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Vincent
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Heather didn't let go of me all the way back to our residence in the castle. She held onto me in one way or another, even while I carried Charlotte and Tyler in my arms. She wasn't the only one that seemed to be excited that I was home. Conner and Renea were staying super close to me, and Faith was clinging to my pants leg like she didn't want to fall too far behind us all and get lost.
All in all, it was a little hard for me to move, but I didn't mind. I knew that they loved me, and they had missed me. I had missed them all too. They were my family, my whole world.
"Daddy? Are you leaving again?" Faith asked me with tears swimming in her eyes the moment that we were back inside our home and I had set the twins down.
"I don't think so, honey. There is no reason for Trinity to leave any time soon, so I don't have to leave for a while. And I am sure that Trinity wouldn't mind if I spent some time here with you all at home."
"You're going to take time off of work?" Conner was shocked to hear that. He knew that I took my job as a guard very seriously and that I hardly ever took time off.
"Yes, I think that I will take a few days for family time. I have missed you all so much." Even though Conner was ten years old, almost eleven really, I put my hands under his arms and held him against my chest. He had been surprised at first but when he realized what I was doing he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me back.
"Me next, Daddy, me next." Renea was just waiting for her turn.
"No, me. I want Daddy to hold me next."
"I will give each of you a hug, don't worry." I was smiling as I put Conner back on his feet and picked up Renea. She wrapped her arms and legs around me, holding me as tight as she could. She was about to turn eight and was getting so big that it broke my heart.
"OK, your turn." I said after setting down Renea and picking up Faith. She did the same as her sister had. She held onto me so tight that I was actually impressed by the strength that she had inside of her.
"I love you, Daddy." Faith whispered while I held her in my arms.
"I love you too, sweetheart."
We all went about our day like it was any other normal day. I felt that was the best thing for the kids. We had dinner together. We watched a movie. I gave the twins their bath. And I read to them all in the living room until they fell asleep. All five of them were sleeping on me like it was a giant puppy pile.
After detangling myself from all of them, I carried them up the stairs and to their beds, one by one. This was something that I think that I needed too. I needed some normalcy and calmness in my life.
The moment that Heather and I were alone in our room, the questions started.
"Vincent, please tell me what happened. I know you kept it to yourself until the kids were in bed but please tell me what it was that I felt that day."
"I will tell you. I will tell you everything, Heather, so please don't worry."
I took my wife by the hand and pulled her to the bed so that we could sit together. I could see the fear, the worry, the heartache, all the negative emotions that I had caused her to feel over the years. I know that she feared for me with my job, but she knew that I could never give it up.
"Heather, you have no idea how happy I am to see you. I missed you, my love. I had needed to hold you in my arms." As I said those words, I pulled her against my chest and held her, tighter and more intimately than any of the other hugs that I had given earlier today.
"Vincent, I know that your job is important, and I will never tell you to quit. But I never want to feel something like that ever again." She was crying now. I felt the tears streaming down her cheeks and land on my shirt.
"Don't worry about that, honey. We're all immortal now." I said the comment in a way that I hoped sounded off hand so that she wouldn't focus on it, but I wasn't that lucky. She immediately jumped onto the topic.
"Immortal? What do you mean, immortal?" She pulled away and looked at me with intent eyes,
"W..well, to save my life, someone made a deal that made us all a lot harder to kill. All of the shifters, the Fae, and the magic users are now immortal. We can only die from an injury that is bad enough or possibly certain poisons or diseases but that was rare enough before this. There is no death from old age now."
"Vincent? What happened out there?" She was pleading with me to tell her and to be honest with her. I couldn't lie to her, and I couldn't hide it from her. She would be heartbroken if I did.
"You know there was a war. You know that I fought in battles against the dark Fae. That part everyone knows about. Well, I stayed with Trinity and fought alongside her, and yes before you ask, she did fight on the battlefield."
"She truly is an admirable queen, isn't she?" Heather has always adored Trinity, ever since the first time that she met her. Hell, all the way back to when I first told her about the new Luna, almost five years ago now.
"She really is." I smiled and nodded in response to her. "Well, the thing is, while on the battlefield, Trinity was looking for the dark Fae, Solanum. She was the one that was behind the entire war. When Trinity found her, she alone was able to follow her. Reece, the other guards, and I were not able to go into the dark realm, so we were left to fight on the battlefield without her."
"So how were you hurt?" She wasn't going to be deterred, even for a second.
"Queen Gloriana was in danger. I rushed in to save her, which I managed to do. However, I was bitten by a massive snake. It was venomous and large enough to kill me with only it's teeth. In fact, I did actually die for a moment."
"Vincent?" She gasped and put her hand over her mouth. I could tell that she was still afraid, even though I was sitting right here in front of her.
"It's fine, Heather. Once Trinity came back out of the dark realm, having killed Solanum by herself, she rushed to my side and prayed to the celestials for help. Apparently, they came to see her and told her that they would help her, but they wanted to return to the human world. They couldn't do that the way that they had been, so they gave their powers to Trinity."
"They.. gave.. their.. powers.. to.. Trinity?" It took a while for her to ask that question since she stopped after each word.
"Yes, they did. That means that Trinity is now the Moon Goddess, the Goddess of the Fae, and the Goddess of the magic users, all at once."
There was nothing but pure shock on my wife's face. I could tell that she didn't quite grasp it just yet.
"S..s…she's th..th..th..the G..G..G..Goddess?"
"Yeah, Heather. Trinity is now the Goddess, not just an incarnate that channels her, but the Goddess herself."
"Oh my Goddess." She gasped and said the habitual phrase that we all said when we were needed to exclaim something in fear, surprise, or any other emotion really. "Oops!" She clapped her hands over her mouth. "Uh.. uhm, sh..should I be saying that? D..do we need to stop saying that, since, you know, the Goddess is living among us?" I couldn't help but laugh softly at her worry.
"I think that we're fine, don't worry."
"Good."
She sighed in relief and hung her head for a moment. However, it was like she remembered something almost immediately and fixed me with a firm stare.
"U..uhm, Vincent, w..what was it like, t..t..to die?" of everything that people had asked me since the night that I had been bitten, no one had asked me that question.
"Well, it was all dark. There was no light, no doors, nothing. I was just floating there in an empty blackness. I felt like I was at peace, at least partly. I wasn't in pain anymore, and I knew that everything would be alright if I stayed there, but I couldn't calm down. I kept thinking to myself that I needed to get back. I kept telling myself that I needed to leave that place and get back to where I had been before. I needed to get back to the battle. I needed to get back to Trinity and Reece, to you and the kids."
"Do you think that is how it will be when we all die?" I could tell that she was afraid now, my experience hadn't been a pleasant one.
"No, I think that was unique to me. I think that the celestials stuck me in that place until Trinity could heal me and bring me back. I don't think that what I felt was anything like what other people will feel. I am sure that things are better when you aren't being kept close by the Gods."
"Yeah, maybe."
She didn't look too convinced. I was glad that was something that neither of us had to worry about.. Not for a really, really, really, long time.
