EPILOGUE
The brisk fall day welcomed us as we landed at Charles De Gaulle. We caught a cab to Gavin’s sister’s apartment, and when we arrived, he led me to her door, held my hand with an affectionate and eager smile, a single suitcase in the other hand.
“You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.” He was nervous, I was too; she was the first real relative of his, maybe the only relative, I would meet.
The lock turned on the other side of the door and I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. When the door gently opened, it revealed a tall, romantic-looking girl with dark eyes and a Victorian face. Her long, curly blonde hair fell past her shoulders, her pale skin adding to the allure of her dark eyes. She looked nothing like Gavin, aside from her skin tone and the same faint glimmer in her irises when she smiled. But I recognized her.
“Gavin,” she beamed, wrapped him up like a teddy bear, quickly kissed him on the cheek. “Thank God, I’m so glad to see you!”
“Me too, sis. Thanks for having us,”
“Of course, you know you’re welcome anytime. And this must be Camille,” she squealed, leaned forward to hug me.
“Hi, Arianna. Gavin’s told me so much about you.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you, too. Come on in.”
“You have?” I found it hard to believe, considering Gavin just sprung his sister’s identity on me just days ago. Knowing I felt responsible for losing Joel in Amaranth, he said he couldn’t bring himself to tell me right away. I appreciated the concern, but that didn’t make meeting her any easier. Especially since he hadn’t told her about Joel’s death yet.
I followed Gavin inside and into the living room.
“Shame on you for not telling Camille about me sooner,” she said when she returned from putting our suitcase in the side bedroom. “I’ve been wanting to meet her, you know.” She joined us on the couch.
“We only met a few months ago,” he replied. “I haven’t exactly had time to bring her to Paris to meet you.”
“Yeah, but the way he talks about you, it’s as if you’ve been together for years and he’s just hidden you away from me all this time.” She looked over at me, glowing. “What’s that all about, anyway?” She turned back to him and fixed curious eyes on him. “Why haven’t you told her about me until just now?”
“Let’s just say the past few months have been hectic, that’s all. We have a lot to catch up on.”
“It seems we do,” she replied curtly, suddenly eyeing the locket around my neck. “Well Camille, it’s nice to officially meet you.” She extended her hand and gave me a wary smile.
“You too, thanks.”
“Camille, you must be starving after that long flight, I have roast chicken in the oven. Are you tired? You’re welcome to lie down, just make yourself at home, whatever you need.” She stood and headed toward a door that appeared to lead to the kitchen.
“Thanks sis,” he said. “Camille slept most of the flight, so I’m sure she’s hungry.”
“I hope I’m not putting you out, you didn’t have to cook for me,” I chimed in, uncomfortable I needed human food.
“Don’t be silly. I prepared when I knew you were coming. ”
“Oh, okay then. Cool, thanks.”
“Oh brother dear, why don’t you go see my newest additions to the record collection while Camille and I hang out in the kitchen?” She batted her eyelashes.
“I haven’t seen you in months and you’re already trying to get rid of me?” He winked at me then headed off toward the piano, leaving us alone.
She whisked me off to the kitchen. “So, this situation with Samira is quite a mess, wouldn’t you say?” She began sorting through the fridge.
“I’m not sure if that accurately describes it.” I rolled my eyes and thumbed through her recipes on the counter, working hard to conceal the sadness I felt over her lover’s death. She seemed so happy, so at peace. Though she was no longer with him, she appeared content, probably just knowing he was out there somewhere, still existing in the world. At least that’s how I’d feel about Gavin if we weren’t together. Knowing he was alive, and that I had loved and lost him, would be better than not having him at all.
“I’m not going to lie. You guys have certainly gotten yourselves into some trouble. Word is spreading fast in our circles, and it’s not going to be a pretty fight.”
I dropped the recipe card I held on the counter. “There’s going to be a big fight?”
“Well, something has to be done. Gavin certainly can’t go back by himself and face her, that’s useless.” She started slicing fresh watermelon and crisp stalks of celery.
I thought a moment, nodded and picked up the recipe card. “I guess I was hoping he wouldn’t have to go back at all. But I know how important this is to him. Plus, our friends are there. They’re waiting for our help.”
“Yeah, poor Gabe. At least Gavin won’t be going back alone. The resistance has been building, and he’ll have plenty of help to back him up. But it’s going to take some planning, that’s for sure.”
“I’ll do whatever I can to help. I mean, if it weren’t for me barging in and ruining his plan in the first place, he wouldn’t be in this situation. None of you would.”
She stopped cutting for a moment to look at me. “If you didn’t go get him, he might never have come back, Camille. I’m thankful you got my brother out of there. I’m not opposed to his plans, don’t get me wrong. But I wish he would’ve gone about it differently … waited longer … brought more help with him. At least this time he’ll be able to do it right. When he first mentioned his crazy plan, I told him to wait for me, to let me help him. I know Samira better than he does, but you know Gavin, he’s so stubborn.”
I slid the card back in, tossed the recipe tin shut and nodded, thankful she wasn’t upset with me. She already had reason enough to hate me. “I hope you’re right. I just made it much harder now. There’s always the chance …”
“Things will be complicated for a while,” she continued, chopping lettuce, “and Gavin has a tough road ahead of him by going through with this. Yes, there’s no guarantee it will work. It might turn into the riskiest war our kind has seen in centuries, even more so than the last. But there is no easy way to deal with Samira. And there’s never an easy way around a relationship like yours. Been there, done that.”
I leaned over the counter as she spoke, examined the clusters of pictures aligned over the sink and stove’s backsplashes.
My stomach sank when I looked closer at the man in one picture. Joel’s familiar, wise face stared back at me, Arianna standing next to him, immense love and adoration in her eyes. “Where was this one taken?”
“Oh, that one.” She reached over to touch the picture. “That was in London, many years ago. Joel, the love of my life. Gavin’s told you about him, no doubt.”
“He has, yeah…” I choked and couldn’t finish; dread crept through me like my old invasive enemies. What would she do when she found out he was gone? That he died to save me? I turned my head, unable to look at the picture any longer.
“Those were good times,” she shook her head as if bumping Joel’s memory from her, moved away from the picture and back to the cutting board, “but Samira never wanted us together in the first place. She made us cut off our engagement long ago.”
“You were engaged?” My face dropped at her words. It was bad enough I took her lover from her. Now I was a fiancé killer.
“Yeah,” she dumped the diced vegetables in a bowl, stared at them for a moment, let out a sigh. “She never approved of our relationship. By the time my father forced me to leave Amaranth and placed me with Gavin and his family, I never saw Joel again.”
The oven’s timer went off, and I turned to help her pull out the chicken. “What do you mean, placed with Gavin’s family?” I set the perfect golden chicken on top of an oven mitt, inhaled the succulent scent.
“My father wasn’t a very dependable man. He wanted me to have a good family, wanted me to be as far from Samira as possible. So he made an arrangement with a good friend of his. That friend was Gavin’s father. And Gavin’s family became my own. We’re not brother and sister by blood, didn’t he tell you?”
“No, I had no idea…” The fact that she looked nothing like Gavin suddenly made sense, and my interest burned to know more. “You’d never know it. I mean, you and Gavin seem so close.”
“Oh we are.” She smiled, started carving the chicken, placed the meat on an antique platter. “I consider him my brother in every way that counts, although Samira’s still my mother by blood, unfortunately. She’s a wretched woman. But I’m sure you know that by now.”