Raphael suddenly tensed and moved away, looking at her face in disbelief.

- I want you to know that I don’t blame you for anything. - she smiled through her tear-stained face, but her words were sincere. – Of course, I want to punch you for sleeping with other women. It’s just my pride and jealousy telling me to.

She squared her shoulders.

- But I’d be sadder if I knew you’d spent your life alone. - she finally confessed. – I’m glad that you found a person like Thea, glad that you were able to open up to her, could fall in love again and feel the taste of life. This is more important than the fact that I feel the emptiness of loss. My emptiness is only temporary, and your life is still ahead.

- Temporary? What are you talking about? - his gaze was unfocused and his brows furrowed as he took her hand in his.

- This body doesn’t belong to me, you already know that. Just like my soul is just a particle, a torn fragment, I could never be reborn again. This was my punishment for using black magic.

She smiled sardonically, seeing the unspoken question in his gaze.

- I didn’t want you to suffer the same fate as me, so I did everything to keep you alive that day.

- You made me a vampire. You made it impossible for me to die. - he shook his head, his face contorted in a grimace of pain.

- Forgive me for my selfishness. In this, after all, we are similar to you. - she smiled back at him. - If you could, you’d do the same.

- I tried so many times... but I couldn’t die, living your death in my nightmares every time. You can’t even imagine what you’ve doomed me to. - he was breathing heavily.

- I wasn’t thinking about it at the time. All I wanted was for you to live no matter what. I’m really sorry. Let it be our mutual calculation - your pain, for your betrayal.

- It’s a low blow. - he chuckled.

- I don’t have as many cards up my sleeve as you think. I operate with what I can. - She shrugged, feeling a pleasant warmth as his thumb caressed the skin on her arm.

- I never knew you had black magic.

- That’s not quite true. I only accidentally discovered an old book once while I was studying with an witch. I was interested to see what was inside, but I wasn’t going to study the contents. But one spell was too simple for it to be freely deposited in my head, I did not do it purposefully and did not think that I would ever need it, since I was not going to part with my own life.

- You did it because you knew you were going to die. But in the end lost the chance of rebirth?

Artemis nodded.

- Yes. I could exist as a second subconscious in Thea’s head, but Ivrim says that because of this I prevent her from unlocking the potential of her powers, I seem to take away her energy. Sooner or later, I’ll have to leave her.

- Is there really no other option? – he hiccupped again and sniffed, feeling the intoxication cover him more and more.

- If only she stays where she is forever. In the depths of his own subconscious. But I don’t think you’ll put up with it, and I don’t need it. I lived my life, then I lived my life with Thea, and that was enough to understand that she was a good person, not worthy of me doing this to her. No matter how much I love you, I can’t do that. – she said.

- Have you ever thought about how our life would have turned out if that day hadn’t become our worst nightmare? - Raphael asked, resting his temple on the edge of the countertop. – I thought about it a lot, imagined our family, children, and then grandchildren...

Artemis swallowed a heavy lump, and her stomach clenched into a knot. Of course, she thought about it numerous times, dreamed, raved, but it would never become true. Her dreams could have been shattered much earlier, during her lifetime, if the elf king had been honest enough with her. But instead, he decided to reveal the truth to her only centuries later, when her life no longer belonged to her.

- We wouldn’t have been able to have children. – with a heavy burden on her heart, she said, and Raphael seemed to sober up from her words in an instant.

- What does that mean? - his dark aura played again under his feet, twining around the legs of the chair, the word of the snake. - You’re a wizard, there’s never been any doubt about that.

- And a witch. - she added.

- It was not an obstacle to procreation. A witch can be a representative of any race. This is a curse that can fall on everyone’s shoulders.

- Yes... But...My mother was an elf.

Silence. The stone face of the vampire was imprinted in Artemis’s mind, she was afraid that he would break out into a storm again.

- I found out about it before I came to you from this bar. My parents were elves, and I was never a sorceress. Since our races are too similar mentally, my father helped my mother and me hide my appearance so that it would not catch the eye of others and would not cause unnecessary questions. They never told me about it either. Even when Mom found out about our relationship with you. I hope you don’t blame her for that. She loved you like her own son.

Temi nervously clenched her free hand into a fist to calm down.

- That’s why, even if I hadn’t died that day, we wouldn’t have been able to live happily ever after, as in the picture you imagined. I am so sorry.

- Now it’s clear where you inherited your beauty from. - he smiled, breaking the silence.

- Aren’t you angry? - she asked in a whisper.

- Now is not the time. Maybe I would have been angry before, but not now. - he replied, letting the gloomy shadows around him evaporate. – I will have to accept that I will remain childless forever. Well, at least I won’t have to deal with baby poop.

He covered his eyes with his hand and let out a kind of laugh, but it was more like self-irony.

- Who knows? – Those pointedly replied. - After all, you’re not so much a wizard anymore as a vampire.

- Fuck. - he cursed loudly and grabbed Them by the shoulders, jumping up from the chair, which fell to the floor with a crash from behind. - She’s not pregnant, is she? Why didn’t I think of this before?

- What? Are you afraid? - she laughed at him, rubbing her own flat stomach and playfully shooting her eyes.

He tensed even more before she burst out laughing heartily.

- God, Raf, you should see yourself now. You look so pale.

- It’s not funny at all. - he muttered.

- But you dreamed of having children yourself, so why are you so scared now? - she indulgently suppressed her laughter. - Because Thea didn’t want it? I know, you don’t have to answer. I know her thoughts better than you do. And yet you were careless in avoiding protection. Something could happen that would turn your life upside down in one moment.

Raphael pursed his lips. He didn’t know what to say to that, it was just as Artemis said.