The Skye Trilogy: Isle of Skye, Isle of Night, and Isle of Dawn. * Bonus: Scrumptious Skye Confections Cookbook*

by Shannon Barczak

  There was rolling green fields to my left, and to my right I could just glimpse the blue sea. Behind me stood a well-kept stone farmhouse that I recognized from one of the paintings. He had painted it to look small on canvas but in actuality it was rather large. A big three story barn was just behind the house and over a small hill. A large rocky mountain was just beyond the barn, and I was almost speechless at the rugged beauty that surrounded me.

  “Where are we exactly?” I asked

  “Well,” he said as he came to stand behind me. “Over there is a small fishing village called Aberdaron. It lies on the tip of a peninsula between two bays and the Irish sea.”

  “So we’re in northern Wales?” I said, and he nodded. Mathias took my hand and led me into the house. I was horribly curious, but I was also somewhat reluctant to enter the foyer where I knew he had found his sister dead.

  I was surprised when we entered the home and found it bright and airy. Mathias had obviously done extensive renovating. The foyer had new dark wood floors which were polished to a shine and the winding staircase had wooden treads and white trim. There were two rooms of either side. One looked to be an office and the other a formal living room. We walked deeper into the house, and I discovered a huge great room, decorated in earth tones and off of that was quite possibly the most gorgeous kitchen I had ever seen.

  Acres of white stone counter tops ran around the length of the large square room. The island was massive and had its own sink, cook top and upon closer inspection a built in fryolater. One wall was dedicated to a double refrigerator and double stainless steel commercial grade freezer. The cabinets were chocolate brown, and the back splash was orange, brown, bright green and ivory glass tiles.

  I felt like I walked into one of my dreams. I exclaimed over every single item in the kitchen while Mathias watched me with amusement. He finally talked me into seeing the rest of the house, and I was not disappointed. We finished up the tour after looking at the dining room, sun room and theater room before heading upstairs.

  There were six empty bedrooms, all complete with their own en suite bathroom, and I was starting to decorate them all in my head. Mathias finally led me to the last room and opened the double doors to reveal the master bedroom. It wasn’t overly large, but I adored the platform bed and modern furniture. Two walk in closets flanked a small hallway before you entered the well-appointed bathroom with separate his and her vanities, walk in shower, and a large soaking tub.

  We walked back downstairs, and I went back into the kitchen. I ran my hands along the countertops, and my palms started to itch with the need to bake or cook a meal. I propped myself up on the large countertop by the double sink and stared at Mathias for a moment. He was watching me with his hooded eyes, and I smiled at his almost expectant expression.

  “So when do we move in?” I asked

  “Do you like it?”

  “Let’s see, the house is situated on several acres of land with rolling hills and an ocean view. This kitchen is probably the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and you even put in a theater room. It’s my dream house.” I answered

  “I thought that maybe we could spend weekends here.”

  “No,” I said. Mathias was momentarily taken aback at my refusal. “This house is too gorgeous to waste on just a few days a month.”

  “When this is over Willa, we have to remain close to the island,” he said. “You have the bakery and I have to run the security. The tree house is more practical as a home base.”

  “I can open a portal,” I said. “I love the tree house but this is home. This house is where I want to build a life with you. I can’t even tell you how amazing I think it is here. I felt this feeling of happiness deep in my bones the minute I walked on this land.”

  “We’ll see how it all works out in time,” he said. I knew in my heart though that this is where I belonged. I just had to convince him of that after this whole mess was over, and we could get on with our lives.

  “Come,” he said as he walked over and pulled me off the countertop. “I want to show you the barn.”

  We walked around the back of the house towards the barn. All of the stalls were empty and spotless. Mathias explained that while he had no desire to fill it with horses, he didn’t have the heart to tear it down. We walked up to the second story, and Mathias started to climb a ladder that I assumed led to the third floor.

  “What are you doing?” I asked

  “I want to show you something,” he said

  “Ok,” I grumbled as I followed him up the ladder. He held out his hand at the top, and I ungracefully took it as I scrambled up and over the lip onto the wood floor.

  “What is so important to see up here…?” I started to ask, but the words got stuck in my throat. There was fresh hay spread on the floor and in the center were blankets, a picnic basket and large floor pillows. The top doors were open, and it had the most stunning view of the village with the sea in the backdrop.

  “When did you do all of this?” I asked

  “I have my ways,” he said secretively. “Are you hungry?”

  “I don’t know,” I smiled. “I’m a little bit shocked right now. It’s almost romantic. I’m not used to this.”

  “I can be romantic.”

  “I see what’s going on,” I said. “A roll in the hay huh? I’m totally down with that by the way. I think we should put off lunch and christen this lovely fresh hay that has been spread on the floor so invitingly.”

  “I didn’t bring you here just for that,” he said seriously

  “You don’t have to say that,” I smiled. “I’m cool with the whole getting laid thing but you do know that I’m pretty much a sure thing, right? You don’t have to pull out all the stops for me. I wanted you in a dirty alleyway a few days ago so you don’t need to set up some romantic ambience for me to want to fuck you.”

  “That’s my girl,” he muttered. “Will you just sit down?”

  “Are you asking me to get on my knees?” I laughed

  “No, I’m trying to ask you to marry me but you just don’t know when to be quiet sometimes,” he practically yelled

  “What?” I whispered. I couldn’t move or talk. I was frozen in place with my mouth hanging open.

  Mathias started pacing around until finally he stood in front of me. “Well, will you?”

  “Wait a minute,” I said finding my voice. “You’re how old? That’s the best you can do Wolfie?”

  “I don’t do this kind of thing,” he said. “So is the answer yes or no?”

  “I’m going to have to say fuck no with that kind of delivery,” I shook my head. “You have to do better than that. I mean c’mon you’re British, you could read me the back of the toilet paper package and sound romantic, at least ask me properly. I will say though if you go down on one knee I am so taking a picture because nobody will believe me.”

  Mathias sighed and grabbed my hand to place on his chest. I implored him with my eyes to say something. I wasn’t expecting some flowery speech, but a few words would be nice.

  “You’re everything to me. I don’t think I truly started to live until I met you. The world had been flat and colorless until you exploded into my life. Everything makes sense now. I know that true mates rarely get married. They don’t see the need, but I’m a little old fashioned. I don’t see marriage as a piece of useless paper. I see marriage as a commitment that you make not only to each other but to God as well as your family and friends."

  “I don’t want to spend another day or year without you. I want to call you my wife because I feel like I have waited a lifetime to do that already,” he said as he suddenly slid a beautiful princess cut diamond ring onto my finger. I could barely see it because tears were pooling into my eyes. The platinum band felt warm on my flesh. It wasn’t the giant rock that I had joked about, but it was tastefully large and glittering small diamonds surrounded the large center one perfectly.

  “Willa Cecelia McCormack, will you marry me and be my wife?”<
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  “Yes,” I said as I let out a sob. I threw my arms around his neck, and we stood there for what seemed like eternity wrapped in each other’s arms. I pulled back to wipe my eyes, and he put his hands in my hair and drew me forward for a kiss.

  There are some kisses that make you weak in the knees, and this was the mother of them all.

  His lips were soft and he pressed them against mine gently at first before he deepened it with the slight whisper of his tongue. He ran his fingers through my hair before settling on hips, and I pressed myself instinctively closer. We unhurriedly took each other’s clothes off as we kissed, and when he positioned me on the soft bed of hay I almost melted with contentment.

  I believe we both must have kissed every inch of each other’s bodies that afternoon. There was no rush or an intense need; there was just a desire to prolong this moment as long as possible. When Mathias slipped inside of me, I moaned at the feeling of being completely intertwined with him. We moved together as one, and when he sank his teeth into my skin I climaxed around both of us.

  I could tell he was close when he withdrew his fangs and again a crescendo built inside of me. Our shouts mingled together, and I heard Mathias mutter something under his breath but I was confused at the foreign sounding words. When I finally caught my breath, I asked him what he had said.

  “Rwy’n dy garu di,” he answered as he pressed his forehead to mine

  “What does that mean?” I whispered

  “It’s Welsh for I love you,” he said

  “I love you more,” I said

  “Impossible.”

  “You always have to win, huh?”

  His response was to draw me into another deep kiss, and all competitive thoughts and notions went out the door as we wasted the day together tangled in hay.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Mathias and I left Wales before the sunset. I was sad to leave, but I clung to the hope that we would be back here soon. The second we were back in the treehouse, we ripped each other’s clothes off again and fell asleep early after a marathon of soul shattering sex.

  I woke up early the next morning and looked at my engagement ring for several minutes. I kept peaking glances at Mathias. I didn’t want him to wake up and find me fawning all over it like some giggly little girl, but I couldn’t help it, it was beautiful. I finally left the bed and was surprised when he didn’t move. Usually he was up before me or immediately after I opened my eyes.

  I took a shower and threw on my usual staple of jeans and a t-shirt before heading downstairs. I was sipping my tea and watching the sun rise over the ocean when I felt the strangest feeling come over me. A light seemed to grow faintly from inside of me. I looked down at my stomach confused before I started to feel fear as another light joined the first.

  I had no idea what was going on with me. I knew that these two little lights weren’t going to hurt me, but it felt foreign somehow, and that’s the moment when the world shifted for me. Everything that I was before changed in the blink of an eye as a stunning realization came over me. My hands started shaking, and I tried to slow my breathing. It was amazing how I went from being one person to another in a split second.

  I stood there for several minutes as a million emotions washed over me. I didn’t want to wake Mathias. I was having the most profound moment of my life, and I wanted to keep it as private as possible.

  I wrote out a note to him and left it by the bed before teleporting off to Rhoswen and Oliver’s cottage by the castle. I knocked and knocked and was beginning to panic until she finally opened the door.

  “Willa, what’s wrong?” she asked. Her short blonde hair was spiked up all over the place, and then I remembered she was a vampire now. They probably had installed some vampire special room below the cottage, and it had taken her a while to get to the main floor.

  “I need you,” I said in a rush. “Can we go to the hospital?”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked again calmly. “Is someone hurt?”

  “I think, I mean, God can we just go there and I’ll explain?”

  “All right,” she said slowly. “Let me get dressed.”

  Five minutes later I had teleported us to the craftsman style hospital and when she ushered me into an exam room my voice got caught in my throat.

  “What is going on Willa?”

  “I think I’m pregnant,” I said in a rush. “I don’t think, I know. I felt these two little lights go off inside of me, and I feel different.”

  “How is this possible?” she asked. “Mathias has been a vampire for over three hundred years.”

  “Maybe he has super sperm?” I asked. “Fuck, I don’t know.”

  “Ok,” she said. “Go in the bathroom and use one of the small cups to urinate into and then let’s do a test first just to be sure.”

  “OK, good idea, I’m just going go and pee in a cup,” I said as I raced out of the room and went into the adjacent bathroom. I sat there for a minute and groaned. Was I going to have stage fright now? I asked myself in anguish. Finally, I filled the cup and handed it to Rhoswen who was ready with a stick to put into it when I got back into the exam room.

  We both stood and stared at the stick until finally I looked away. I was fiddling with my ring when I heard her say, “Oh,”

  “Oh?” I repeated. “Oh, I’m right? Or Oh I’m crazy?”

  “You’re right,” she said. “You’re pregnant.”

  “Holy fuck,” I whispered. “How can I be pregnant? I can’t be a mother. Do you know how many times a day I say fuck? See, I just said it again.”

  “When was your last period?” she asked

  “Right before my birthday, I guess,” I said as I tried to count the days. “It’s been about six weeks. I thought with all the stress and you know absorbing a lot of different powers it threw my body out of whack.”

  “Take your pants off and we’ll do an ultrasound.”

  “Good idea, an ultrasound, oh my God,” I said. I watched her leave the room and I tried not to think about anything right now. I unzipped my pants and peeled them down my legs. I lay on the hard crinkly table while my stomach was doing somersaults. Rhoswen came back in the room a few minutes later and wheeled a machine over to me. She dimmed the lights and all of a sudden the flat screen TV in the corner came on.

  “Will I see it on there?” I asked. She nodded and pulled out a large wand. “Um, what the heck is that?”

  “This is a vaginal ultrasound,” she explained. “We use it on women who are early in their pregnancies to see what’s going on in there.”

  “That’s like a giant vibrator,” I shouted. “What ever happened to the ones you put on the stomach?”

  “We use those when you are further along,” she smiled. “Willa, just relax and be thankful I’m doing this and not your uncle.”

  “Oh my God, he is so not delivering my baby.”

  Rhoswen placed a sheet over my legs and gently bent my knees back. I cringed when the wand/dildo went inside of me. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life.

  I turned my head and stared at the wall as a million thoughts raced through my hand. I can’t be a mother, I thought, I’m about to fight a war. Mathias was going to freak out, actually he wouldn’t just freak out he would throw me on his back and take me to a far corner in nowhere Siberia for the next two thousand years.

  “Ah, there they are,” Rhoswen said softly

  “They?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

  “There are two,” she said. “I thought you knew that already. You said you felt two lights inside of you.”

  “I didn’t think there were two of them,” I wailed. “Oh my gosh, this just gets better and better. I have a pair of little bodies growing inside of my stomach. It’s just wrong on so many different levels.”

  “Willa,” Rhoswen started to say but I cut her off.

  “What am I going to do? I have a war to fight. I don’t even know if I’m going to survive. How am I supposed to go into battle knowing I h
ave two little human lives depending on me to keep them safe?” I asked

  “Willa, look at your babies,” Rhoswen said gently

  I finally turned my head and time seemed to stop as I saw my babies for the first time. “They look like little aliens. Look at their heads.”

  Rhoswen laughed. “From the looks of it, you’re about four, four and a half weeks along.”

  “I’m not an expert but aren’t they a little big?”

  “Gypsies and Fae both gestate at a quicker rate than humans,” Rhoswen explained. “It’s the magic in our blood. In human terms, you’re about three months along. In a few weeks, we’ll be able to tell the sex. Oh, hold on, I forgot to let you listen to the heartbeats.”

  Rhoswen placed a small radio looking device on my lower abdomen and sounds of multiple heartbeats filled the air. I was stunned at how fast the rhythm was, and I voiced my concern to Rhoswen.

  “All babies’ heartbeats sound fast in the womb but honestly it’s very normal,” she said. “Some say that you can tell the sex just by the heartbeat.”

  “So what’s your guess?” I asked

  “Well, I have seen and heard a lot of these, and if I were to guess, I would say those are two very healthy boys in there but we won’t know for sure for a few more weeks.”

  “Oh dear Lord,” I muttered

  “They are in a separate sac which is good but they do share a placenta so that makes me think they might be identical.”

  “Awesome, two identical hellions running around playing tricks on me,” I said. “Holy Christ, if you think I aggravate Mathias, can you just imagine how he is going to react when there is two more of me with penis’s ignoring his rules?”

  “Mother’s always can tell their twins apart, and I’m sure Mathias will be a wonderful father,” she said. “Now Willa, I have to tell you that you need to be careful. I have no idea what this extra amount of magic in your system will do but you need to take it easy. The Fae are not allowed to teleport after the second trimester so you have to be aware of your limitations.”