‘Go on, it’s free,’ Josh whispered to her, but she shook her head again and mumbled something about a headache while pulling her coat up higher around her neck. Why were aeroplanes always so cold?
‘Could my wife and I have some blankets, please?’ he asked the air hostess.
Wife! Her stomach flipped every time he called her that, and he did it at every opportunity. They’d been husband and wife for over a month now, but it still sounded strange to her. It felt like she was in one of his movies and they were fooling around, playing make-believe.
Instead of a honeymoon abroad, Ella and Josh had spent a few days after the wedding with her friends and parents and then set off on a Spanish road trip. Virtually unknown in the south of Spain, Josh had enjoyed his anonymity as they’d explored the Moorish ruins of Cádiz, Seville, and Córdoba. They’d even driven to the picturesque town of Ronda to visit her grandmother. Ella loved her father’s mother, someone she’d only got to know over the last three years. Her Abuela Imaculada had cooed over the handsome niño and mockingly scolded them for not having invited her to their wedding, only backing down when she learned that at least it had been held in a Catholic chapel and that the priest had been her very own son.
‘Bah,’ she’d cried, waving a wrinkly finger at them both. ‘Your father should never have entered the priesthood. Has he still not got together with your mother? He speaks of no one else, you know! As if God wouldn’t forgive a man for putting love before his faith. Look at you both; you’ve recognised the importance of love. When you meet “the one,” you hold on to them and you never let go. If only your father had the same courage to follow his heart.’
Ella had hugged her grandmother tightly and told her they were heading to London and then on to Los Angeles since Josh’s parents hadn’t been told the news yet. When she also told her grandmother that her father was leaving the priesthood and had decided to stay in Tarifa with her mother to run the hotel, the old lady had cried tears of joy.
‘Aha, perhaps your Mamá y Papa will finally give in to love!’ her grandmother had exclaimed, wiggling her eyebrows.
‘Who knows, Abuela? But I promise, as soon as I hear anything, I will tell you. In the meantime, we will send you flight tickets for our big showbiz wedding once we’re settled in America.’
‘And I will be in all those celebrity magazines, too?’ she asked, her dark eyes twinkling. ‘Oh, mi niña, that would be very exciting.’
Ella twisted her engagement ring and the simple white gold band beside it around, thinking about how much had changed in the last few months. This is for life, she told herself. Mrs de Silva forever.
As always, Zac had been right. Her whole life had slotted into place as soon as she’d followed her path. Moving to Hollywood was a big leap of faith, but at least there would be no angels in Los Angeles. She laughed aloud at her own joke and looked over at Josh. He was resting his head against the plane window, headphones in and eyes closed. The sight of him still gave her butterflies.
Their first night together, the day of their wedding, had been exactly as she’d hoped it would be, gentle but passionate, their lovemaking taking on a natural rhythm. It felt right. There was that word again. Right. Easy. Making love to him wasn’t a connection of souls as it had always been with Zac. Yet neither had it felt like her one-night stands had—as if she were feeding an empty monster that could never be sated.
Being with Josh was beautiful, natural, and perfect. She loved loving him. It felt wonderful to finally be at peace.
She leant over and kissed his cheek. His eyes flickered open and focused on hers as he mouthed the words ‘I love you.’
What was he going to say when she told him her news and ruined everything?
She flinched as another shooting pain coursed through her abdomen. She’d felt ill for a couple of weeks now but hadn’t wanted to worry anyone. Instead, she’d searched online and discovered that it was normal and that it was to be expected during the early stages. She was scared. She’d made so many plans with Josh. He had films to shoot, and she was going to go back to uni to study photography. But now, everything was going to be cut short. She laid a hand on her stomach and took a deep breath.
‘Josh?’
He looked up at her and took off his headphones.
‘I need to tell you something,’ she said.
She’d followed her path just as she’d been told to do, and it had led to this. Was it her destiny? Surely Josh would understand they couldn’t fight fate, that things would work out and that they’d get through whatever life threw at them.
Josh frowned at his new wife, his face mirroring the concern on hers. ‘What’s the matter?’
She chewed at the red skin around her thumb. Was this really the right time to break the news?
‘Ella, say something. You’re making me nervous.’
She thought back to all the forks in the road that had led her to this moment. It didn’t make sense—Ella had been so careful; they both had. She’d been with no one but Josh for two months, yet…Fate wasn’t something you could stop. Zac had been the only being who’d ever had the power to do that, but he was no longer in her life.
‘I’m pregnant,’ she said. ‘Six weeks pregnant.’
Josh was silent at first, and then he gathered her up in his arms so tightly Ella didn’t think he’d ever let go. She could feel his body shaking against hers. Was he crying? She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into the crook of his neck, breathing in the scent of him. Her husband.
In that moment, she made a promise to herself. No more talk of angels. No more thoughts of magic or past lives. Zac hadn’t returned for her. Her soulmate was dead, and she would never see him again. The sooner she came to terms with that, the easier her new life was going to be. She was with the right man now, the only one she was meant to love.
She held her husband’s hand against her stomach, and he smiled down at her.
‘Our destiny,’ he whispered.
A tear rolled down her cheek, and she smiled back at him. Her fate was sealed. Who was she to fight it?
This book is more than a story, it’s a tribute to women; the hunted and hurt, the misunderstood and misrepresented, and the ones who love so fiercely they lose themselves along the way. When I created Luci, I had no idea that I would be watching a character unfurl and become someone much larger than intended—someone that tapped into a lot of my own feelings about motherhood, relationships and the struggles women face day-to-day. Luci does a lot of bad things; she’s not a nice person. Although her history is an understandably good reason for her selfish and cruel actions, it’s no excuse—yet you can’t help warming to her. Why? Perhaps we’re all sick of being expected to be ‘nice’. I very much intended for readers to question that and ask themselves whether, if we had her powers, we’d ever take such extreme action against a millennia of injustice.
Although The Indigo Chronicles is a fictitious series of books, the past life aspects were heavily influenced by my own metaphysical experiences. Through meditation and regression therapy, I have re-lived my own drowning at the hands of witch hunters and been a lonely girl in Fiesole during the Roman occupation (amongst many other lives). I only saw a few glimpses of these existences, but I used them as inspiration to weave Ella’s past lives together and make them part of her larger story. Some people believe past life ‘memories’ are literal, others see them as metaphorical representations of our fears or self- beliefs. I don’t think it matters what these visions truly are, as long as they help you understand yourself better. If you’re interested in past life regression there are a lot of great online meditations you can listen to, but please be careful if seeking a psychic to assist you. Do your research, not all are reputable.
I moved from Spain to the Netherlands halfway through writing Son of Secrets. It’s always been important for me to play homage to the places I know and love in my stories, and for the first eighteen months in the country I actually lived in the original Ho
use of Fire and Water. My impressive (but creepy) 16th century canal house home in Delft of the same name became a huge source of inspiration. It was no stretch to imagine witches living there once-upon-a-time, and yes…I was very happy to move to a more modern house eventually.
For those of you interested in history, quite a lot has been written about the witch hunts of Roermond. The site of the Netherland’s biggest witch hunt, it resulted in 64 people being burned to death following an outbreak of the plague blamed on ‘suspicious women’. Sadly, strong ‘nasty’ women are still being vilified by power-hungry, old, white men. I’d like to think we all have enough of Luci inside of us to stop history repeating itself. Don’t wait for someone to rescue you, because none of us are princesses—we’re queens. Act like one.
I hope you enjoyed the second part of Zac and Ella’s story. In the third and final book, Children of Shadows, we jump forward in time and meet the Nephilim who hold the power to bring down Mikhael and the angelic realm. Expect new characters, more historical flashbacks and plenty of shocks and twists along the way!
I have no idea how this book was finished; in fact I have little recollection of writing it. A lot of tough things happened at the time and the story seemed to unfold miraculously all by itself in a bewildering haze of darkness and new beginnings.
My first thanks, as always, goes to my readers. Your support for The Path Keeper has been incredible and I would never have got this far without you. To all the bloggers, reviewers, social media followers, booksellers, librarians, schools, event planners and dedicated #ZellaForever fans—I see every single one of you.
As always Joni, Vern and Rebecca at BHC Press, thank you for all your hard work. And grazie to my foreign rights agent Cristina Galimberti for giving The Indigo Chronicles wings to fly around the world with.
This book is a no-nonsense feminist tribute to the women who taught me that anything is possible if you have the balls to go for it. This is for you, Simmo Girls—my courageous and selfless mum and the wonderful Jemma Harding, Anastasia Brand, Emily Bowers, Angela Denton and Wendy Hohenberg. Don’t ever stop shining.
Thank you to my dad, Desi Juste, who’s creativity sparked a lifetime of imagination. Hope you’re up for reading yet another one! And to Bob Dew, your beautiful words at the beginning of all three books deserve a book of their own.
It’s not easy being friends with a writer and dealing with their extreme emotions. So, Renée Veldman-Tentori, Manuela Damant and Steffi Thomas—thank you. Your strength, support, wisdom and kindness has been a sturdy raft in some very choppy Dutch waters. You’ll always be in my Queendom. And thank you to my bestie Elaine Kayes for not only being a fantastic friend for twenty (!!) years, but also for reading Son of Secrets at the very beginning and pointing out that it’s going to ruffle a lot of feathers. Ha, as if you expected anything less!
To my Team, you’re amazing, please don’t ever let go of my hand. I will need you, like, forever. And a very special thank you to my eight most hardcore readers and Zac fans—in alphabetical order, because I have no favourites! Claire Knight (The Captain), Ellie Stone (The Artist), Kristen Dawn (The Poet), Liss Wheeler (The Witch), Melanie Keeler (The Director), Phoenix Tier (The Overthinker), Simone Birkholtz (The Basketcase) and Tegan Gislason (The Procrastinator)—I couldn’t have done this without you all, my own 24/7 support network of fangirling drama and straight-talking honesty. You’re awesome, can’t wait to see what amazing things you all do in the future!
A big shout out to the Loomies (always) and to my fellow writers at Novel19s, The Fiction Café, The Glass House Girls and The Savvies. Especially Anna Day, Emma Cooper, Holly Seddon, Isabella May, Jaqueline Silvester, Kristin Anderson, Sarah Norris and Teuta Metra for your feedback and friendship. Thanks for letting me go on, and on, and on about this crazy writing world of ours. There’s no one I’d prefer to be trapped in a perpetual loop of turmoil and elation with.
And lastly, thank you to the three people to whom this book is dedicated. Pete, Isabelle and Olivia, I love you. You are my world. Every word I write, I write for you.
N.J. Simmonds began her career in glossy magazines and marketing, before becoming a freelance writer and consultant. She now fills her days writing books about fearless women, magic and adventure. Originally from North London, with Spanish parentage, N.J. Simmonds currently lives in the Netherlands with her husband and two daughters.
Follow her writing adventures on:
Twitter (@NJSimmondsTPK)
and at njsimmonds.com
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