Page 119 of Anathema Codex

I don’t take my eyes off the door though, and I know that in another minute I’ll be checking out the window again, because hope is the one thing that suffering in hell hasn’t been able to completely destroy inside me yet.

I still have hope that I’ll get one last glimpse of the sun, one last breath of fresh air, before there’s only darkness left.

And I’ll get it. I have to.

As soon as Lakyn keeps his promise and brings Bea back to me.

ELEVEN

Daddy Issues

AFTYN

We’re both slick with sweat, and I’m too hot right now, but I can’t take my hand off The Daughter’s belly.

She could be pregnant right now.

I could be a dad.

The idea brings a smile to my lips, and I press my fingers into her skin just a little bit as I make a silent promise to the tiny life that I hope is forming.

I don’t care if you’re a boy or a girl, but I swear I’ll be a good dad to you. I’ll be all the things for you I wish my mother had been, and I’ll never hurt you. I’ll never be ashamed of you. I’ll make sure you know you’re loved. Every damn day. I promise.

The Daughter stretches, and the roll of her hips breaks my contact with her belly, but it’s fine. It knows how I feel, and I’ll be here to watch her belly grow, and I’ll be there when they’re born. When she turns to look at me, my throat feels suddenly dry, but her smile gives me courage.

“Do… do you think it worked?” I whisper, and my voice sounds funny in my ears, but I keep looking at the smooth expanse of her stomach, imagining it swelling and I have to believe it’s true.

She just smiles at me in that infinite way and brushes her hand over my cheek, drawing my gaze back to hers.

“Do you?” I repeat.

“Perhaps. Only the Light will show us the truth of it, dear Aftyn,” she answers softly.

“I think it did.” I nod, because in this moment I can feel the Light within me, speaking to me, speakingthroughme. “I feel a kind of connection.”

“To me?” The Daughter asks, and I lean down to kiss her. Her lips are warm, still sweet from all of the ambrosia we drank, and the way my skin tingles from her touch is just more recognition of her power.Ourpower now, because we’re united in one of the most important ways two people can be.

A new life.

“Aftyn?” she says my name on a laugh and the light, tinkling sound of it makes me laugh too.

“I’ve felt connected to you from the first moment I saw you.” I run my hand down her side and rest it on her belly again. “Now, it’s just… deeper.”

“I knew you were the right choice,” she whispers, and I lean down to kiss her again when I hear voices outside and the distant sound of an engine just before someone bangs on the door.

“Daughter, there is someone coming up the drive.”

Fucking Sun Wolf. Of course.

“Ignore him,” I whisper.

She looks at me and shakes her head, brushing her thumb over my lips before she sits up. “We must welcome them, whoever the lost souls may be. It’s our duty to the Light, our calling.”

Our duty. Our calling.

It’s all I’ve wanted since I first saw her. To be a part of her, to be connected to her, to be anus.

The only other person I’ve ever felt that with is Willa.WasWilla. But I have it again with The Daughter, and I have to believe that Wills had a hand in this. She’s in the Light now, which means she can see the way the world is designed, can see my destiny, and she’s helped me find it.

---