Page 73 of Rose and Shadows
That bastard, Victor, hadn’t impacted me like he’d hoped he could.
I was fine.
Just fucking fine.
12
~Sylas~
He hadn’t left her side.
I wanted to believe it was the astonishing revelation he’d been made aware of when I’d teleported him and his parents to a secluded area just inside Wraeven Academy grounds.
On our way down to Victor’s hellhole, Cassius had suggested that we wait a couple of days to tell Lazriel about Velra’s pregnancy. To give him some time to acclimate, to breathe. But there was no way we could have kept it from his highly-astute senses, for one. And secondly, it was Lazriel. It would be the greatest news ever to him.
And it had been.
He’d rushed to her when we’d arrived at Velra’s dorm room six hours ago, and he’d had his head resting on her belly ever since, listening to the baby’s heartbeat.
It had been interrupted a couple of times by Velra throwing up, something Cassius and I had determined wasn’t just a case of morning sickness, but a reaction to the baby requiring necromantic energy. As was Velra’s misfiring of her magic lately.
And that was why I was at my home in the middle of nowhere right now, working on the spellwork to fix that.
Rhyza and Remnant had lingered at the dorm for at least two hours, not wanting to leave Lazriel.
But they’d finally said their goodbyes when they’d seen how immersed and content Lazriel was with us. Cassius had taken off to investigate Ryker’s siphoning of the Celestial power and to check in on Ketheron.
Rhyza had headed off to speak with Jaxon about their pack business.
And now I had Remnant in my living room on the phone touching base with his people, while I had a holoscreen levitating for both of us to view that was watching over both Lazriel and Velra as they slept in Velra’s dorm room, giving us both the peace of mind we needed.
I watched the shadow and frost magic swirling around my beaker as my crimson flecks interacted with it, working to fuse with it. I’d had to extract those Wraith aspects from Velra’s mixed magical signature to ensure no Dark Fae aspects had remained. It was the Wraith only that was needed for this.
Working on this, it had become clear that the baby had interacted with the Dark Fae aspect and created an illusion using part of my necromantic power, which was what had kept its existence hidden. While the fetus wasn’t yet capable of actual thought or decision-making, its magical energy was partially sentient and had reacted protectively to conceal itself.
The issue was that the way it’d happened had resulted in Velra’s powers being compromised and misfiring. It had also not been on our terms, meaning we hadn’t been able to monitor the baby at all. So I had to ensure we took back control—at least for now.
“What is your solution to stabilizing Velra and your child?”
I looked up from the beaker at the sound of Remnant’s voice. He scanned my equipment—mortar bowls full of crushed elements, numerous test tubes and beakers, copper funnels andpiping, and many textbooks, including a couple of my own created grimoires.
“I need to create a barrier that prevents mine and Velra’s power from interacting all the while the baby is in utero. That will ensure the baby can’t randomly siphon me, preventing it from taking too much and inadvertently causing harm to itself, and also from causing desiccation in me.”
“I see. You create that barrier, then you feed the necromantic energy to the child yourself. At your will.”
I nodded. “And as I sense the baby needs. I’m also going to create a veil bolstered by Cassius’ power that will ensure no one, not even my father, can sense that necromantic energy, nor the baby itself.”
“Good. If Morien is made aware of the existence of this child—”
“I know. Believe me, I know.”
He folded his arms across his chest and regarded me. “Are you also aware that this child changes our plans?”
“How?”
“This child will need you. Above ground.”
Ah.“This isn’t the same as what happened with you and Lazriel.”
