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“We’re going to do check-ins. Dice is with Liza and Sadie several hours away. He’s trying to get back to Karma, but we’re trying to make him stay put now that we know what’s going on. Thad and Roslyn are with them too,” Gage tells me.
“Why?”
“Sadie had more information on portals locked away in a vault. Thad’s arm is broken, but it should mend as soon as our immortality comes back. Karma stayed behind.”
“Why?” I ask again, confused. They never go anywhere without each other.
Gage blows out a long breath.
“Because I’m pregnant,” Karma says quietly. Kya almost falls off the bed while putting on her shirt, but I catch her as I gawk at the phone. “I don’t know how it happened. I thought I was spelled. But it did, and I just found out a few hours ago. That’s when they left. I haven’t told Dice yet, but I told him I needed to stay behind. I felt... I felt something off. And I felt like I needed to stay put for the... baby. That word sounds so wrong. It’s the worse time ever for me to be pregnant.”
She sounds close to tears, and Kya’s eyes water. With no demon in her, the humanity she’s suppressed for so long seems to be spilling out too emotionally. She sniffs and wipes her eyes, and I pull her to me.
“Stay inside,” Kya says. “Stay inside and locked behind all the markings and spells you can find. Don’t be in this, Karma. Don’t be anywhere near it. If they get their hands on your baby—”
Her words break off, and she struggles not to sob. I hold her tighter as she stares at the phone.
“They’ll never touch my child,” Karma finally says, a lethal tone to her voice. “I’m not a mule, and I’m never going to turn my child over. They’ll have to kill me first.”
So she does know. But she never talks about it?
“You knew?” Kya asks in a hoarse whisper, echoing my thoughts.
“I read about it after the rings were dissolved. Dice found the information. They had several documented cases. I never found ours, but judging by what I was reading... It all sounded too familiar. It all made sense. I did the math.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” someone asks her, but I’m not sure who. Frankie maybe?
“Because we have too much other stuff going on,” Karma says on a long breath. “Always too much.”
“Where’s my mother?” I ask when the silence drones on.
“I’m here,” she says, and relief hits me again. “Calypso and I are looking through the archives to see if we can find this spell the dipshit asshole spoke of. There’s got to be a way to ward against it. If he’s right, they’ll hit us with it again. Something this strong would drain a coven of its collective energy. They’d need to refuel to replicate it so soon.”
“If they’re mortal witches who’ve come back as demons, they’ve been collecting energy for centuries from the rings,” Gage tells her. “Which is yet another reason for them to have taken it over.”
Mom curses, and she and Calypso start talking about which books would be the most effective. Kya leans into me, her heart hammering. Then a loud sound comes from her stomach, and she jerks back to stare down in shock.
“Um... The hell was that?” I hear Ella ask.
“I think Kya is hungry,” I say, trying not to laugh at the horror on her face. Because now is not the best time to laugh about anything. But she looks so lost and confused and fascinated in the same breath.
Her stomach growls again, this time louder, and she covers it as her cheeks bloom a pink blush. She averts my eyes, and I cover my mouth as my body shakes with silent laughter.
“Now that you mention it, I’m assuming that’s the huge ache in the pit of my stomach,” Ella is saying. “And blood doesn’t sound the least bit appealing.”
“So we order food and stay inside. Go in pairs to retrieve food, and watch your back. I honestly have no idea how mortals survive,” Gage says on a long sigh.
“It’s just been a while since you’ve been flesh and blood. We got this,” Kimber tells him.
“Pretty sure she just called you old,” Zee points out.
“Really fucking glad our age isn’t affected by this spell,” Drackus grumbles.
“There’d be some dust piles if it was,” Ella snickers.
As the conversation dissolves into nothing of importance, I end the call and pocket my phone. We’re both dressed now, but the room is in shambles. Even though she has on shoes now, I still lift her into my arms, worried about her fragile body being hurt by anything.
She doesn’t protest. I think she’s just as terrified as I am.
