I click my tongue at him. “Unfortunately for you, I’m not on the menu. Plus, I would slice off your eyelids and feed them to Dare, then I would make you watch as she nested in your pancreas.
“What the fuck?” His face scrunches up even more.
“Oh, I would love to have his teeth for a necklace. Let me know if you decide to pursue this avenue,” Aeson chimes in.
“Bloodthirsty lot.” Torin covers his eyes with his inner elbow and crosses his ankles over the end of the sofa, seemingly going back to sleep. His shirt is off, and I catch Aeson licking her lips as she does a long, slow perusal.
“Too bad he’s so large.” She purses her lips and tilts her head from left to right. “I bet that witch could make me a potion to make him just the right size.” She continues to examine him.
I gesture for her to follow me into the kitchen, but I don’t miss the slight lifting of Torin’s lips. “You can’t have him,” I whisper once we’re out of the room.
“Why ever not?” Aeson gives me an indignant glare.
“He’s grieving.”
“Best way to get over someone is to get under someone new,” she purrs.
I can’t help it, I laugh. “You’re such a whore.”
“Says the slut who’s fucking three men.” Her little face is pursed in the sweetest smile.
“What can I say? I learned from the best, you hussy.” I reach in the fridge and pull out a carton of vanilla yogurt—which is not usually to my taste—but this shit is good. Throw in some chocolate chips, and it’s damn near perfect.
“Finally eating, are you? I guess three dicks can build up an appetite. Or you’re pregnant.” Aeson cackles at her statement.
The yogurt container slips from my hand and hits the floor, the white goo exploding upward. My mind finds the truth in her joke, piecing together the reality in an instant. The hunger, the yellow glow from within my stomach, the feeling of happiness… “I think I’m going to throw up.” I run to the sink and lean my head over the white porcelain, waiting for my stomach contents to empty, but the only thing that happens is my breathing speeds up, along with my heart rate.
“Dami?” I feel Aeson’s little hand push back the curtain of my hair so she can see my face. “Oh, darling,” she coos.
“I’ve never even had a period.” I don’t know how to sort through my emotions. “How could this even be possible?” I look over at the one woman in my life who hasn’t left me, hoping she will tell me I’m overreacting, that I’m not pregnant, but I know that to be a lie.
“Dami, you’re not human, so you’re not bound by the rules of science. Magic is in your veins.” Her voice is pitched low as she tries to be comforting.
“I don’t know how to be a mom. My mom was a monster, a real one. What if I’m like her?”
Aeson tsks and looks at me with what I can only assume is disappointment. “Damiana, I have watched you care for creatures who terrify others. The baddies—as you call them—don’t come to you because you’re powerful. They are drawn to you because you accept them as they are. How could you be anything but a wonderful mum?”
Tears prick my eyes, but I don’t allow them to fall. “I don’t know which of them is the father,” I confess, as if I’ve committed a cardinal sin.
“It doesn’t matter,” Aeson assures me.
“What if it does to them? How am I going to tell them?”
“Tell who what?”
I snap my head up and straighten my back at Calix’s voice. I don’t turn around, though, for fear he will see the unshed tears in my eyes. I blink rapidly several times.
“Tell them to stop being such nosy buggers,” Aeson snaps flippantly.
“I spilled yogurt all over the floor.” I’m grasping for anything other than what I’m really thinking. “It’s all over the table and wall.” I reach for the washcloth and turn on the hot water. Just because I don’t like to clean doesn’t mean I don’t know how.
“I was going to leave the mess for someone else to clean up, but since you caught me.” The lie burns my tongue. I’m so glad it’s not Grim standing in the doorway. I force some lightness into my tone. I have a lot of practice faking my emotions.
I drop down to my knees, cloth in hand, and start to scoop up the mess, but my thoughts are consumed with going over every single time I’ve slept with each of the guys, so I end up just smearing the yogurt around.
Calix chuckles and takes the cloth from my hand, then he rinses it out at the sink. He squats in front of me, his eyes soft and worry free. For now. “I’m good at cleaning up messes.” He winks and takes over the job. I just keep staring it him. I can’t force myself to get up off the floor. Will the baby have his hazel eyes, Grim’s gray, or Gunnar’s and my blue? Aeson’s words echo in my mind, ‘It doesn’t matter.’Stars, I hope she’s right.
Torin makes his way into the kitchen. His eyes are a little wild when our gazes meet. He knows. He doesn’t even have to say anything, and I know he knows. He must have been listening to Aeson and me. I plead with him using my eyes, begging him not to say anything. He looks away first, his lips pinched.
