Page 6 of Nineteen Eighty

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “If it’s a gift, on your day—”

“It is a gift,” Connor replied, grinning. “But not from me.”

Elizabeth approached the table with some trepidation. The nerves were back, and again, she couldn’t identify their source. It was as if she and Connor were still courting, and not nearly a decade into their relationship.

“Go on,” Connor said, wearing the look of an eager child.

With a heavy inhale, Elizabeth peeled back the unsealed flap. Two plane tickets fell out.

Paris.

“What…”

“A gift from Augustus,” Connor explained, in a rush, as if afraid if he took too long she might jump down his throat. “Well, he gave me cash, but it was specifically to take you away for the summer, and, um, I walked down to the travel agency with Atty, you know the one down on, uh, Canal, and, uh, Burgundy, and I realized I didn’t know where I wanted to take you, but, um, I knew it needed to be special, because the thing is, Elizabeth, I intend to elope with you, across the world somewhere, where it’s just us and you’re safe, and we’re safe, and you can be my wife and we can be happy, and, uh, the travel agent lady suggested there’d be no better place than the City of Lights, which I guess is what they call—”

Elizabeth launched herself at her fiancé, flying into his arms and tangling her own around his neck as she answered the unasked question with tear-stained kisses.

CHAPTER 2

Ready or Not

Tiny footsteps echoed down the marble halls of The Gardens. Luther’s brows kept rising and falling with every loud thud, as if expecting a million-dollar vase to come careening to its death in dramatic response. Colleen just laughed. As a mother of three, she was used to not reacting until the vase did careen to its death.

“Josephine is so lovely. I’m so happy for the two of you,” Colleen said. Luther, now a grown man of eighteen, had married his high school sweetheart over Christmas. She’d come to the wedding, but hadn’t had the time to socialize, and so meeting Josephine over tea today had been a nice chance for Colleen to get to know the young woman who’d married her greatest ally on the Council. “And children?”

Luther’s cheeks flushed. “We’re hoping for a few. Josephine comes from a family even bigger than mine. I think she’ll be a wonderful mom.”

“And you’ll be a wonderful dad,” Colleen said, smiling. Amelia came staggering into her legs, nearly knocking her sideways. She wrapped her tiny body around both limbs. “Oof. Where’s Ben?”

“Hiding. He thinks I don’t know where, but I do. He’s not so smart.”

“Oh, I see.” Colleen grinned at Luther, who winked. “And Ash?”

“Daddy took him for a walk in the stroller.”

“You didn’t want to go?”

Amelia scrunched her face. She whipped her white-blond hair behind her. “I’m not a baby, Mom.”

“My mistake.”

Amelia lifted her face and screamed, “Ready or not, here I come!” and then went peeling off in the direction she’d come.

“She has Noah’s mischief in her,” Luther remarked.

“She’s an interesting child. She can play hard, but then wants to be left alone for hours.”

“Has she come into her abilities yet?”

Colleen sighed. She looked down the hall where her oldest had returned to her play. “I think she might be an empath, Luther.”

Luther opened his mouth to say something, but then instead just nodded.

“I can’t help but make comparisons to Maddy.”

Luther touched her arm. “Colleen, you can’t make those comparisons. It’s not fair to you, or to Amelia. Sometimes who we are, as people, makes the gifts we’re given easier, and sometimes it makes them harder. We never know how the combination will work out.”

“She’s broody, like Maddy.”

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