Chapter 47
“He’s so fragile. So breakable.”
“Children always are. It’s a risk we take.”
—Elena and Raphael (Once, in the Medica as a Child Healed)
Hannah sat up in bed dressed in a nursing gown of a lovely peach shade that echoed the kiss of peach on her primary feathers. Her curls were loose around her glowing face as she held a blanket-wrapped infant in her arms.
The light that fell in from the outside made the room shimmer—but nothing glowed as prettily as Hannah.
“Han.” Elena tiptoed over, conscious of Keir melting away to return to his other duties. “Is she asleep?” A whisper.
“Sit.” Hannah patted the bed with one hand. “Yes, she is, but she was awake just before and will likely wake again soon. She’s still figuring out sleep.”
Having taken the offered seat, Elena put the gift bag on the bedside table and leaned in to peer at the tiny face within the blanket.
The baby had skin as smooth as her mother’s, the shade of it in between Eli’s pale gold and Hannah’s ebony, and—“Are those teeny tiny curls on her head?” Elena’s entire being melted.
“Yes, she came out with quite the head of hair, our Aanisa.”
“Oh, that’s such a beautiful name.” Elena knew her friend and Eli had spent countless hours considering possibilities, just like Elena and her archangel.
“We decided to go with family and history—Aanisa was my great-grandmother, who Elijah well loved as a boy. She Sleeps now, but once, she was his first combat trainer, some half a millennium before my birth.”
Elena hadn’t known of that connection, looked up curiously. “Did he—”
“—ever meet me as a child?” Hannah laughed and shook her head. “He had long flown the Refuge by the time I was born, thank the havens. Or, knowing my Eli’s sense of honor, he’d have forever kept his distance from me even when I was full grown!”
Elena laughed because Hannah was one hundred percent correct. “I hope your great-grandmother gets to meet her adorable namesake one of these days.”
“Would you like to hold her?”
Elena accepted the baby with infinite care, startled by how very little she weighed. “Hello,” she whispered. “I heard you gave your mother quite the time.” Hannah’s birthing had taken well over two days.
“It was all worth it.” Hannah touched her fingers to one of those tiny curls that had escaped the soft knit hat on the baby’s head.
“It’s helped Eli to have the Legion here.
” She nodded to the glass. Several of the Legion sat crouched on the snow-covered rocks on the other side, facing outward to offer Hannah privacy while protecting that exposed flank of the Medica.
Should Hannah want darkness in which to rest, the windows could be opaqued using a mixture of curtains and the limited level of tech that worked in the Refuge.
“Good,” Elena said, her focus still on the baby and her heart mush. “I can see why he doesn’t want to leave you and this sweetheart.”
“She has Mama’s dimples.” Hannah sounded gleeful. “It’s the most precious thing.”
Elena smiled like a goof because she couldn’t not smile while holding this tiny, treasured being.
The baby made a noise just then, and struggled to open her eyes. “Should I hand her back?” Elena really hadn’t had enough baby cuddles yet. “I don’t want her startled by a stranger.”
“Keir says she can’t focus yet—even her eye color isn’t settled. We expected brown, but it’s the fuzzy blue that some newborns get.” Hannah sat back. “And you keep on holding her. It’s better that she gets to know you from the start—you’re going to be a constant in her life.”
“Yes, our children are going to grow up together.” She didn’t yet know if Hannah and Elijah planned to raise Aanisa in their territory, or if Hannah would be based here while Aanisa grew to adulthood, but those were things they could talk about later.
Today, she just wanted to dote on Hannah’s gorgeous daughter, and catch up with her friend. “Hello, yes, you,” she murmured to the baby. “I can’t wait to see those dimples.”
The baby stopped trying to open her eyes, her tiny frame ready for more rest.
When Hannah picked up the gift bag, Elena said, “It’s only small and for you this time. Aanisa’s gift is to come.” Elena and Raphael had decided on a beaded bracelet formed of smooth crystals that stood for well-being, health, wishes for joy, and other beautiful thoughts.
They’d also made sure it was strung so that it couldn’t be pulled apart by baby hands, and it was their hope that when Aanisa outgrew it, it would be a sweet memento for Hannah and Eli.
Because at this stage of their immortal lives, gifts weren’t about the cost, but about heart and meaning.
They planned to give it to the other couple together.
“Oh, Ellie”—Hannah touched her shoulder—“the best gift is having you on this journey with me.”
“Thanks for going first,” Elena said on a rush of emotion reflected in Hannah’s face. “I mean that with every fiber of my being. Seeing her, holding her…I’m not anxious at all now. Just impatient.”
They shared a look of unspoken understanding before Hannah returned to her gift.
“Oh, this is beautiful!” She lifted the block of translucent golden soap with preserved flowers within to the light. “And it smells heavenly.”
“I make them with Sivya. It’s her hobby, but she invites me to join in every season. Honestly, I always wanted to ask her if I could,” she confessed, “but she’s so sweet that I didn’t want her to feel pressured. I did a literal happy dance in front of her when she asked me on her own.”
Laughing, Hannah reached in to remove another bar, this one a soft peach that echoed the blushes on Hannah’s wings; the flowers within were a delicate pink. “You grew the flowers, didn’t you?”
Elena nodded while rocking the warm weight of the sleeping baby.
“I love them, thank you,” Hannah said, after looking through all the handmade soaps and lotions.
“Elijah has been spoiling me, too. Each time I turn around, there is a new treat from our kitchens, or a fresh batch of my favorite fruits from the tropics, of all places, and I only have to wince and I’ll be offered a full massage. ”
The baby made another noise, and this time, Hannah held out her arms. “I think she must be hungry.”
As the other woman put the babe to her breast, Elena felt her own breasts ache, grow heavy. Anticipation and hope and wonder filled her veins. Like Hannah, she, too, would soon be a mother.