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“We’re having a baby,” he said, his voice hushed.
The sound of his wonderment took hold of my mouth, stretching my smile so widely it lifted my whole body. “Yeah. We are.”
His eyebrows dug together, his fingers sweeping over my hip bones and returning to the valley of my belly. “You’ve survived five prophesied deaths. You’ll survive this one.” He looked up at me, his eyes tapered into steely determination. “We’ll beat this.”
Fate cannot be changed.
Aiman’s words didn’t have the same shivery effect on me now that he was dead. The pregnancy was the last of my predicted deaths. No others followed it, because this one couldn’t be evaded. I wouldn’t voice that, though. Not when Jesse was finally starting to see past his grief.
“Let’s beat the prediction.” I pushed my fingers through his hair. “But can I brush my teeth first?”
“Yeah.” He pressed his lips to my belly button, adjusted my shirt, and straightened until our eyes were level. “I’m freaking out, Evie, but it’s no excuse for making you cry. God, I’m such a dick.”
“Fear is a dick, and you, Jesse Beckett, are fearless.”
“But not dickless?”
I laughed, and fuck, that felt good.
He dragged a thumb over my cheek and raised it between us, staring at the smear of blood. “Never seen you cry. It’s like your soul is bleeding.”
With a gentle finger, I traced the downward bow of his mouth. “If my soul is bleeding, it’s with love and happiness. Don’t you get it? This was never about me. Our daughter is the reason I survived the virus, the reason I fell in love with three unbreakable protectors. She needs you.”
“And I need you.” He ran his hand through my wet hair, staring intently into my eyes. “I need you so much.”
I breathed deeply, filling every crevice inside me with need, his and mine.
Roark’s accent floated over my shoulder. “Are ye familiar with Our Lady of Akita?”
I turned in Jesse’s arms and shook my head.
“I am.” Michio leaned back against the wall. “It was a weeping Madonna statue in Japan. I heard about it when I lived there. It cured illness, right?”
“Yeah.” Roark pulled a toothbrush and paste from his bag, rose to his feet, and strode to the sink. “The statue’s ectoplasmic tears were actually filmed by a television crew and shown during news broadcasts throughout the world. What made it unique was its apparition of the Virgin Mary and the messages she delivered.”
A shiver coursed through me. “You think it was the real deal then?”
“It was the only one of its kind to be sanctioned by the Vatican.” He held up the toothbrush and hiked a brow at me.
Jesse followed me to one of the sinks and perched on the edge of another as I accepted the brush and cleaned my teeth.
“The apparition delivered messages? What were they?” I asked around the minty bubbles.
“Warnings of the end times.” Roark swiped a thumb at the corner of my mouth. “The Virgin’s apparition spoke of the terrible punishment that would be placed on all of humanity, stating, ‘The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.’”
When the plague hit, I had envied the dead. Now that I wanted to live, I was forced to stare death in the face. Talk about the irony of life.
I spit, rinsed off the toothbrush, and handed it to Roark.
He reloaded it with more toothpaste. “Genesis 3:15 says the serpent's head will be crushed by the seed of a woman.”
My head kicked back. “Are you implying my daughter is that biblical seed?”
“I’m not finished. The apparition at Our Lady of Akita referenced that verse in one of her messages when she said, ‘Sin came into the world by a woman and it is also by a woman that salvation came to the world.’ In the Church, we called that Co-Redemptrix.”
The fact that I shared the name of the woman with sin sent a prickle down my back, but that didn’t mean I was the woman with salvation. “I don’t have any designs on redeeming mankind, Roark.”
“Ye weep blood and cured humanity.”
“So? I’m not a statue or a Virgin apparition.”
“No, but someday, your image will be carved in wood, sewn onto cloth, and cast in metal.” His tone was both sad and reverent. “Your face will become an object of worship and adoration. You’ll be the iconic memorial of the healing of women, and the mother of the new world’s messiah.”
I bristled to refute every damned thing he said. “Suggesting that anyone would carve my face into anything is awfully optimistic, considering the programmed minds taking over the human race.”
Roark glanced at Jesse beside me then looked away and popped the toothbrush in his mouth.
“He’s right, Evie.” Michio joined my side and tucked my hair behind my ear. “I don’t think any of us are ready to discuss the credibility of the prophecy and the child’s role in the future. But no matter what happens, you will be remembered.”
