Page 19 of Monster Queen Rising

"Jesus."

She shakes her head.

"That is not normal."

"You're telling me." I don't know how much to give her, but I continue. "I feel different in my own body every day now. And my soul's bonded to these men. All six of them."

Then she laughs. It is not a small laugh. It comes up out of her chest and she puts her hand over her mouth and laughs into her palm.

"I'm sorry," she says, and laughs again. "You're going to tell me Superman is real next."

"No, but some of them can fly."

The laugh has tears in it now — not crying, the kind that come when you are past hysterical. She breathes. The laugh quiets. She drags the back of her hand across her eyes.

"I'm a teacher," she says. "I teach the times tables. I told a kid last month that ghosts aren't real. I gave her a hug because she was scared."

"I'm sorry all of this is happening to you."

"And now you're telling me people can fly."

"Yes."

The humor goes out of her face.

"I'm freaking out," she says. "A lot. I'm freaking the fuck out. I'm asking you all these questions like I'm fine and I am not. I am not going to be fine anytime soon and I want you to know it, because I might start screaming."

"Then scream."

What's left on her face now is fear. Real fear. "Oh my god," she says.

I put my hand on hers. She does not pull away.

"Oh my god, there's a baby in me, and—" Her breath goes ragged. "Can she fly? Is she going to fly?"

"I don't know," I say. "Maybe. Nobody knows what she'll be yet."

Daron finds my eyes in the rearview. He does not slow the truck, but he is reading me. I shake my head. He keeps driving.

"Madison. Look at me."

She does.

"You're allowed to be freaking out. I still am."

She lets out a breath. It shakes, but it comes.

"Okay," she says. "Okay. I'm still freaking out but I'm here, but I’m with you and not chained to a bed. Progress. Okay, okay–I want to keep asking questions. Is that all right?"

"Yes."

"Tell me what's in my body."

"A half-demon pregnancy. On the Syndicate's protocol it runs six weeks instead of nine months. You've carried about three weeks so far."

"So half." She gets there immediately. "They told me the baby is a girl. How big is she, then?"

"Measuring like a twenty-week human fetus. On this clock you're at the midpoint. If the cascade runs, you deliver in four days. If you take the reversal, it shuts the cascade off and you finish the slower way — about three more weeks."