Heart of Radiance | Eternal Bonds: Book 3

Chapter Twelve

AN: Hello and welcome to Chapter Twelve! We'll be starting in Starlene's head this time and then we'll switch gears. Hope you all enjoy! Be sure to drop some comments as you read! Now onward and forward to Chapter Twelve!

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*Starlene*

Genevieve Stanton.

Finally we'd found her.

"What brings you to my door?" Genevieve asked.

"We've been looking for you," I told her.

"Why?" she asked, curiously.

"Because we're trying to find my Mother, Maricara Drake," I replied.

Genevieve's eyes widened.

"Maybe we should take this inside," she told us as she let us in.

The three of us sat down in the living room.

"She mentioned you a lot in her letters," I told Genevieve, "And Malcolm said that you were the one who saved her."

"I was," Genevieve told us, "The Hunters were not kind to your Mother. Her injuries were severe. I healed her and kept her safe."

"Thank you," I told her.

"Your Mother was a good Queen," Genevieve replied, "I considered it an honour to help her."

It was silent for a few moments and then Genevieve spoke again. 

"She talked about you and your siblings a lot," Genevieve told me, "She always wondered how you grew up without her or what you looked like as you grew older."

Genevieve passed me a photo album that had been sitting on the coffee table. I opened it and began flipping through childhood photos of me and my siblings.

"Your Father used to send her photos of you and your siblings and she'd print them out and put them in that album," Genevieve told me. I turned a page in the album and saw that the photos had shifted from childhood photos to ones that showcased me and my siblings as teenagers and young adults.

I ran a hand over the glossy page and tears welled up in my eyes.

"She loved you all so much," Genevieve told me, "She used to tell me stories about the things you and your siblings would do in the castle."

"Where is she now?" I asked in a shaky voice as Calder wrapped an arm around me. My husband was trying his best to comfort me. He knew and understood how difficult this was for me.

"About six months after I took her in, the Hunters showed up at my door," Genevieve told us, "She and I fled to Sânge."

"The City of Blood?" Calder asked. Sânge, or the City of Blood, as it was more commonly referred to as, was the old City of Vampires. It was where the Dragon's Den was located. It was where me and my siblings grew up before the Hunters forced us to run to Blackfell.

Genevieve nodded.

"Once we were there, the Queen decided to stay in the hidden retreat in the woods that she and the King had," Genevieve stated, "She said it was protected by a spell and that—"