SINS OF THE FATHER

CHAPTER 10 - STARBORN

Danae walked up a hill. She was barefoot and there was a strange weight in her arms. She looked down to see she'd been holding a child.

Danae gasped as she beheld the babe, its small nose and rose bud lips. Her daughter's cheeks were soft and round. Her head was covered in soft dark hair, similar to her father's.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps. Danae watched a male and a winged female emerge from a cabin further up the hill. There was something so familiar about the male. And those wings, the female was Illyrian.

How did she end up in the Night Court?

Danae approached them slowly. She blinked as their faces became visible. She blinked again at the male, his features nearly identical to her mate's.

"Who are you?" She asked hoarsely.

The winged female gave her a kind smile as she stepped forward. "What a beautiful daughter you have, Danae."

Danae blinked slowly. How had she gotten here?

"She's so lost, Kore." the male said, not unkindly. He was large and looked dangerous, but somehow Danae was not afraid of his midnight powers.

She knew those powers.

Nyx' powers.

She missed him. She could scarcely breathe from it. There were tears in her eyes.

"Hush, darling," Kore said soothingly, "it's going to be alright."

"How did I get here? Who are you?"

The male looked at her again. His gaze was soft despite his harsh features.

"She isn't ready, Kore." he whispered softly.

Kore made a soft sound of agreement.

Danae sucked in a breath. "You look just like him. Just like my mate-"

A sob broke through her, she was powerless to stop it.

The babe started wailing in her arms. Danae felt utterly helpless at the small cries.

Kore placed a soft palm on her cheek, "You have to go back, I think. Aidoneus is right, you aren't ready, darling."

"What for?"

Aidoneus sighed understandably. The two shared a careful look. Kore gently took the babe from her arms. Her daughter hushed in the older female's expert hands.

Danae shivered at the sudden realization.

"No." she said, and stumbled forwards, "please give her back to me, I will do anything."

Kore looked in her eyes, with such understanding that it broke her heart. "I know your pain. And this won't hurt any less. But your mate needs you, and you have other goals to fulfill. It's not time for you yet."

"But-" Danae glanced at the baby's sleeping face, her fluttering eyelashes- "my daughter."

"We will keep her safe." Kore promised.

Danae was unsure.

Aidoneus said, "Let's make a bargain."

Danae looked at him.

"We promise to keep your daughter safe," Aidoneus said. "Until we meet again."

"What can I possibly give you in exchange?" Danae asked tiredly.

Aidoneus' gaze was filled with grief, "Give a message to our son."

Danae blinked.

Kore said, "Tell Rhysand, that we miss him. That we're watching over him. We're watching over all of you." Danae could not look away from the stars and love in her eyes.

"It's a bargain." Danae said, glancing one last time at her daughter. She didn't even feel the pain on the inside of her wrist.

Aidoneus stepped closer to her. He leaned forward, his lips brushing over her forehead in a fatherly kiss.

And it wasn't his shadows that brushed over her. Nor his midnight-power. It was pure starlight.

#

Danae gasped.

She shot upright, blinking rapidly. She recognized the infirmary in her childhood home. She was lying on a cold table, with a sheet covering her battered body. She pushed the sheet off her and swung her legs over the edge of the table.

She was catching her breath when one of the servants walked in. The shriek she let out was terrifying. Even more so when she fainted.

Danae was too weak to do anything but watch her fall to the ground like a sack of stones.

There were rushing footsteps and then-

"Dad?" She croaked.

Tamlin swayed where he stood. He whispered her name, as if fearing her to be a hallucination. Her mother wasn't far behind. She was the one that snapped out of the shock first.

Danae swallowed her bark of pain as her mother flung herself at her. She was whispering in wonder against her cheek. My baby, my baby.

The words made Danae sob. Remembering her dream, and the small girl she'd herself had lost. Her baby.

Tamlin was there, his large arm around the both of them.

They cried as one.