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“That means I’m Auntie Tal,” Talia said brightly as she squeezed Nadine into a hug, before practically jumping into my arms.
Onyx hugged Nadine next. “Congratulations to both of you.”
Mandy jumped up and down as she came in to hug us both. “Congratulations!”
“Thank you, everyone,” Nadine said with a big smile. “We really are excited.”
The whole room seemed to glow a brighter color than ever before. It was really nice to have everyone’s support. I wasn’t sure how they’d take the news.
I noticed one person hadn’t said anything. Chloe sat on the couch, staring into the fireplace. She looked deep in thought.
I approached her. “I guess we have you to thank. You blessed us with fertility on our wedding day.”
Chloe lifted her gaze to mine, but her eyes weren’t filled with the brightness of everyone else in the room. She looked worried—no, terrified.
“I didn’t mean it like this,” Chloe stated in a wavering tone.
The room went silent as all eyes turned to her. I couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t happy like the rest of us.
“I’m glad you’re all happy, but I’m doing the math, and something isn’t adding up,” Chloe said. “Or rather, it adds up too well.”
I furrowed my brow. “What are you talking about?”
Chloe stood and faced Nadine. “When you got married, you suffered a great loss. That’s the second stage of the Reaper’s Shadow curse, isn’t it?”
All the blood drained from Nadine’s face. I stumbled back a few steps, placing myself between Nadine and Chloe, as if I could shield my wife from this.
“You aren’t saying what I think you are,” I demanded.
Chloe swallowed audibly. “I think the Reaper’s Shadow curse is still active. You didn’t break it; you just thought you did. Which means if you have a baby…”
“It will kill me,” Nadine finished in a whisper.
The room went dead silent. Nadine slowly sank onto the couch as she processed the realization.
The Reaper’s Shadow curse had been cast over two-hundred years ago by the son of a Reaper’s Apprentice named Samael Davis. He was an evil warlock who had killed his mother, which cast a curse upon all lovers of any future Reaper’s Apprentices. Those lovers were known as the Reaper’s Shadow. If a reaper fell in love and showed it physically through intimacy, the Reaper’s Shadow would suffer a great illness. If the couple got married, the Reaper’s Shadow would experience a great tragedy.
And if the couple reached the third and final stage and had children… that child was destined to kill its mother.
The Reaper’s Shadow curse was over, though. I had discovered the names of all the women who had suffered the curse before. Nadine and I found their graves in the cemetery at Octavia Falls, and she had siphoned the curse from their bones and broken the spell. It was the only reason Nadine and I were able to get married. Otherwise, we’d have never gone forward with our marriage knowing Nadine would suffer a tragedy?—
My thoughts cut off when I realized Chloe was right. Nadine had suffered a great tragedy the night we were married.
My head spun. No fucking way was this happening.
My hands balled into fists. “Helena dying on the night of our wedding was a coincidence. Nadine broke the Reaper’s Shadow curse.”
Nadine placed her hand over her belly protectively. “Maybe I didn’t—not completely. You said it yourself before I broke the curse, Lucas. If I had tried to just break the curse on myself, it wouldn’t work, only delay the consequences. I dissipated some of the curse’s magic that night in the cemetery, but if we missed just one of the women affected by this curse, then I never broke it fully. All I did was weaken it for a while.”
“Let’s not rush to conclusions,” Warren stated diplomatically. “We can’t be sure this curse is still active.”
Nadine’s eyes glazed over with terror. “I think we can.”
“No,” I insisted. “We broke it.”
She swallowed hard. “I thought we did, but I’m feeling with my magic just now… I’m so used to being cursed that I didn’t realize…”
“What are you saying?” I demanded.
