Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
No one could be prepared, I tell him, cradling his head to my chest as he holds tight to me. His arms are clutching me so tight he might leave bruises, but I don’t care. I just want to be held by him right now. I stroke my fingers over the shorn locks of his hair, rubbing his scalp. Don’t blame yourself. No one could ever be prepared.
“Are you guys…okay?” Gwen asks after a moment.
Vaan wishes to know what we saw. I can feel the distaste in Jurik’s thoughts. Not for Vaan and his question—but at the thought of having to relive what we just went through.
I hold him closer, not caring that his face is buried between my boobs. Will you show me what you saw? I’ll show mine, too.
Give me a moment and we will all share, Jurik tells me. I will share what you give to Vaan, and he will share with his mate.
I nod. Then we only have to live through it again once. Just thinking about it makes me shudder. Azar sensed that thing…does he feel what we did? Every day?
I do not envy him. Not at all.
We all sit down on the concrete, and I lean my cheek against Jurik’s arm. I feel totally drained right now, just completely done. It’s going to take me days to recover from everything that I’ve experienced this afternoon, and it’ll take me even longer to forget it, if I ever can. Some, I suspect, is going to be burned into my brain for all time.
Are you ready to share? Jurik asks, putting his hand out for mine. Vaan and his mate are ready.
I swallow hard, then nod. We only have to do this once. I can get through it. I take a deep, calming breath, and then try to relive that awful moment.
The pulsing of the Rift.
The bug that landed in my hair.
The bug that crawled out of the Rift as I watched.
The eye that stared back.
The feeling of wrongness, of evil, of decay.
Jurik shares it, too, how his mind pulsed with the awfulness of whatever it was, the looming presence, the sheer power and evil of it. Whatever it was, it’s very, very real, and it’s not looking to play nice.
It’s an utterly sobering realization, and Gwen and Vaan are shocked as we share it. Eventually, Gwen swallows and speaks up, but I can tell that she’s shaken. “Azar said…I just never…I didn’t imagine…” She puts her fingers to her mouth, thoughtful. “The Rift, it pulsed when you guys were there, as if it was trying to reach out and take you. Like a Venus flytrap.”
I shudder. “I don’t think it’s safe for anyone to go back and try to go through the Rift. Anyone at all. We have to warn any others that it’s not worth trying.”
“How do we fight this?” Gwen asks, her expression devastated. I’m sure it matches my own. “How do we stop something like that?”
“I don’t know.”
We do not stop it, Jurik says, his mind suddenly calm. We do not have the power. But others do. Sallavatri and Luminoura, they pushed it back without effort.
“They’re babies,” I protest.
Vaan agrees with me. They are infants, but they are not like infants in your world or mine. They are the best of both worlds. We do not have much of ourselves left in this place, but both of them arrived with long, glorious names and strong minds, able to withstand all that this world tries to destroy. They are the solution.
Gwen touches her stomach after glancing at her mate. “The drakoni are right. The babies really are connected to this world. And strong. Vaan struggled a lot more before coming to Fort Dallas. Just having the babies close by helps him. And your mate seems…solid.”
Their presence helps me, as well. I was lost before Luminoura’s birth.
“The more babies there are, the safer we’ll be,” Gwen says. “When mine is born, he—or she—can help. Already I feel it at times. It comes in and when I start having bad dreams, he chases them away. Or she.” She smiles. “It’s hard to explain, but Vaan feels it, too.”
“Babies,” I echo. Who’d have thought the answer would be babies? “Do we have enough time to wait for more babies? How far are you along? Do we have seven more months?”
“Try two,” Gwen says. “Drakoni gestation is a lot faster than ours, apparently.”
“I…oh.” I can’t imagine. It seems so…sudden.
Jurik takes my hand and lifts it to his lips. You know what this means, my fires? It means I must get you pregnant with my child.
I sputter, my face searing bright red. I avoid looking at anyone but him as I ask my question, silently, You mean to tell me we have to have sex to save the world?