Nearby was her dear Sera, the little mouse of a bookworm, the most brilliant witch she knew, and the most courageous of them all. She faced danger without blinking an eye and had tamed a dark and broken wolf with a smile.
Ian Macon had suffered tremendous loss, and only sweet and steadfast Sera could bring his soul and heart back to the living. Now, as Ian hovered over her, she simply smiled and cradled her belly. There were still months before this new life arrived at Sanctuary, but already Ian was more fiercely protective of her than usual. The next few months would surely be interesting to see.
Violet let her thoughts slide to the people missing from their little gathering. Soren had retreated to his mountain lair, but he never stayed away for long. The solitary weredragon came more often, obviously weaving a stronger bond with Valeria as his daughter.
Layla was back at her store, busy as ever. Abrams didn’t return, the ghoul deciding that life close to humans—or other more dangerous creatures—was too much for him, and his cave labyrinth suited him better.
While Soren had retreated to his mountain, Hunter returned to work as a cop of Easthallows, also making sure everyone at Sanctuary remained secret from the humans of the little Maine town. However, he visited Sanctuary often and Violet suspected something else kept him coming back, or maybe was it someone?
Never forgetting his Sanctuary family, he’d even welcomed Brennan into his apartment during his transition to the human world. Finn’s brother still had a long way to go, and Hunter was the only human who could understand his situation and help him out until he got his bearings.
Eyes lost in the dancing flames, she felt Finn tighten his arms around her, his whisper soft to her ear. “I love how you paint all of them, how they appear in your head.”
She smiled up at him. Since Finn had been resuscitated and the vampire in him died, his newfound powers still needed to be mastered and explored, but it suited him. For so long, he’d walked the darkest part of magic; this time, he could contribute to his world in a completely different way.
In time, he would become her equal, complementing each other, dark and light, magic over the living and the dead in balance. Well, as much as possible.
“Have you read what’s in my head again?”
His grin showed, so full of himself. “Same as you do all the time, my darling witch. For my part, I can’t resist being there and seeing all your secrets.”
When he took her mouth in a searing kiss, his mind opened to her, and all she saw was how he adored her. It was her turn to smile at his smug belief that he knew everything about her. His vampire arrogance still lingered, and she always loved setting him straight, sometimes with a hard shove, but this time, with the softest push.
Instead of speaking, Violet started filling his mind with images of them together—sleeping, laughing, making love, holding their child in her arms.
As soon as the image was conjured, his mouth froze upon hers, and his sudden intake of breath confirmed that she had indeed surprised him. Ever so slowly, he retreated to look at her, but no words were said, and his mind was blank.
His surprise was such because he still had the idea that vampires couldn’t hope of having children. Violet had to admit that it skipped her mind too until her body and instinct told her that they’d indeed conceived. Keeping her knowledge to herself had been difficult, but she wanted to give him the news herself, and not due to an errand thought.
Disbelief and hope filled him and flowed into her. There was so much he couldn’t voice—fear, love, astonishment, hope. A blinding faith in her ability to light the way for them, and in him to protect her and their family, how small or big it would be.
Violet thought he would shout the news to everybody around them, but instead, he brought her even closer to him. “Thank you.”
She looked up at him with questioning eyes.
“Oscar Wilde was wrong when he said, ‘Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.’ He didn’t know how beautiful life would be with Violet Shaughnessy in it.”
“You knew Oscar Wilde?” Sadness descended upon her. “Won’t you miss crossing the centuries and miss meeting all those amazing people who made history?”
He put his warm hand over her flat stomach and spoke this time. “I did have that chance and took full advantage of it. However, when I look back, it felt more like watching from the sidelines than truly living history. All those people who died while I lived, and for me, they didn’t matter. My history started when I found you. You’re the only important person, the one who brought me back to life when I thought death was the only thing for me to do.”
As the fire roared into the night, Finn kissed her, and her entire being and magic reached out and mingled with him. All three of them would weave their own piece of history and make sure it was worth living because now they both knew that life and death were only the beginning.
Sneak Peek: Broken Magic
Book one of the Sanctuary Chronicles
Read about Valeria and Asher
mybook.to/BrokenMagic
The wind picked up and tickled the leaves, making it difficult for Valeria to discern any sound. For hours, she had walked the forest, following her gut feelings. Her feet knew where she was going more than her
