“Is she moving much?”
Camille snaps me out of my reveries and I touch my distended belly. “Some days more than others. Mostly at night.”
Which is another issue. I barely sleep with her moving all hours of the night. It’s like she’s trying to tell me something and I can’t decipher an unborn baby’s gibberish. This whole love-family-marriage thing is complicated.
I adjust my position, sighing in discomfort as I do.
“I don’t miss sleepless nights or being pregnant. But once they’re born, there’s a whole new set of problems to keep me up at night. Like, what if Salina stops breathing? What if she gets tangled in her side bumper now that she’s somewhat mobile and strangles herself? What if she’s too hot? Or runs a fever? So many what-ifs. I swear, I’m popping up checking her every two hours, even if she’s not ready to nurse. No wonder Ben stays at the PDU all hours of the night.”
I close my gaping jaw as a shudder runs through me. Is this normal? Will Riley choose to work longer hours than he already does? Can I blame myself for my concerns? I’m still stuck on the breathing issue as Camille elaborates on night feedings and bleeding nipples. What if I’m not cut out to be a mom? What if I fall under my grandmother’s resentful parenting?
I don’t want to admit that a darkness lives inside of me that isn’t just this half-vampire baby and Riley’s blood I occasionally enjoy. What if the dark magic that runs in our family—darkness that I harnessed to reduce my grandmother and put her in jail, the same woman who tried to kill me three times now—is actually taking over my light?
“Wow, that’s a lot to take in.” I try to sound empathetic when I have no idea what she’s talking about and I’m still stuck on my family curse, as I see it.
“I’m sure you’ll be an amazing mom.” She pats my arm.
Will I? I can’t help thinking about my bio mom and how good she was but also that the last remaining relative is my grandmother. Catherine’s walled up in a Faery prison and will be for eternity, if I have my way. The world just doesn’t need her kind of negativity and hate, when her problems lie within.
Catherine needs therapy big time.
Do I? Will I let Riley down?
Salina kicks out, thrusting her pearly skin past her dress and flashing me a red mark that looks raised and puffy. I reach out, stilling her leg. “Camille? What is this?”
Camille raises Salina’s hem to expose the full mark. “Well that’s odd. She didn’t have that when I bathed her this morning.”
The miss-shaped ring, which is raised and pinker than purple, looks familiar, but heck if I can place it.
“What do you think it means?” Camille’s voice raises a full octave.
I understand her alarm. I place my hand over the mark, letting my powers seep into her skin, feeling for something that I fear, which is dark magic. The warm mark sparks with magic under my palm. “It looks…” Like a brand.
“What’s wrong? Your skin is glowing?”
I don’t want to alarm Camille, but more so, if I’m spooked, how am I to stop her from freaking out after all the negative things she’s alerted me to? “It could be nothing. “Maybe she had her leg pressed against her car seat where there’s a raised area.”
“Her seat doesn’t have any kind of emblem like that. Should I have her pediatrician look at it?”
Again, what should I say?
Camille lifts Salina’s dress, checks her daughter’s front and back and the covered places. “There’s nothing else hiding in the hot spots.”
I close my eyes briefly, wishing I could protect every newborn with my fae magic. “I wouldn’t worry too much,” I infuse my voice with a sense of calm, even though I’m anything but relaxed.
“I’d feel better if your eyes hadn’t changed to a vibrant yellow. Even your guards are starting to close in. I’m not a newbie, Tricia. I know you’re a powerful fae queen. I can tell you sensed something.”
I didn’t exactly feel my grandmother’s magic, but I know dark magic, the way the air fills with the snap of ozone, the way it calls to my marrow, setting deep in my bones, how it once spoke to me, and how I worked to resist it’s calling. Dark fae magic exists, even though my grandmother stays behind bars and has existed long before she became queen. She embraced the darkness, while I’m still fighting against its wretched hold.
I rise from the blanket and right my dress so it won’t bunch over the top of my belly.
A child screams.
I swivel, my auburn hair flying around my shoulders in time to catch the two boys scuffling, the bigger one knocking down the smaller.
I stare at the spot where the merry-go-round once stood as one of the moms rushes over, leaving her toddler in a stroller, crying. The woman is practically pulled in two directions, leading me to consider if I’ll be left split as well after this baby is born—my responsibilities as a queen, mother, and wife. Will there be time for me?
Of course. I have complete faith in Riley. He’s got my back and I have his.
Still, I glare at the blank space. I’d been the smallest kid in my elementary school class. A bully shoved me off the ride when the teacher wasn’t looking. Falling off that contraption helped me to learn that, no matter how embarrassed or hurt I was about falling, it was up to me to pick myself up if I wanted to play the so-called game.
The mom turns her back for a second and the larger kid pushes the smaller down a second time.
Apparently, not much has changed.
But as Queen of Faery, I don’t have the option to ignore bullies when they threaten my people, or the innocent, whether Other Kind, human, or tiny babies. I don’t have the option not to ride when jumping off would show my weakness.
Games, the kind my grandmother plays, are games of life and death. She’s the biggest bully I’ve ever known. She killed her own daughter, my mother, and exiled me, but she earned her place behind bars when she tried to kill me while also targeting the United States senators, including Vice President Reeves, as the Civil Rights Bill passed, which granted Other Kind equal rights.
Catherine is a fanatical fae and a witchy woman for sure.
“Camille, I gotta check on someone.” I nod to Ella first and then to my guards.
“Tricia, be careful. I don’t trust your grandmother.”
“Ella, that makes two of us.”
“You’re leaving so soon?” Camille stands, lifting Salina as she does.
“Duty calls. Thank you for the party. It was amazing. We’ll get together next Wednesday, okay,” I promise her with a smile and sincere eyes. “You, Stacey, everyone… I’m so appreciative of all you’ve done.”
Camille gives me a squeeze. “I’ll help clean up and then bring your gifts to the compound.”
“You don’t mind?”
“No. That’s what friends are for: to help each other. In fact, it gives me an excuse to leave. I want to get this mark checked by Salina’s pediatrician at the PDU before he quits for the day.”
I hug her tightly, then I portal from the playground, landing on the opposite side of the jail cell that holds my wicked grandmother, Catherine.
Chapter 2