Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“I couldn’t go through the boxes,” Giulia whispered. “I just couldn’t bear it. It felt like truly accepting he was gone. Any packages she left for him on my balcony, I handed to him without opening, so I don’t even know what was in them.” Rising, she motioned them to follow. “It’s all in here.”
They managed to get through the narrow entrance opposite the arch and down a short hall to a room at the back, which had a window, a bed, and a spotlessly clean carpet. An empty vase sat on the windowsill, while someone had strung fairy lights around the top of the ceiling.
“This is my guest room.” Her arms around her thin frame, her hug so tight it was as if she was trying to hold herself together. “I could’ve shifted to a one-bedroom when I moved out of our old apartment, especially with Marco living at his angel’s residence, but I wanted him to know he could always come home. So I got the two-bedroom, and after moving me in, he put up his lights again. Wherever I lived, he used to stay at least one day a month with me, on his days off from his duties.
“Later, he brought Tani with him, and she was such a sweet girl, she’d refuse to spend the night one out of every two times. ‘This is Mama and Marco time,’ she’d say.” Giulia’s voice hitched. “I loved her, too, was looking forward to having her as my daughter-in-law, to babysitting the grandbabies they planned to give me.”
A trembling laugh. “I was even looking forward to the unusual names I was sure she’d give them, ready to have a little Leaf or Sunshine running around. She was so innocent, Tani. I don’t mean she didn’t see reality. She did. But she also saw wonder in the everyday world, made it feel new and beautiful.”
Like Kaia, Aodhan found himself saying to Illium, because Illium’s mortal lover was a part of his history, not to be swept under the rug or willfully forgotten. I might not have been her biggest fan, but I did appreciate her ability to find delight in the smallest wildflower, or in the perfect blue of a cloudless sky.
I’m glad she had the life she did, Illium responded, an affection in his voice that was akin to what you might feel toward a distant but good friend. Full of children and grandchildren. I couldn’t bear to think about that for a long time, but now I look back and I’m happy that the girl I loved once lived a life awash in love, including grandchildren who adored her for her sense of wonder. Tanika deserved the same chance.
“Is it possible that Tanika was the main target?” Aodhan asked aloud. “We don’t wish to fall into the error of assumptions that blind us.”
“The only enemy she had was the woman obsessed with Marco.” Giulia’s skin flushed, her neck stiff with anger. “Otherwise, she was just a sweet normal girl who loved her parents, loved Marco, and had a job she enjoyed at a fashion boutique.”
Aodhan made a note to double-check that view with Tanika’s intimates, because there were countless things a woman wouldn’t have shared with her future mother-in-law. But given the location of the murders, that Marco was the fulcrum and the reason remained the strongest possibility.
“Those are Marco’s things.” She pointed to a stack of four neatly taped boxes.
“That’s all?” Illium asked.
Giulia’s smile was faint. “He wasn’t much of a collector of things. Not even at the age when most kids collect rocks or toys or special cards. He was content with just one—but it’d be one that was unique or sentimental. With clothes, he stuck to black. ‘It all matches and looks amazing,’ he’d say when I scolded him over it.
“He got even worse after his Making. Said he’d seen a couple of overstuffed houses when he visited older vampires who’d become mentors to him, and while he respected them as people, he had no intention of spending eternity the same way.”
She shook her head. “I told him he was in danger of living in a monk’s cell, but he laughed and hugged me off my feet and said never, because he’d always have the colorful blanket I made for him, and the photos of the people he loved, and the fairy lights he liked to string up wherever he slept. ‘I don’t need much more than that, Mama.’ ” Tears choked her voice on that final sentence.
Aodhan, despite his complex emotions when it came to touch, felt compelled to take her hand. It was soft, worn with years of life in a way the hands of immortals never became. She clenched her fingers around his, and in the delicate warmth of her, he sensed her mortality like a flicker at the corner of his vision.