He mutters something under his breath, but I see the mischief sparkling in his green eyes. My eyes—the only feature he seems to have gotten from me. Everything else is his father’s. Same hair, same complexion, same facial features—same everything except the color of his eyes. I have a stack of photos from Callie of Jonah and his brother all throughout their childhood. My boy is, without a doubt, more of a Whitecomb than a Lilywhite.
Even his craft. He is an Emotional, just like his father and uncle. I think Jonah hoped that he might be a Creator like me, but I always wished for another Emotional. When Astrid told us this—I talked her into being the Seer present at his birth, which only made sense—I was incredibly relieved. My son will be strong, she told me. And powerful. A true mover and shaker in the Magical worlds, much like his parents. But he’ll never have to worry about the weight of the worlds like I do, and that is a great comfort.
The newest Creator still hasn’t been born yet. But I look forward to when they do, so I can teach them all I’m still learning. Until then, I love bringing my son up knowing who he is, what he’s capable of, and allow him all the choices Jonah and I were once denied.
It’s been beautiful, watching him grow from tiny baby clutching my finger to a strong, smart boy. I see far more of his father and uncle in him than I do of myself; I have to admit, it secretly pleases me to no end. Jonah insists that Kellan—sorry, KC—is prone to wild emotions neither he nor his brother would have ever expressed (and therefore must come from me). And I’m glad for that, too, because KC’s freedom of emotions has allowed Jonah to open up his a little bit more over the years, to gradually let go of notions his father tried to drill into him.
Thankfully, Ewan Whitecomb isn’t involved in KC’s life at all. To him, his grandparents are Cameron and Astrid Dane. His aunt and uncle? Callie and Will, who took a frustrating two years before finally admitting they were, in fact, crazy in love with one another. But now they are just as disgusting to KC as his father and I are, because they’re always “holding hands and kissing and doing other gross things.” Worse yet is when we go out for an adult’s night out together (which is often), and their adorable daughter and my son loudly complain in unison about how when they get older, they’ll never torture their kids this way.
We all laugh and laugh and leave them to their equally affectionate grandparents.
Every so often, KC hangs with Grandma Abigail, too. My mother and I ... well, we’re still building that foundation we once envisioned. There are a lot of one step forward, one step backs in this journey she and I are on. She’s nowhere near as warm and loving and demonstrative as Astrid, but ... she’s trying.
I am, too.
As for the others in our extended family ...
Lizzie and Graham are still childless, something that Graham frequently laments is his fault. Lizzie doesn’t care, though. Even though they’re living in Spain, and she’s working with her handsome painter, she still only has eyes for our childhood friend. Just recently she called and confided in me that if she dies childless, she won’t care. Graham means that much to her.
Alex and Meg had a little boy not even a year after they got married. His name is Zander, and much to Meg’s delight and Alex’s shock, he is a Joy.
After Raul died, we all worried Cora would fall into a deep depression, but she surprised all of us by refusing to do so. “He wouldn’t want me to be like this,” she told me one afternoon a year after his death. “So why should I? I’m still young. He would want me to go on living. I can do that for him. I have to.”
It took her six years, but she got married again. Surprisingly, it was to another Guard member, one both Raul and Kellan had been friends with and I’d worked with on some Elders missions. I guess she had known Brock Orangethrope from their University days, and they had managed to stay friends over the years. She said that she realized she was in love with him when they were out with a group at a bar, drinking and laughing. She’d looked over at him and realized she felt safer and happier with him then she had with anyone other than Raul. And I guess Brock felt the same way, because he had claimed he’d harbored a crush on her from the first day they had met. She’s pregnant now, and is one of those moms who doesn’t want to know what her baby is until it’s born.
We spend a great deal of time with the Graystones; I suppose you’d call Jonah and Karl best friends nowadays, which makes me so happy. And I’ve loved getting to really know Moira over the years; she’s one of my closest friends, too. As for Emily and KC—she, being three and a half years older, tends to boss him around a lot, and he, being of a healthy ego, tends to think that he knows better than she. Despite these differences, I adore how they’ve grown up as such good friends.