I slammed the door to Marissa’s room and walked back through the cavernous castle hallways to my room.
The image of Marissa thrashing wildly in her bed, her belly bulging with life, kept flashing relentlessly through my head.
Marissa had been hiding the twins from me all along.
“Out of my way!” I screamed as my minions dove for cover.
I smashed my fist into an immense crystal vase as I passed it.
It had been a gift from an old demon friend. It fell onto the black marble floor and shattered into countless pieces.
Inside my room, I paced back and forth, still confused and heated from the whole situation.
I couldn’t look at my Marissa in the same way. She had another man’s children growing inside of her.
I should have known.
She had been acting strangely, wearing voluminous dresses, and turning away from me when I got too close.
Now I knew why.
Was she playing me for a fool? Was she still in love with Mateo, after all?
I groaned with exasperation and pounded my fists on a heavy oak wardrobe.
I picked it up with both hands and tossed the antique piece of furniture across the room. It shattered into little wooden splinters all over the floor.
A muffled voice called from the other side of my bedroom doors.
“Is everything alright, your majesty?”
“No one is to disturb me until further notice!” I belted out.
There was a squeak and the sound of little clumsy feet scattering off.
I found my pipe and filled it with my special mix of underworld herbs. I needed to relax.
I sat back in my favorite leather chair, lit my pipe, and inhaled. The room filled with smoke, and I finally felt my head clearing.
Again, the image of Marissa flashed in my mind. And again, I couldn’t stop seeing her pregnant belly.
I hated to think it, but I was reconsidering all of the choices I had made so far in my pursuit of this mysterious sorceress.
Though I still felt undeniably consumed by this woman, I was no longer sure that Marissa was truly the love of my life.
I felt humiliated. No, worse—heartbroken.
After all of the progress Roman and I had made—showing him true affection, gaining his trust—I thought we were truly connecting on a soulful, spiritual level.
Then my belly ballooned, and Roman had run for the hills.
I had never seen Roman look so betrayed and hurt.
I knew deep down we were meant to be together, and I wasn’t going to give up now.
My body was shaking, still overwhelmed from all the changes.
I yelled out for one of my many servants to run a bath for me.
Crying wasn’t something I did often. But my confusion about Roman’s evasiveness had me nearly in tears.
I couldn't understand it. Certainly, our situation was fraught with circumstantial difficulties.
Roman knew how I felt about him. That all I wanted was to be with him.
And he expressed feeling the same way.
At first, I was intrigued by his elusive behaviors. It was endearing.
I imagined there was something that he liked about the chase.
I was indulging him. But this had gone far past indulgence.
What I had, at first, thought was some imperious attempt at playing hard-to-get clearly went deeper.
It made me question my entire presence here.
My chest ached as I held my breath, trying to force back tears.
I needed to clear my head or I might implode from introspection.
When I opened the door to my bathroom, steam poured out.
The warm, humid air immediately soothed my mind. I stepped inside and let the steam surround me. I took a deep breath.
Inside the all-black marble bathroom, I disrobed and looked at my swollen body in the full-length crystal mirror, full of life. Many other women would have been happy.
I put both hands on my belly and cursed the two little lives growing inside of me.
I uncorked an ornate crystal bottle and poured a fragrant liquid into the tub of steaming water.
The water immediately turned hot pink and filled the room with the scent of plumeria.
I dipped my toe in the water and enjoyed the little burn from the steaming tub.
Once the mist cleared and the water cooled, safe enough for the babes, I slipped in and exhaled.
Yes, this was what I needed.
I took in the soothing atmosphere as I listened to droplets dripping out of the bathtub spout.
But as my eyes closed, and my thoughts drifted into the dreamworld, I felt a change in the air.
The room rumbled, then lit up in a flash of blinding white light.
I looked around me at the changed surroundings. The marble was now dark oak. The room looked stately and ancient.
This place looked familiar.
Suddenly, I remembered the last time we had entered that mystical realm of the Vaulsino, where we had seen visions of our future. I was inside Juniper’s body at the time.
“Hello, dear Marissa,” a disembodied voice called out from the shadows.
This voice, too, sounded familiar.
“You were quite hard to locate, hidden away all the way down here in the Underworld,” it said in a mocking tone.
The Vaulsino floated into view. He was dressed in a sharp suit, matching houndstooth jacket and slacks, and a top hat. He winked at me.
I was a little unnerved. How did he find me? And what did he want? This had to be important.
“I didn’t know that the Vaulsino could travel like this. Merlin and the others had to use strong magic last time to summon you,” I said.
“The Vaulsino is capable of many things you have no clue about,” he laughed.
There was that catty tone again. I was reminded how much of a dick the Vaulsino’s human form could be.
“If you’re here to break up Roman and me, it isn’t going to work. Much more convincing men have tried,” I told him.
“Silly girl. You and Roman can pursue whatever love affair you have concocted in your vapid head. I’m here regarding the well-being of your twins,” he said.
“You mean Juniper’s twins. They mean nothing to me,” I said. I felt Juniper get angry from inside of me.
“My, my. Any chance I could talk to your better half instead? She was much nicer,” the Vaulsino said.
He made a flourish and disappeared, only to reappear behind me in a flash.
I startled from the surprise. I splashed some dirty bathwater at the Vaulsino, and it seemed to go right through him.
“What do you want?”
He snapped his fingers and a portal opened before us.
An image slowly materialized: steep black cliffs, rivers of orange lava, small black creatures all mindlessly shuffling through the barren landscape.
We saw a young girl climbing through the crags of the Underworld.
She looked familiar to me, yet I couldn’t quite recall her name. I felt Juniper call out from inside.
“Bingo!” the Vaulsino said. “That is, in fact, Rose Santiago, and she has been on a very important mission to find you and dear Juniper.”
I could feel Juniper fighting from inside me to take control of our body. So much for some relaxing time in the bathtub.
“What is Rose doing all the way down here?” I asked.
“The details are not important for you to know at the moment,” he replied. I hated how vague and misleading the Vaulsino could be. “What I do need you to do, my little nugget…”
“...is to welcome your little Rose with open arms. It is very important that she be here, beside you, when the twins come,” the Vaulsino said as he proceeded to float above me.
“And what if she falls off a cliff?” I asked rather bluntly.
“Don’t try to tempt fate,” he scowled.
The Vaulsino snapped his fingers and the portal closed. He clapped his hands, and we were back in the black marble bathroom, enveloped in steam.
“Now don’t you forget—make Rose nice and comfortable down here in the Underworld.”
With a graceful flourish of his dainty wrist, the Vaulsino disappeared in a cloud of deep magenta.
He was gone.
“Nooooo!”
I thought I could get away, but Anastasia’s magic was too powerful.
I felt my body transported, sucked into a vortex, and spat back out into another locale.
Her cloud of sparkling purple dust dissipated, only to be replaced by choking black smoke.
We were at the end of a long road. I could barely see in front of me. I could smell blood in the air.
I was home.
Anastasia took the lead. She motioned me to follow her.
A part of me wanted to run in the opposite direction, but I knew that Anastasia could have zapped me back to her with nothing more than a flick of her wrist.
Zeus whimpered from inside of me. He wasn’t excited to be back here either.
“Hurry, they’re waiting for us,” she called to me.
She was already briskly walking down the muddy path, holding her magnificent dress up with both hands.
I swallowed my fear and accepted my fate. I ran to catch up with her.
The road was muddy and pockmarked, full of hundreds of footprints, boot prints, hoofprints.
Before long, we started seeing bodies on the side of the road: wounded men and creatures.
They cried out in pain.
We ran.
It wasn’t long before things started to look like my familiar home. The dark facade of a massive mansion rose up before us.
The Vistas Pack House.
It was eerily quiet. It looked as if the house itself had avoided much of the carnage that we had passed.
Where was everyone? I was expecting to meet unfriendly faces, ready to fight my way into the house.
Anastasia was already up the grand flight of stairs that led to the entryway. She was waiting for me.
I knew what Zeus’s vote was for that, but something was telling me that I had to walk up those stairs and confront my fate.
But just before I stepped toward the door, I heard a voice reach out in my mind.
The doors to the Pack House creaked open.
Khal, the impostor, was here.
The man who had usurped my name to commit vile acts of cruelty upon the land. And now he was in control of the Vista Pack House?
He wasn’t going to get away with it.
“Well, are you coming?” Anastasia asked.
I clenched my fist as I ascended the stairs, ready to confront my fate.
This “Santiago” was a dead man walking.
