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It has done nothing to alleviate the building emotions in my chest, and I grit my teeth as I fly lower. I slip through the tall grass, my eyes searching the side, and I try to think as she would.
But I can’t. I have never seen Natalie in that state, and I have a feeling she wasn’t thinking. She was reacting on pure emotion–to what, I’m still not sure–and that means that I can’t track her. Her path won’t be logical, but-
I freeze, pulling up, and twisting to glance back at Ti’lith. If she wasn’t thinking, just trying to get away, she would have charged straight forward. With how distraught she was, she wouldn’t have gone far, either.
Pushing myself faster, I fly up to the crest of the hill behind my house and search for a marked pathway in the grass. It’s hard to note in such tall stalks, but under careful scrutiny, I spot a break in the yellow sea.
Drifting down toward it, I confirm that it’s small enough to have been made by Natalie, and I turn, looking out across the fields. I follow the broken stalks, and as the hill slopes steeply downward, I finally spot her.
She’s moving so fast that her feet stumble beneath her, and my heart leaps to my throat as I race after her. She can’t seem to find purchase on such a rocky hillside, and I hope that it will slow her enough that I can finally get to her.
Natalie hits the ground hard, and relief surges through me. Without a second thought, I call out to her. “Natalie!”
While my thoughts are a mess of worry, wanting nothing but to feel her safely in my arms again, her face reveals the opposite. Her head snaps back to look up at me with a mix of fear and trepidation, and she pushes up to her feet.
I stumble in my descent as I see her take off again, and I see why she managed to stop. A cave entrance juts out from the hillside, giving her a crevice to nestle into, and as my eyes trace of the rocky, black exterior my heart drops.
There is only one beast out here that prefers to burrow so deeply underground, and this cave is its ideal home. As Natalie scrambles down the rocks, I nearly scream out a warning that I’m sure she will not heed because inside, there is a ferocious monster sleeping.
She’s landed at the base of a howler beast’s nest.
I beg her to keep running, to try to run to the edge of the island if it soothes her heart, but the gods are betting against me, and Natalie spots the opening to the cave. She must not think I can see her beneath the cave’s entrance with the way it juts out, and she skirts around the edge, disappearing out of my view.
A scream burns in my throat as I chase after her. I’m relieved I saw her because if she spends more than a few seconds in there – and even that may be too many – it would be too late for me to save her.
Even with me moving as fast as I can, I fear I won’t be fast enough. That beast could tear her apart before I even set foot in those caves. It could take her away from me.
It could take my children.
The thought hits my stomach hard as I dive between the stalks of grass, rocks jutting out bursting as I clip them in an effort to get closer to the cave. It’s something I haven’t even truly admitted to myself.
But I know without a doubt that Natalie is pregnant. She doesn’t seem to know it, yet, and I don’t want to scare her or push her too hard. In a few weeks, the signs will start and we will have it confirmed.
With our intense and frequent coupling, though, I had already suspected that she might already be pregnant. But a few mornings ago, I awoke to a tendril of magic responding to mine. It stirred against me, calling to me in the early morning hours, and when I laid a palm on her stomach, it jolted through me.
There was no denying it for me then. I spent hours sending little tendrils of magic in and feeling the child respond. It’s not strong enough for Natalie to feel, but I’m so in tune with my magic that I was able to register the creation as soon as it started.
And I can’t deny that I’ve been thrilled. It’s another reason I’ve become so protective over Natalie, and after seeing the Prince today, all I’ve been able to think about – besides making Natalie happy – is having children of my own.
That thought stays with me as I slam down into the ground outside the cave, feeling the immense energy inside. There is a howler beast lurking, and it thinks its next meal has wandered in.
How wrong the creature is.
86
NATALIE
Sobs wrack my body as the tall grass sways around me. I’m nestled at the base of the stalks, hoping to hide out here as long as it takes to clear my mind.
But I have no such luck.
In what feels like no time at all, I hear the faint crackle of electricity and a harsh roar. My head whips to the right in time to see a bolt of blue electricity that I recognize all too well. It’s Kha’zeth. He must have followed me out here.
I push up onto my feet. I’m not capable of being around him right now. I haven’t been able to make sense of the mess in my mind or my heart, and I can’t go back into his house and sleep in his room when I truly don’t know what he is capable of.
I’ve never wished for something to call my own as desperately as I do right now, but I just want to get away from him – and if that means sleeping out here among the grass, I will.
The hillside is steep, and I start to slip as I rush away from him. My feet slide out from under me, and I tumble down through the grass, snapping off the stalks as I go until a rocky outcropping slows my descent, nestling me against its base.
