Page 61 of Last Hope
“But...but I thought you were in Spain!”
Esmeralda shared a smile with Anya. “I came back as soon as Anya called to tell me what happened.”
Isis looked at Anya then back to her best friend. “You came back for me?”
Ezzy looked shocked she had even asked. “Of course I did. That was always the plan, you know.”
“And Antonio? And Viktor?” Isis looked around but they weren’t in the room.
“Antonio is downstairs supervising play time with Viktor, Othello and Lucinda.” Esmeralda smiled sweetly.
“This isn’t a dream?” Isis couldn’t help asking. A part of her felt as though this were too good to be true, that this couldn’t be happening, that happiness didn’t exist after tragedy. But she was wrong. They appeared so real...
“It’s not a dream, don’t worry,” Ezzy said.
Isis sucked in a breath then looked down at her pale hands sadly. “Then, Azizi...he really...I mean...he’s dead?”
Both girls shared a look before Anya answered. “He is.”
Isis looked up at her Soul Mate. “But he died with a smile on his face, right? He died happily?”
Anya managed a small smile. It was small, but it was real and it gave Isis hope for the future. “He died as he lived. Happily, and by your side.”
It was all Isis needed to hear before she broke down, reaching for two of the most important people she had in the world hoping and wishing that no matter what the circumstances were, that no matter how hard things got they could stick together.
That they would live.
Happily.
Months later
Isis watched the kids run around the park, chasing one another. Really, the only one’s running around were Othello and Viktor. Lucinda was sitting on a bench, far off, with a book in her hands. Occasionally, she would look up after the boys, the smallest of worried scowls on her face and remind Isis of her mother.
It saddened Isis to see them without their parents, knowing it had been her fault they had died. But the kids didn’t blame her; they blamed “the bad guys” as they had put it. But that didn’t stop her from feeling any less guilty. And in all of that guilt she had decided, with determination, that she would adopt the children. And she had.
Now, they had someplace new to call their home. It wasn’t as woodsy as the one they had had in Romania and maybe it wasn’t as special, but it was still their home nonetheless.
Their sadness had dissipated quickly and quietly, or so they wanted Isis to believe. Sometimes, at night, when they were supposed to be asleep she could hear them through their bedroom door, crying and whispering the names of their parents. Riordan and Ami. But even though they mourned them, they had made rooms in their hearts for a new home, for a new family.
Othello and Viktor, though their age difference, had seemed to have gotten along quite well. Viktor had turned a year old and was now walking and shouting words. He was as crazy as his father and as rebellious as his mother, Isis mused. Both boys were going to be a handful when they grew into teenagers. She could only imagine the trouble they’d stir up at school together.
And that’s when Isis got her idea.
“They don’t have any special schools for supernaturals, do they?” she asked Esmeralda, Antonio and Anya.
“None that I know of,” Anya said.
Ezzy shook her head. “I was planning on homeschooling Viktor.”
Isis thought for a moment. She thought of all of the orphans out there like Othello and Lucinda, unable to live normally due to deaths, due to the fact they had magical blood surging through their veins. She thought of Viktor, unable to attend class with humans at a young age because of the fear of uncontrollable bloodlust. Who would teach these children the ways of the supernaturals? She hadn’t had a good teacher, and neither had Azizi. And it’s what the world desperately needed. A school to help supernaturals, orphans and the like.
“I’m going to open a school for supernatural children,” Isis decided aloud.
Ezzy laughed. “Really?”
“Yes. It will be big, for preschoolers, elementary, middle school, high school and maybe even college. For all of those supernaturals out there who are afraid they won’t fit in at human schools, for those who need guidance in our world, for those who are afraid to stand out and reach their full potential.”
“With a day class and a night class,” Esmeralda chimed in. “The night class for vampires,” she added a little shyly. “It’s a good idea.”
