Accidental Surrogate

A Story to Come Cora The images of Ariel’s future come in quick flashes, and somehow I get the impression that the Goddess is eager to share these glimpses of her life.

The ones that come first are what I sort of expected, especially after seeing some images of Rafe’s childhood and hearing about the ones that Ella and Sinclair saw during Jesse’s baptism. But these ones focus on an angelic little girl with rose-gold hair who is just… ridiculously happy.

My ears fill almost instantly with tears to see her running and playing with the boys who are so clearly Rafe and Jesse. Ariel – she’s always at the center of their games, always laughing so heartily her eyes are barely open above her rosy cheeks. In one flash, Jesse’s climbed up onto the branch of a tree and is reaching a hand down for her as Rafe boosts her up from below. In another, Ariel is cuddled between her brother and her cousin, all wrapped up in a big blanket as the three sit around a campfire, their eyes wide and bright as they roast marshmallows and look with awe up at Roger, who is clearly in the midst of telling a scary story.

Roger laughs beside me at the sight and I press myself close to them as we get more insight into her life as she grows older, her teenager years as she becomes the Nation’s princess, as she grows into a beautiful, graceful young woman but still one full of pranks, running through the halls of the palace with her brother and Jesse chasing behind.

And then I gasp, a little, to see our little girl dressed as a bride – My hand goes to my mouth- because she looks so young and so afraid – My stomach drops when I see her what looks like a moment later, her back pressed to a door as she sobs in her wedding gown as two young men who are so clearly my son and my nephew jump to her side.

kind of military school dressed up in fatigues, her hair tucked up beneath a cap, looking for anything like…like a boy… “Oh my god,” I mutter, and then I laugh because it just gets stranger after that- Ariel, mixing potions in a chemistry class, her eyes going wide as one goes awry and explodes in front of her – Ariel, an expert sniper, crouching on top of a tower and hitting the bullseye of a target that must be half a mile away Ariel, curled up in a chair by the

looks up at the moon – Two fated mates, just like her father… And suddenly, what the Goddess said to me in my living room that day so many months ago… It makes…so much

see of our children training hard, laughing together, working to build their lives and help each other and serve our nation –

her. All standing together on a battlefield

something

then… The image disperses.

for a long moment, and I’m only shaken out of it by a little mewling cry