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Part Seventy-Four
Last Updated:
2024-12-25 12:04:38
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At 6 p.m., Malachi drove home and sighed when he found the side door unlocked. She never locked the doors, no matter how many times he told her to. He stopped in the kitchen and looked at the empty sink and frowned.He hadn’t washed their breakfast dishes that morning and he headed up the stairs towards their bedroom where he found Jessica in front of her vanity where she applied a coat of mascara to her eyelashes.“What’s going on with you?” Jessica looked at him in the mirror. “You did the dishes.”Jessica sighed and turned on the vanity chair to look at him. Her mind was closed off once again as Malachi tried to search it. “I don’t see why you want to do the whole traditional wedding thing.”“You should have the big, fancy, white wedding.” Malachi sat down on the edge of the bed facing her and searched her eyes instead.“Who says I haven’t had the big, fancy, white wedding?”Malachi laughed. “You haven’t. Are you having second thoughts? Is this moving too fast for you?” Doubt had s
Last Updated : 2024-12-26Fire Part Seventy-Six
Malachi let go of the man, took Jessica’s hand and walked back to the car. He rounded the front of his car once Jessica was safely inside and climbed inside. He started driving away as the man started shouting something and Jessica lowered her window.“You’ll be back, begging me to–”“Your mother should’ve swallowed you!” Jessica shouted back and closed her window. Malachi started to laugh as he glanced at her. She didn’t even seem fazed.“Your mother should’ve swallowed you? Where do you come up with this stuff?” Malachi asked her and she started to laugh as well.“My mind’s just on a different level.”They drove home in silence and Malachi turned to look at her as they sat in the dark garage. “Are you really ready to settle down with a boring old man like me?” Jessica sighed as she looked at him. “You might be missing out on that guy back there.”Jessica laughed loudly. “Dude, like seriously, I can’t wait for the pensioner discount we’ll get in two years.” Malachi burst out laughing
Last Updated : 2024-12-27Fire Part Seventy-Seven
Time passed slowly and Adara hardly spoke to me anymore. We skirted around each other in the house and around the children's schedules. It had been three weeks since that family meeting and I hated the silence in the house. I didn’t blame her though, the chaos around me was of my own doing.I kept to myself and I didn’t speak to James or Malachi a lot. It killed me, but it was safer. I had never before felt so alone and even Death was keeping his distance. I wallowed in my own self-pity and I took it because I deserved it.During the fourth week, my office door at the hotel was flung open and James stormed inside. He glared at me as he sat down in the chair in front of my desk. I had wondered when Adara would tell Shoran everything.“Explain yourself,” James said with a heated tone and I looked at him in surprise.“Excuse me?” I almost chuckled with the force of his aura that he tried to push over me.“Divorce? What’s wrong with you?” James asked.“Why are you angry? I’m not divorcing
Last Updated : 2024-12-28Fire Part Seventy-Eight
Malachi’s gaze didn’t shift away from me and I could feel his emotions so intensely. I didn’t even need to focus on it anymore, it came so naturally that it should’ve scared me. My powers were growing but I couldn’t even find the joy in it, not with my life falling apart.“Jessica and I sorted it out, I’m sure you can, too. Don’t always just listen with your head, sometimes your heart can be right too,” he said and stood up.“I know, Dad,” I said to him.“You should get a sitter for the wedding, we’re having an open bar,” Malachi said and walked out, closing the door behind him softly. The silence felt almost unbearable and I couldn’t tell him any of it.My phone pinged and I picked it up. I was still lost in thought about everything he’d said. Adara and I weren’t even talking so I had no idea how we’d get through a whole wedding being close together. I opened her text and looked at it.Adara – Could we discuss hiring a nanny for the kids?Kiran – Why?Adara – I need to re-open my sho
Last Updated : 2024-12-29Fire Part Seventy-Nine
I sat in the kitchen for hours, playing our conversation over and over in my head. She was going through something and for the first time, she didn’t want to share her concerns with me. It was my own fault though and I wanted to be mad at her. I wanted to share her concerns but she was right, it wasn’t my business anymore, except that it was, it always would be.I loved her more than I loved myself, everything about her that pissed me off now were things I loved about her. Frustration was getting the better of me because patience was not a virtue I had. I wanted Vincent dead but he was stubbornly staying away.Upstairs, I stopped in front of the nursery and checked on Kai and Saga. They always seemed so at peace when they were asleep, that also calmed me. I breathed in their baby scent and headed to my own bedroom to sleep.I woke up with a start, my heart beating wildly and I tasted bile in my mouth. I ran to the bathroom and threw up as everything came up. The last time this had hap
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I could feel her withdrawing. Her aura was stronger but we’d still lost a child the previous night. It didn’t matter how far along she’d been, she’d still been pregnant and I’d still been blind to it. I should’ve noticed sooner that she wasn’t okay and done something about it.“Adara,” I said but she kept walking out of the room.I had done it, I had broken her. She had said that last part with no emotion. She had tried and I had kicked her down every time. She was finally defeated and had given in. I didn’t want her to feel like this, I didn’t want to feel like this.I went downstairs where she was busy getting bottles ready for the twins, and making coffee. I went to stand behind her and she moved away from me. I pulled her back towards me and I hugged her. She started crying again. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry for hurting you,” I said as her shoulders shook against me.“Then why are you? You wouldn’t have done what you did last night if you felt nothing,” she said as she looked at me. I l
Last Updated : 2024-12-31Fire Part Eighty-One
Two weeks went by and Adara contacted references on the applicants’ resumes and made notes as she spoke to former employers. She threw out more than she kept and we were left with three. She’d done it all on her own, never once asking for my help or opinion.“Do you want to be here when I interview the nannies?” Adara asked me one morning as I came downstairs, ready to go to work. It was the first time in nine days that she’d spoken to me. I had just gotten used to her silence.“I said you could choose the nanny,” I said to her as I took my keys from the bowl. I could taste her disappointment in the air around me and I turned to look at her.“Oh wow, if that’s how interested you are…” she said and broke off mid-sentence.“Adara, do you want me to be here or not?” I asked her. I wanted her to need me, just once.“Whatever, the interviews start at three, be here, don’t be here, you’ll do whatever you want anyway,” she said and walked away from me. She didn’t seem to miss me at all and I
Last Updated : 2025-01-01Fire Part Eighty-Two
James didn’t blink and I sighed. I took a deep breath because he was going to have some choice words for me after I told him everything.“Okay. It’s just a matter of time before Vincent makes his move. He messed up everything I had built up with her in one message, then had me arrested, then that bogus tribunal where we all almost died. If she’s not in my life, he won’t focus on her and he won’t hurt her,” I said to James.“I get where you’re coming from, but did you tell her that so that she at least knows it’s not her that you hate, because she thinks you despise her.”I shook my head. “I don’t despise her.”“She tried to give it time, kept doing everything for you, being there, hoping you’d see the light and forgive her,” James said.“She’s stopped doing anything for me,” I said and he smiled again.“Yeah, that one’s on me. I told her to stop being nice to you because you’re being an asshole and now you tell me that you’re not even mad at her? How are you going to make it right wit
Last Updated : 2025-01-02
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Adara hadn’t changed anything. She’d washed his clothes in the hamper and nothing had been touched in Kiran’s study. Malachi had made the notifications to The Council but Adara still kept everything the same. Some nights she still made Kiran’s favorites, like that would bring him home.His car keys remained in the bowl and she recorded everything the twins did, so that when he came back he could be part of everything he had missed. She even had his car serviced and started it every single morning to keep the battery charged.“You should just give her time, maybe give her what she wants and move to our own house. We’re close enough if anything happens and she’s not defenseless, she has Norah here,” Jessica said to Malachi.Adara sighed as she stood on the stairs and listened to them talk. She turned and went to her bedroom. Every day she scoured the internet for stories of acts of heroism. That was something Kiran could never stop doing, being the hero.She had phoned all the hospitals
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Five months later…Days had turned to weeks and Malachi’s hope was dwindling. Each day brought a fresh wave of sadness and worry. They had no body and no idea where Kiran had gone. He didn’t want to believe that his son was dead. He’d pleaded with the gods for a sign, any sign. Anything would be better than wondering. He wasn’t sure how much more he could handle.He was sitting at the dining table in the kitchen, staring at the newspaper in his hand but his thoughts were with Kiran. If he was indeed in Helheim, he hoped he wasn’t suffering, but even Jessica wasn’t sure. Kiran had said that Death liked to taunt and torture him. He shuddered at the thought of what Kiran must be going through.Adara pulled a chair out and sat down next to him. “Can I talk to you?”“Of course,” Malachi said and put his cup down. He folded the newspaper and looked intently at Adara.Adara fidgeted with her hands, seemingly nervous. “You don’t have to keep living here, your house was finished two months ago
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“What the hell do we do now?” Carl asked and James didn’t have an answer for him. He turned around without answering and followed Malachi out of the forest with Carl trailing behind him. They had walked into the house, the clearing littered with dead witches.“What happened?” Jessica asked as she stood up from the couch putting the glass of water down on the table as Malachi put Adara down on the couch and she curled herself into the fetal position and just cried.“He’s gone,” Malachi said and walked to the study, slamming the door behind him. He screamed and wiped everything off the chest that stood behind the couch and acted as a secondary table which held the glass bottles of brandy and whiskey and the tumbler glasses.He started hitting the wall in frustration as he struggled to deal with facts that he didn’t really know. He stopped when both hands were broken and his blood dripped onto the carpet. He sat down on the couch and he lowered his face into his hands and cried.Jessica
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Adara sat in the study and looked at Kiran’s laptop. It was four weeks later and she hadn’t had the heart to go into his study before now. She opened the laptop and the screen came alive. She looked at the numerous folders on the screen and started to cry.That day had been the absolute worst day in her life, by far. She felt helpless and so alone, although the house was never empty. Malachi and Jessica had basically moved into his old bedroom.James was there every day and she could see that it was taking its toll on him, between his twins, the hotel, and their house, he was overdoing it. She would have to ask Malachi to speak to him and tell him to stop coming over.Kiran had closed Karani’s chest that afternoon before he went to the clearing and Jessica had tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. She finally admitted defeat and told Adara that only Kiran could open it. She had hoped to find something in there to explain what had happened to him.She started going through his folde
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Some days Death showed me my children, other days he let me burn for hours on end. On rare occasions I was with Adara or Malachi or James. He wanted me to witness their grief and their pain and feel it deep in my soul. It was the worst punishment I’d ever suffered through.He took such pleasure in my pain that I stopped reacting to whatever they felt and turned my emotions off. He let me burn extra-long when I did that and I don’t know what hurt more, their pain or mine. I felt numb to it all, even their emotions because I was beginning to feel like I had when I’d taken Malachi’s pain, before going to Wolf Peak. I felt weak.Finally one day he let me sit down and said we should talk, man to man, and I laughed at him. I had clearly lost my mind and I had no idea how long I’d been there with him because there was no measure of time. There was only pain.“You’re not a man,” I said to him and he looked hurt.“Don’t be so mean, here I can be whatever I want,” he said and I just looked at h
