“Have they changed, Aefre?” he asks.
“No,” I say. “I did what I did for my father and to bring Sebastian home.”
He nods once and then looks pensive. “I have something to ask you,” he says. “I have thought this through, a lot, since you came home and please just listen before you dismiss it.”
I am mildly surprised he is asking me to listen to him instead of just telling me, so I nod seriously and let him continue.
“As much as I am loath to admit this, it has to be,” he says, avoiding my gaze. “I am the original one. I am the one who you were supposed to be with all along. It was our date on the prophecy. Ours. That means that Laurentis has to be my father too.”
He looks so pained by that; I reach out to stroke his cheek. He pushes me away and I feel the rejection like a punch in the stomach. He in turn feels my pain and takes my hand and squeezes it. I fully understand why he is very unhappy about this. His father was a Senate member, one of the original Senate members at the founding of Rome. That means his blood is pure, he is or rather was, a pure Patrician. This revelation has just taken all of that away from him
and everything he knew about himself is suddenly a lie. Yes, we’ve all been there. Christ knows I have had my fair share of parental surprises, but he has lived for two thousand, seven hundred and sixty-one years with a lie. My one thousand years pales in comparison.
“That being said,” he continues, “any child you have with me will be the One.” He looks back at me, but with an odd look that I can’t quite place. “As far as I can see, Rem, err him, being back makes no difference. We didn’t just suddenly lose our inherent ‘chosen-ness’ when he resurrected. It’s innate. Don’t you agree?” he asks me, his eyes boring into mine.
Well, I guess. It makes sense, as much as any of this does. I nod and he looks relieved we are, thus far, on the same page.
“So why has it never occurred to you to have my child now?” he asks accusingly. “Cassis in the Other World is the One, and she is ours. Other ours. Why has Cole been considered the One and him, but not me?”
I stare at him, taken aback. “I don’t know,” I say honestly. “Maybe because we missed our chance?”
“Did we, though?” he asks, thankfully not put out by my words. “I still turned you, we married on sacred ground, maybe we have come full circle?”
Huh. It’s a solid theory, and one I can get on board with…except…
“Any child we have will be for my mother’s side,” I say quietly. “I chose my father.”
“Who says?” he asks. “You are still half Faerie, maybe with a bit of extra Faerie care, she will be what they are hoping for.”
“The child is supposed to be half Dark, half Light,” I say with pursed lips. “It cannot be just Dark.”
He shrugs and as expected he has an argument prepared. “Then you have a child with Sebastian afterwards. If we have a child now and raise it Faerie, your mother will not have a claim to it.”
I take that in. I am as sure as I sit here on his lap that any child, I may bear with any of Laurentis’s sons will be whisked away by my mother before I can blink.
“You already agreed to have a child with me, Aefre,” he says as I remain silent. “I am just asking that we push it forward.”
Well, true. I did agree to that, and I do want it. But now? I suppose on one hand if I am already pregnant, Remiel won’t be able to come and seduce me again, but it still leaves the question of the firstborn child and on whose side it will be. I frown then as I have a sudden epiphany.
“What?” he asks as he sees my wheels spinning in all directions.
“The firstborn,” I say. “Has already been born.”
“I don’t follow,” he says.
“Tiamat said the firstborn will be the one to bear the power. I have already had a child. He didn’t survive, but that shouldn’t make a difference, and,” I say and suddenly snap my fingers as another thought pops into my head as I muse out loud, “Empress Aefre has Cassis, who is Queen of the Underworld and she is pregnant with, no, she must have already had it by now, Sebastian’s Faerie baby. A baby that Drake and Aelfric insisted upon and knew it was the second born. Maybe what my mother says is wrong.”
CK frowns at me and my ramblings. Unfortunately, I didn’t confuse him enough and the facts I have just given him incriminate me far more than I ever, ever wanted. Stupid me.
“How do you know she had a Faerie baby? And that it was still wanted even though it was a second born?” he asks.
“Details,” I say dismissively, waving my hand in indifference, even though I am quaking inside. “The point is, maybe everyone can get what they want. Maybe it isn’t as clear cut as I first thought.”
He takes my vagueness in the manner in which it was intended, thankfully, and smiles at me. “So that’s a yes?”
“Yes,” I say and smile back at him. “With certain provisos,” I add.
“Of course,” he murmurs.