Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 124

Sitting on the large sofa, a heavy blanket draped over my shoulders, I'm trembling, and yet my body is on fire. Verando was the sensible one in times like these, he'd taken my drenched coat off and proceeded to towel off my hair as the water dripped, heavy droplets rolling down my nose and the back of my neck. The steady rain drummed against the large patio windows that would allow my husband his vices while we remained here. 

I struggled to envision how much hatred a group of protestors would have to have for someone to stand in such weather. With a heavy sniffle, I stare vacantly out the window into the gloomy town saturated by the downpour. Verando waits patiently for me, I disappear over and over again under the towel as he carefully works it through my thick hair, trying to piece together what Bastet had cursed me with.

I'd finally gotten confirmation, the last piece of the puzzle I needed to assure me there was something growing inside me. I count back the days, over and over in my head. We were nearing day 21, which meant if there was anything to see inside of me it would be there. Visible on an ultrasound, if it stayed that is. I'd just been in a fight, thrown about by a lycan on a rampage, supercharged by a deity. 

Instinctively my hand slides to my stomach, replaying every harsh blow and the surplus of magic coursing through my body. What if I'd done something that would bring this all crashing down once more? 

My lips part but nothing comes out, the coffee cup clutched so loosely in my hands threatens to topple over and he captures it to place on the coffee table. The light from the end table lamp reflected off every flake of silver in his startling icy eyes, he searches my face and I meet his gaze with a look of desperation. I needed him to tell me it was going to be okay, to not reveal the harsh realities of my situation, and assure me that we'd figure it out for the better. 

Unfortunately, my husband had never been one to favor the positive side of these situations.

"Bastet." I finally manage.

"Are you hurt?" Pushing my sleeve up, he lingers on the cuff and I try not to clue in on how disappointed he is that she hadn't taken it back. He was ever hopeful that we'd end this dance with the goddess, only now it was just beginning. I'd succeeded, I'd gotten what I'd always wanted, but at what cost? "Did she harm you?" 

She'd gutted me, cut me to the quick, and left me to bleed out. I exhale shakily, shaking my head numbly. "No. She-" Part of me wanted to hide this, to keep it myself and protect it from him. There was fear, uncontrollable fear, that he would want to terminate. "She said she was checking on her cuff. She said that it would appear the intervention was successful."

Staring at me, those same eyes I was so fond of growing frosty as he searches my face. My warlord was too calculated, too practiced, to bypass my subtle hint that we'd succeeded in making use of my alleged heat cycle. Reaching out quickly, I find his hands, terrified that he'd run from me, that he'd retaliate, yet now it would seem that it was his turn to fall uncomfortably silent. 

"Bastet wants us to be on the side of allowing the gods to remain on earth. She.. made valid points.. that immortals trapped in purgatory suffer a great deal. She said that a child, from you and I, might suffer a similar fate as Fenrir if the unicorn was not appropriately educated in fairness and if gods were once more to be banished." The words hurt even leaving my mouth, tainting something that should have been a blessing. 

Verando's teeth grind together, the tension builds in his jaw as he takes in every sentence. "So it's a trick, then. A ploy to get what she wants because that is what every 'gift' ends up being. There are no gifts Nic, there are only these horrid tricks with strings attached. You are going to be exactly where we are with Darrius with this-" What could he even call it? The hesitation hurts more than any wound, he didn't want to call it a baby or a child, he didn't consider it that.