III

21^st August 1751

Rosalie

Waking with a start, I reach out a hand to find the only comfort that I want after having my visions. Alexander. He seems to have sensed what the issue was and pulls me into him, holding me against his hard chest.

“Another bad dream?” He asks me sleepily.

“I’m not sure it is a dream Alex. They are so vivid, so real.” I breath through the soaring adrenaline which came as part of the aftermath of my night terrors, as I try to regain control of my heartrate.

“What else could they be?”

“Visions. I am sure of it. It’s always the same thing. The goddess warning me of a great darkness coming. Alex, something bad is about to happen I can feel it in my body. We always knew that the goddess had bigger plans for me, I think that she is making good on her promise.”

“If that is true, my Rosa, then we will face it together. But for now, you must rest. You need to be strong for the baby.” His hand came to rest gently on my midriff. The little surprise which we had never expected.

Having already had four children together, Thomas, Edward and then the twins Melinda and Xander, we had agreed our family was complete. But obviously the universe had other plans, and now three months into the pregnancy, I was undeniably expecting another little Black to add to the brood.

So far, this pregnancy had been very different from the rest. I had been lucky previously; in that I had managed to escape many of the usual symptoms than come with being pregnant. Even with the twin, I never had sickness, or discomfort. But this time, I was making up for it. Bouts of running to the latrine taking me at the most inconvenient of times. It had led us to make the pregnancy announcement much earlier than we ordinarily would. On top of that, I seem to have popped almost as soon as I knew the news. So much so, that Alex teased that I was having twins once more.

But above everything else, the worse symptom was that I had been plagued with dreams. Sometimes I woke just with a bad feeling, while on other nights, I wake having remembered the warning. But until now, I had never woken remembering anything concrete.

“Tenebris.” I said the name out loud.

“Humm?” Alex mumbled.

“The name of what is coming. His name is Tenebris.”

Alex’s weight next to me shuffled as he pulls himself into a more upright position.

“You have never remembered anything like before, are you sure?” He peeks down at me.

“Yes, why do you recognise the name?”

“Perhaps. I don’t really remember…” He looks off into the darkness, trying to recall something from his past. “My mother once talked about a demon that lived in the shadowed lands. A demon that would one day raise the darkness. She said he was called Tenebris.”

I shiver runs down my spine as he spoke. The name alone was enough to plunge shards of ice to my heart.

“Do you think it is connected?” Lifting a hand to his face and using my thump to smooth out the worry lines across his brow.

“I do not know, but I intend to find out.” He lifts himself from the bed, settling a lingering kiss to my brow. “Sleep now, you need to rest. I will come and find you if I find more.”

“Alex…” I call after him. His figuring turning just on the outskirts of the small pool of light the moon emitted through the crack in the curtains. “I love you.”

“I love you too, little mate.” I could hear the small smile in his voice as he called me by one of the few pet names that he liked to use, before silently slipping away.

Disappearing quickly into the dark shadows around the perimeter of the room before I even have a chance to protest. Alex had always been an early riser. Often leaving before I had woken. It was a rare morning I found myself still wrapped in his arms. So, I had grown used to his disappearances to his office in the east wing of the castle.

But for some reason this morning, I felt the loss of my mate. Like every moment in his arms counted. I had no idea why I felt this way all of a sudden. I had never felt this way before. I could only put it down to pregnancy hormones.

I tried to push the feeling from my mind. Alex was right about one thing. I was incredibly tired. And I could feel sleep trying to pull me back into its warm embrace. But despite my weariness, sleep would not come. Only the niggling feeling that I needed to be with Alex.

Eventually giving up on the idea of sleep coming to me again tonight, I drag my body from the bed and pad across the cold wooden boards to the door that led down to the reception quarters of our tower.

Not much had changed in this space since I moved into Castle Black. Perhaps there were a few more feminine touches here and there. But it was still dominated by Alex’s masculine furniture that I had grown to love.

Yet the one thing missing from the space was the man himself.

Deciding he must be in his offices on the other side of the castle. I plod to the door and make my way to the east wing.

By the time I reach the heavy oak door, my feet were blocks of ice. And my body ached from the early morning exertion.

I push open the door to reveal the face of the one person I had hoped to never have to see again. A face that stoked a jealousy in me like none other. Despite the passage of time.

The foreign beauty, who never seemed to age a day.

“Estelle?” I question, taking in her sneering face and that of my mates behind her. “What are you doing here?”

 The Germanic witch turned to look at me in a slow motion. Her face betraying the sheer annoyance of having been summoned in the dead of the morning. She came to stop directly in front of me. No move to bow of even show a modicum of respect due to me as her Queen and Luna, but this had come to be expected of Estelle.

“Rosalie.” She drawled.