you happy, yet time and again, I seem to do the exact opposite.” I pause and smile at him. He can hear me; his heart is beating faster, and his breathing has deepened. “I hope that you don’t hate me even more for leaving you here all this time, but I had a daughter to protect. You will have lifetimes with your own and I wish you all the happiness with her. I hope that you will want me to be a part of that too.” I wipe away the tear that sprang up out of nowhere. “Uhm, this probably won’t come as a surprise, but Frederick and I got married seventeen years ago. I know you will have expected that, but he wanted me to tell you.”
Feeling every bit the coward for telling him while he was asleep, I back up and call out for Thia.
She races into the room and without preamble or ceremony, launches herself at Constantine and kisses him soundly on the forehead and then both of his cheeks, her eyes streaming with tears. “Wake up,” she tells him, shaking his face that is clutched in her hands. “Wake up!”
She is about to scream at him again but stops with her mouth wide open as his eyes flutter and I hold my breath, taking Remiel’s hand, as they fly open to land on his grown-up daughter’s face.
“Daddy!” Arathia shouts in his dazed face and flings herself on him while he struggles to get up.