Faith is Fallen (Broken Fantasies Series)

Chapter 21

A few months later, Cara's mother came to visit, intending to stay until after the baby was born. By then, Valerius and Cara had become good friends. Valerius reminded her of the world she'd left behind, and she saw him as a little bit of home in such a foreign place. Conall didn't like it, becoming increasingly jealous of the time she spent with the wizard. Cara always reassured him with the words "He is not you."

Cara would have leapt into her mother's arms with joy, if not for the fact that she'd grown so big that walking became a chore. Conall greeted Caoimhe warily, but respectfully. When Valerius and her mother met, they stared at each other for a solid minute before she turned to Cara and said, "I think I'm going to like this one." Valerius burst out in laughter at that.

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The baby arrived without complications, as most Fae births did. Cara remembered the moment she first saw her little Aiden like it had happened yesterday. He was crying as if he were trying to break her eardrums, his entire body red from the exertion. She remembered thinking he looked rather hideous, and weren't mothers supposed to always think their children were the most beautiful things in the world?

But when the midwife put the child in her arms, he instantly quieted, cuddling up to her chest, and she fell hopelessly in love with the little bundle. She brushed his little wisps of hair away from his face, and he squirmed, maybe not liking it.

It was, quite possibly, the best moment of her life.

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Everyone fawned over the baby. Conall, the classical proud father, preened like a peacock everywhere he went as if to say, "That's my son!" Valerius constantly teased her about how hideous the boy was, but he seemed to take great pleasure in entertaining Aiden nonetheless.

Her mother had the annoying tendency to pick Aiden up out of Cara's arms every time she saw him, then she would walk off with him. Conall would often bring him back when Aiden would start crying and wouldn't stop. After a few weeks of this, Cara started fantasizing about telling her mother to go back home, and not in very pleasant ways. She loved her mother, and she missed her terribly, but she was getting on Cara's last nerve.

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In the end, Conall asked her mother to leave, and their life settled into a routine. Cara looked after Aiden, who seemed to grow by leaps and bounds. Conall slipped back into his previous routine, only with near constant breaks to peek in on their son, or pick him up, or play with him.

Even Valerius got into a sort of routine. The clan did end up accepting him, if only because he had driven away an entire army. They saw him as having saved the clan that day. So they looked on his practical jokes mostly with good humor. He had certain favorites, like changing people's drinks before they take a sip, or constantly changing the locations of things in the kitchen.

Thankfully, the cook hadn't seemed to figure out what Valerius was up to. There was a near constant yelling coming from the kitchens as the cook yelled at his assistants. He had attributed the constantly shuffling stock to their incompetence rather than to any spell.

And, unfortunately, Cara had to scold him at least once a week when some practical joke he partook in erupted into chaos. But he also was so good to Aiden, and in her mind, that made up for pretty much everything.