Three months later, after his departure, Anthony returned to the castle where he had sworn he would never set foot again. He needed to say his last goodbye to his wife.
Anthony entered the room where she was being veiled, and his eyes met those of his father-in-law, who looked older and tired, and he hated him even more. He saw the little girl next to him, looking curiously at the dead woman. He hated her too. For it was better that he had never known such happiness, if it was to be snatched away from him so soon. And because of that girl, he had lived days that he would never be able to repeat with anyone else.
He approached the coffin and realized how beautiful his sweet Kellen looked. She seemed to be asleep. Her face was not cadaverous, nor was her skin pale. He knelt down and wept in front of everyone present. He had never told her that he loved her. And what did it matter now, the words he didn't know how to say? She let him go so easily that he thought he was nothing but a burden to her. Anthony thought that he never mattered and that her words of love were false. But today he understood that she wanted to spare him. She didn't want him to see her as the doctor had described her to him. He treated her for two months, but canceled the treatment when he realized that she would no longer recover. Without the strong drugs, she regained consciousness, and her mother's tea made her last days pain-free. He was very sorry that he hadn't stayed or come back. He stood up and looked at the woman he loved for the last time. Then he looked at his in-laws and the little girl. He wanted that to be the last time he saw them too. And so he left, his beloved's father breathing a sigh of relief, never curious about his whereabouts.
...
Brianna grew up knowing that both her father and mother had abandoned her. Her mother had no choice, she gave her own life so that she could be born, while her father, she had the same interest in him as he had in her, in other words, none. He abandoned her and didn't even say goodbye.
She was little at the time, but she could still remember the blond-haired, blue-eyed man who knelt down and showed belated sympathy for her mother on the day of the wake.
She sometimes felt her mother next to her, and often felt her hands stroking her hair as she tried to sleep. She knew it was Kellen because that touch brought her peace, just like every time she remembered her.
Brianna got out of bed and walked over to the dressing table. She began to brush her hair, and when she closed her eyes, enjoying this simple practice, she saw the young man with the blue eyes for the first time. She opened her eyes quickly. Who was that? She couldn't ask her grandparents, whom she still called father and mother, because she remembered her mother's words that she should never reveal her visions to her grandparents. She followed her mother's wishes with some resentment, because she noticed that her grandfather looked at her disappointed when she asked about her visions, and she pretended not to understand what he was talking about. She didn't understand her mother's motive, but she feared she was right.
She found some of her late mother's belongings and kept them with her. They were a grimoire and a kind of biography that she had received as a gift from her absent father when she turned eighteen. She didn't believe in anything that was written in it, but her family were reputed to be wizards, and she had fun scaring her school friends, speaking the language of witches and cursing the curses described in the grimoire. She didn't believe, however, and wasn't interested in such things. As for the book, she understood her father's message when she saw many blank pages after the last time she saw her father. And she decided that she would tell everything that would happen from then on.
When Brianna turned eighteen, in addition to the book her father sent her, she got a party. Her grandfather held a ball in the big house where they lived to celebrate the occasion. All her friends were there. But they weren't the only ones. Her grandfather's friends came too. At one point, she was called by her grandfather to be introduced to a boy. She had never seen him before, but she felt a chill run down her spine when he took her hand. His blue eyes stared at her with interest. And for some reason, her instinct told her that he wasn't human.
She pulled her hand away and excused herself to stay with her friends.
The next day, her grandfather called her into his study, a place he had never allowed her to enter before. She observed everything inside and didn't understand what mystery her grandfather was hiding there. It was an ordinary office. She sat down in front of him when he invited her, and also sat down on the other side of the table. It looked like he was going to do some business.
"Daughter... I need you to do something for me."
"Of course, Dad."
"Do you remember that boy I introduced you to yesterday at the party?"
"He introduced me to so many people..."
"You know who I'm talking about. The young man, a few years older than you, with the blue eyes."
Brianna rolled her eyes.
"It's okay, Dad. I know who you're talking about. What's wrong with him?"
"No problem. A solution, actually. I want you to marry him."
Brianna stared at her grandfather, as if he had gone mad.
"Don't joke like that, Daddy."
"Why? He's a good-looking boy, and his family comes from a generation that looks after our spiritual interests. They're the second most powerful family of wizards in the world. The first is ours, of course."
Brianna looked skeptically at her grandfather.
"I'm not an idiot, Dad. He's not a witch. He's not even human! But that doesn't matter to me. I won't marry him. Or to anyone I don't love."