Heart of Radiance | Eternal Bonds: Book 3

Chapter Twenty Three

AN: Hello everyone and welcome to Chapter Twenty Three! So the Drakes are together again! Hooray! But we are so close to the end. There's just the Epilogue left. We'll be starting in Starlene's head this time. Hope you all enjoy! Be sure to drop some comments as you read! Now onward and forward to Chapter Twenty Three!

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*Starlene*

"You got out the old decorations?!" Mother gasped.

"Yeah, Malcolm found them," Damien replied.

"Well come on then," Stefan told us, "This tree isn't going to set itself up."

Damien and Gabriel grinned as they took the fake tree out of the box and put it together. Sorina set her phone down on the table and played a joyful song. Calder, Mason, Emberly, Raine, and I got to work getting the decorations out of the boxes.

Selena set Julian on the floor and handed him a round ornament to play with. Julian smiled and took the ornament from his Mother.

Damien and Gabriel finished setting up the tree and I saw Calder hand Gabriel a string of lights. Stefan froze and Emberly noticed right away.

"Stefan," she said as she walked over to his side. She placed a hand on his cheek. "Hey, look at me," she told him, "I know it still hurts, but I promise it'll get better." Stefan nodded.

"Maybe we should skip the tree this year," Damien suggested. We all understood why. Stefan was remembering the Christmas where he decorated Alexandra like a little Christmas tree while our Mother wasn't looking.

"No," Stefan told Damien, "Just...I need a minute."

Stefan rushed out of the room and Emberly went after him.

We continued decorating the tree and Stefan and Emberly returned a few minutes later.

He sat down on the floor next to Julian and the small boy studied his Uncle for a few moments. Then he offered Stefan his ornament.

"Aw, thanks Jules," Stefan told our nephew. Selena and Damien smiled at their son's attempt to make Stefan feel better.

The star was placed on the tree and I couldn't help but smile. It was beautiful.

The tree was dark green and had numerous strings of lights wrapped around it. There were garlands of silver tinsel wrapped around the tree. Numerous silver, red, and blue ornaments had been placed delicately on the branches. The whole tree glittered. It looked just like the one that was showcased in our childhood photos. It was perfect.

Julian was fascinated by the glittering Christmas tree and couldn't look away. Selena smiled at her son's amazement.

Sorina glanced at her watch and sighed.

"I hate to ruin this moment, but it's almost time for Court," she told us. We all groaned.

Mother laughed.

"Still don't like Court, I see," she chuckled.

"Oh they've been like this for as long as I can remember," Selena stated.