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“Chicago has been saved from a most terrifying threat,” the mayor continued when she turned back to the crowd again. “But the rebuilding begins now. Let us begin it together. For now, and for the future, let us be one Chicago.”
• • •
Because it was Chicago, my grandfather took us for pizza after the event. And then we returned to Cadogan House for the movie night I’d arranged in the House’s ballroom. There’d be food, alcohol, and ridiculous comedies, which, as the House’s official social chair, I thought was just the thing to reward the House.
But before that, before relaxation, there was one more bit of business. So I stopped Ethan on the steps of Cadogan House, kept my fingers entwined with his, and looked up at him.
“Sentinel?”
“There’s something I want to tell you.”
Predictably, he lifted an eyebrow. “All right.”
I’d waited until a doctor confirmed with science what I’d believed was true on the roof of the Towerline building. And even then, I’d waited until after the mayor’s commendation; I wanted to be sure of Chicago.
I steeled myself and said the words that would change everything.
“I’m pregnant.”
Ethan simply stared at me. His eyes went saucer-wide, then dropped to my abdomen, my face again. “What?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“You’re—how do you—how?”
“Well,” I said, thinking of the way he and Mallory had both teased me, “when a man and a woman—”
“Sentinel.” There was a joyous and impatient edge to his voice, like a child who can’t wait to open a Christmas present.
I smiled at him. “It was at Towerline. The binding magic.”
Ethan was as smart as they came, and realization dawned quickly in his face. “The side effect. It didn’t bind you inside the sword; you think it bound the child to you.”
I nodded. “That’s the theory. The binding magic made her stick, at least until she’s ready to pop. And ‘her’ is just a guess,” I said, before he could ask. “I don’t like saying ‘it.’”
“Some magical side effect,” he said after a moment.
I grinned at him. “Seriously. Nine months and eighteen years of side effect, give or take.”
“The test,” Ethan said. “The one that had to be passed. What was that?”
“I haven’t talked to Gabriel, but I have a pretty good feeling it was related to the dragon—facing down my fear of the monster, and the possibility of what he’d done, and could do, to Chicago.” I smiled up at him. “She’ll be the only one of her kind—the only vampire born as a vampire. I think she needed me to prove that I could be as brave as she’ll need to be.”
Ethan pulled me toward him, wrapped his arms around me, nestled my body against his. “My wife. My child.”
“Yep. Probably in May.”
“In May,” he said, wonder in the word. And then he froze, looked down at me with horror in his face.
My heart sped in answer. “What? What is it?”
“You’ll be eating for two.”
I slapped his chest. “Don’t do that. I thought something was really wrong.”
“Something is wrong. Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost me?”
I just shook my head at him. “You want to keep going? Just get it all out at once?”
