Bonded Ever After (The Royal Gold Keepers #3)

Chapter 14

FOURTEEN

Elora

I’m hurling my lunch just off the protected path, while Callum holds back my hair. This is my third time puking in the last few days. Apparently , the baby doesn’t like jerky and trail mix.

Lucky me.

“We’ll be at the next cabin soon. I’ll make you stew, and I’ll try to keep an eye out for any berries or fruit along the way,” he tells me gently.

I clean myself up, and we start walking again at a slower pace. We’d been pushing ourselves, unsure of whether or not the Council was behind us. Luckily, we didn’t have to drop flowers because, well, no other Gold Keepers would be following us. We’d also taken the journals from our family cabins, not wanting to give the Council any insight into what they might come across next.

Callum grabs my water and hands it to me. “You have to stay hydrated. All this puking isn’t good for you or the baby.”

“You’re telling me,” I say, then drink the water slowly, making sure it’s not going to end up coming back up.

“You okay?” he asks, his blue eyes filled with concern.

I nod, and hand him my water, which he slips back into my pack. It’s weird how tired and slow I feel now. Weird because I’m barely pregnant. A lot of women don’t even know they’re pregnant at this point. But Callum has reassured me that it might be because we’re Gold Keepers. Their pregnancies might be different.

“Our Little Bean certainly knows what they like and don’t like,” he says, grinning at my stomach.

“How nice,” I tell him dryly.

He laughs. “I can just imagine this stubborn little girl, or stubborn little boy, stamping their feet and clenching their fists.”

I smile at the image. Unfortunately, we don’t even know where this baby is going to live. My smile fades into a frown, and I touch my belly.

Callum reaches over and puts his hand on mine. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to figure this out. You just worry about growing our baby, and I’ll worry about everything else.”

Lifting a brow, I smile. “I don’t think it works that way.”

“Well, we’re the only people in Neverwood. We get to decide how it goes.”

I try to hold onto his optimism, but it slips through my fingers. “So, I guess you’re somehow going to have to learn how to deliver a baby.”

He looks at me in confusion.

“You’re the only one who can do it.”

His eyes widen, and then he hides his fear behind a calm mask. “I’ll talk to the tree guy, Xarex. His whole home was full of books. I’m sure there’s one on childbirth. Hell, he might even know a thing or two. Or maybe one of his people do, and I can pick their brains over it.”

Okay, that’s actually a pretty good idea.

He takes my hand and starts walking. “So, Michael or Logan if it’s a boy, and Natalie if it’s a girl.”

I smile. Those were the names we’d narrowed our choices down to. “I love them.”

“I love them too.”

Suddenly, I feel a pulling. A sense of something. I know it isn’t the goldarium strapped to Callum’s pack, because that’s in the crystal chest. There must be more.

I glance all over and see goldarium just off the path up ahead.

“That looks easy enough to get,” I say.

Callum shakes his head. “We don’t need any. We have enough to build us whatever we need for our new life. There’s no way we’re going to risk our lives for that.”

He’s right. We’d already talked about this.

As we keep going, I see movement and spot the ogre hiding behind a tree. I stiffen and grab Callum’s arm, pointing. His brow wrinkles, and I realize I didn’t tell him about the last trap I was sure the ogres had set for me.

“It’s a trap,” I whisper.

He lifts a brow. “They’re not smart enough for traps.”

“They set one up for me last time. I think they’re doing it again.”

“No way,” he says, shaking his head.

I frown at him, but we keep going. My gaze slides over everything around us until I pick out four more ogres. Each time, I point them out to him, and Callum looks entirely shocked.

When we fully pass all of them, the roars start. The ogres chase after us, even though they can’t step on the path. They’re roaring, pounding their chests, and screaming. Every step of the way Callum is looking at them like they’ve lost their minds.

His surprise turns to annoyance as they keep following us. He covers his ears. He tries to hurry fast enough so they can’t keep up with us, but the ogres shadow us every step of the way.

It’s hours before they stop. Hours before they drop back. And then we’re left in startling silence. Not even the birds make sounds around us.

“ Whoa ,” Callum finally says.

“I told you,” I respond, a little smugly.

He gives me an amused look. “Remind me to always listen to you.”

I flash him a smile. “Happy wife, happy life, right?”

Then I realize what I said and turn bright red. Speeding up, I try to outrun the bugger, but he easily keeps pace with me, a smile spreading across his face.

He snags my hand. “About that. I’m thinking we should make this thing official before our baby arrives. I like the ring ‘wife’ has to it.”

“Are you asking me to marry you?”

He shakes his head. “No, when I ask you to marry me, you’ll know it.”

“Okay then,” I say, blushing.

We’re only walking together for a short time when a stag leaps out onto the path. He can’t mean us harm if he’s able to go on the path, but still, Callum shifts to stand in front of me, and I’m left looking around him at the bright red stag. He has golden antlers, meaning he’s an elder, and he stands tall and majestic.

Leaning down, he touches the path in front of it, and it turns gold, moving slowly toward us. As it reaches our feet, I feel a tingling spread over me, and I look down at my hand to see that it’s turned to gold. Callum looks back at me, completely golden, and gasps at whatever he sees in me.

The stag leans down and seems to bow to us before leaping off the path and disappearing into the woods. We stare after him for a moment, probably both wondering what the hell just happened.

Callum turns to me. “The gold is fading.”

“Yours is too,” I say, touching his face, which is less and less golden by the second.

“What the hell was that?” he asks.

I shake my head. “No idea, but it was definitely weird.”

“Definitely,” he confirms.

We continue walking until we see a cabin in the distance, just in front of the Mist Realm, and we both speed up. After too many nights on the hard ground, a nice bed and a good stew sound almost too good to be true. I just hope our friends back home are doing just as well at their new universities.