Destination Unknown

The Rest of Her Life

Mara's P.O.V.

Cassie's face is twisted into a mask of displeasure. I smile at her sheepishly, trying to mask the regret eating away at me inside. She holds her expression for a few seconds more before she sighs and smiles back at me. 

"Dhara is much too intuitive for her own good." We both laugh, but a visible discomfort comes over her even though she was trying to be happy. "Mara, what do I do? I'm not ready to have a child. I haven't even graduated high school yet." I stop her.

"Technically, you don't ever have to go back to school, or even the real world." Her eyebrows raise, shock easily being the first thing that comes to her mind. "Now that you are an immortal, you can do whatever you want, for the rest of time. You could go to any high school you want, any college of your choosing. You can take the time to raise this child, and then you have the rest of eternity to do whatever you want to." I see her face turn a pasty shade of white, and her hands clench so hard her knuckles turn white. I put my hands up. "That was too much at once, I'm sorry." I guide her over to the bench under the shade of the trees. "I didn't mean to scare you." I ease her down on the bench, and pry her hands open, so her nails are no longer leaving little red crescents on her palms. 

"Mara, I don't even know if I want a child. I've never been in a relationship serious enough to even consider the future. I don't know the first thing when it comes to pregnancy. Especially immortal pregnancy! Does it even work the same as a human pregnancy?" My face betrays me and she sees the flicker of emotion. Her eyes narrow. "Tell me what you know." I sigh and falter under her intense gaze. She settles in, expecting a lengthy story. 

"I was pregnant once. But almost no one knows. I don't even think Alastair was aware. He never monitored me as closely, because I was not a biological child. I fell in love with a human. It was so long ago now that he's been dead for a very long time." Cassie puts her hand on mine, and nods for me to continue. I squeeze her hand and take a deep breath. "His name was Lucien. I met him in the year 1685. I was very young back then, but still old compared to humans. For the majority of my life, I had been avoiding humanity, not wanting to deal with the heartache of being immortal in a world full of mortals. I never wanted to fall in love with him. It's not something I could control. Us immortals feel everything to a deeper level when we are younger, before we learn how to control our emotions. Lucien made his way into my life, and I soon learned that I couldn't live without him. Since I am not a full immortal, I would not be able to pass it on to him, but our child would get the gift passed on. Don't even ask me how that works, no one really knows, maybe Alastair would. But not soon after we married, I was pregnant, with a girl. Immortal pregnancies are shorter, and typically, almost nothing will change externally. I just remember feeling like my power was always drained, and I believe it's because there's a transfer of power from the parents to the child. Most immortals only figure out that they're pregnant when another immortal senses the new energy coming from them. If there's one great thing about immortal pregnancy, is that you don't have to give birth essentially. I won't go in to it yet." I look at her and see that my story hasn't really brought her any comfort, and I sigh. "If it's any consolation, you have Alastair and I through anything. I have no doubt that the two of us will be your fiercest protectors." Her eyes are starting to look glassy from the unshed tears, and I know that she is beyond consoling right now. She squeezes my hand and takes a few steadying breaths. 

"It's just a lot to take in. I'm 17, and I feel like I've barely lived. I wish I would have had more time to just be a normal human. I don't even know what to feel anymore. Such a huge chunk of who I am is missing. Freya's soul being gone from me feels like I've lost all of the light and warmth inside of me. But there is something else there, I guess it would be my newly arrived powers."

"Since you were so close to Freya, I feel that most of the things you could do with her connected to you, you'll still be able to do. When I sensed your power signature, it was very similar to Freya's but not nearly as powerful. How much do you remember of when we removed Freya's soul from your body?" I see Cassie's fingers tense, and her breath comes out shaky.