Prologue
“So?” Lilith let the word stretch out slowly on her tongue, casting a playful glance at her beloved for an answer, her tender gaze fixed on Noctus, whose forehead rested against hers. Five minutes had passed since the last contraction. Noctus leaned over her, holding her hands as they waited for the next contraction.
“So... we’re agreed—Nyxara it is.” Noctus grinned and pressed a kiss to Lilith’s waiting lips.
“And you’ll cherish her the way you cherish your son, Darken? The way you cherish me?” she asked as he drew back.
“With all that I am, my darling.”
A sudden jolt rocked Lilith, and Noctus crinkled his brow, his hands caressing her in comfort. “My love, are you—,” His words cut off at the expression that suddenly filled Lilith’s beautiful face: confusion—fear—pain—then nothing.
Before he could say anything else, he heard splashing. His gaze fell on something bright and red. Blood spread across the floor, mixed with amniotic fluid—too much blood.
“Uh, doctor! We need you!” a nurse insisted.
“Sir, I must ask that you step out; we need to help the mother and child, and you can’t be here for that.” Hands came to rest on Noctus’s shoulders, urging him away, but all he could do was stare at Lilith’s face, at how suddenly she no longer even looked like herself.
“B-but I’m the father,” he stammered.
“I’m sorry, but we need the space. You can sit out in the waiting room. The doctor will update you as soon as he can.” The nurse and one other pushed him out of the room, the doors closing behind him.
He tried to watch through the small window on the door, but all he saw were feet rushing about the room, smearing the blood everywhere. Blood… there is so much…blood. He turned and mindlessly walked towards the chairs.
Only moments ago, Noctus had his arm wrapped around Lilith’s shoulders, the two of them smiling over finally having picked a name. They were so excited, soon they’d be a family; the ring he’d been planning to give Lilith sat heavy in his pocket as he thought everything over for the hundredth time while waiting.
It had been four years since he lost his first wife. He never thought he’d love again, but then, he met Lilith. Picking a name for their little bundle felt like the biggest decision he’d been asked to make since deciding to propose.
But then everything went to hell.
Time ceased to matter to him, he could no longer tell how long he’d been in this room waiting. Moments seemed to run together now. One moment, they’d been choosing a name, filled with love, pride, and excitement. The next… blood. So much blood.
He looked around the waiting room, but he couldn’t sit. Fear and worry left him capable of only one thing: pacing. Back and forth he walked in front of the door he came from. The door to her. Every time he passed the little window, he gazed in, looking for the doctor. Hoping.
An hour passed, then two, still nothing.
By the third hour, the door swung open. There was a quiet energy in the way the doctor pushed through it, one that signaled something had shifted. The worst had passed. Noctus felt his shoulders dip as if a weight had been pulled off of them. His racing heart began to slow, as the sense washed over him that it was over. The panic. The fear. But then the doctor’s next words erased any trace of relief that might have been possible…
“I’m sorry. We did everything we could, but we lost her. The baby, she’s stable.”
“Where is Lilith?” He asked.
“We… aren’t sure.” The doctor struggled to say, his brows pulling together.
“Not sure? Explain.”
“Well, the moment we lost her, she just…. I—it was the strangest thing, really; her whole body started to glow, t—then it just vanished. Not even the blood on the floor remained. Everything—every trace of Lilith—had disappeared. I’m not sure how to… explain it.”
Of course they couldn’t explain it. Soon they wouldn’t even remember it.
Realization crashed over Noctus as a rushing sound filled his ears. Lilith was gone—not dead as a mortal would die, but returned to Aetheryn. More than that, she vanished. Only beings of ancient power—deities and creatures of darkness—vanished like that upon death.
Betrayal pierced him like a blade.
It was a law of their world. Humans were never meant to know that creatures of such power existed. Those belonging to the supernatural realm would remember Lilith, but the humans who had witnessed her disappearance would soon forget she had ever been there.
“Lilith wasn’t who she said she was… she wasn’t a witch. She lied to me.” Noctus muttered to himself. The very idea of losing his position...his home, his fortune. He pictured his community turning their backs on him for daring to love someone outside his kind.
“The baby, she survived.” The doctor was still talking, but to Noctus, his words had become meaningless background noise until then.
The baby.
She was his daughter—but only partly. She was Lilith’s daughter, too. Which meant Nyxara was only part witch. Whatever Lilith was, Nyxara would inherit some part of it.
An abomination.
Something capable of collapsing his entire life—ruining his reputation, his position, his place among the others.
No. He couldn’t allow that.
“The nurse should be bringing her for you to—here! Here she is,” the doctor continued.
Doctor Emmette stepped toward him as the nurse entered through the same doors, a wrapped bundle in her arms. She smiled gently, offering what comfort she could, and held the baby out to him.
“Meet your daughter, Nyxara.”
He had promised Lilith he would cherish their daughter. He had meant every word. Yet as he looked upon the tiny, angelic face before him, all he could see was the ruin of everything he had known. When his gaze fell upon her there was nothing but a promise of hate.
“Blackmere. She will be a Blackmere like her mother. She will never carry my family name.”
