Chapter 22
HART
April stretched into May, and our weather improved drastically. The snow melted and the bushes in our backyard sprouted green leaves, and then beautiful pink and yellow blooms.
Instead of staying in the den for my calisthenics and yoga, I took the eggs outside, setting the basket on the little stone stoop.
While I knew the babies couldn't see me working out, I hoped they understood how important physical fitness was to me.
I stayed fit for more than my job. I loved everything about my physical body, and I enjoyed pushing it to new limits of speed and endurance.
Too many people I knew, including my granddad, had ignored their bodies outside of training season, and he'd retired early because of it.
I appreciated the time off, as well. Spending the warm spring days with the eggs was the highlight of my vacation. While I knew they couldn't see the bees flitting around the willows, I hoped they could hear their buzzing wings.
"Fancy finding you here," Santa called through the wrought-iron gate leading to the front yard. "I have that book Silver wanted."
"Hello!" I picked up the basket, resting one handle against my hip so I could reach through to take the book, and then open the gate for Santa. "Thank you. He has so many questions about the vault."
"It's the perfect place for a nest, I hear." He winked. It should have freaked me out to know he was always watching, but it never seemed inappropriate. Santa was just … Santa.
"Would you like to come inside to see it?"
"Oh, no. I'm late to try some new cookies at the bakery. I considered taking the book over there, but I have a feeling Silver would have forgotten it."
"Forgotten it?" That sounded unlike my conscientious mate.
"You'll see. Have a good day, and enjoy your little ones. They grow so fast! So fast." I stared after him as he closed the gate and walked back to the lane.
"That was weird, right?" I asked the eggs as I carried them back inside.
A few hours later, movement caught my eye. At first, I thought something on the television screen must have popped up, but when I went back five seconds, I didn't see it again. I kept the show paused. It was a lesson I'd already watched about overcoming confirmation bias.
I stared at the paused screen, anticipation mounting in my gut. Did we have a mouse in the house? It was the wrong time of year for it, but anything was possible.
The next time it happened, I heard it before I saw anything. A rustling sound. I peered into the basket, and the purple egg rocked gently from side to side, the scalloped shell catching on the blanket and making the sound.
"Ooh!" I grabbed my phone from the side table and closed the video screen to pull up my text messages with Silver.
"The purple egg moved!"
"I'll be right there!" he responded almost immediately.
He arrived fifteen minutes later, out of breath as though he'd run from the hub. "Santa said I might need to leave early, so Gold was on phone duty," he said. "Has anything else happened?"
"Not yet."
"Aww. I can't wait to meet you, little ones!" Silver bent down over the basket, and the opalescent egg shook.
"They're both moving!" That was me, Mr. State the Obvious. Now that Bopp wasn't here to make fun of me for it, I didn't care. I'd been telling our eggs every little mundane thing since I'd started egg watch in January. Why would I stop now?
"We're going to have so much fun!" I said. "Daddy's going to feed you all the sensible foods, and I'm going to stuff you full of cookies whenever he's not looking!"
Silver rolled his eyes. "That is not what we agreed. I'm going to stuff them with cookies. You're the health nut."
"Nuts are healthy," I whispered over the top of the purple egg. "Even your daddy's."
Silver blushed and shook his head. "Already teaching them things that will get them kicked out of nursery school."
"Who me?" I batted my eyelashes. "I've already taught them how to regulate their emotions, and how to do fractions."
"Nobody taught you about child development, apparently." Silver scooted closer to me and kissed my temple. "Let's get them upstairs to the vault."
I laughed and knocked my shoulder against his. "That's all you. I don't carry them up the stairs, remember?"
He picked up the basket with both hands. I held my breath when he stepped onto the third stair, but, same as every other time, he stayed upright and didn't snag his toes on the underside of the lip the way I did at least once a day.
When he reached the top, I followed behind him. Before I knew I was falling, my hands slapped against the sixth stair up, and my toe throbbed. "I'm gonna rebuild these stairs next spring," I said. "The kids will help."
"You'll be too tired from keeping them out of trouble to build anything," Silver countered. "Would you get up here and open the door for me?"
I flexed my hands a few times before turning the crank and opening the vault door. Silver fitted the basket into its place, and I ran back downstairs to grab the cooler I'd prepared for this moment.
"What was that bang?" Silver asked when I returned. "Please tell me you didn't—"
"I fell up the stairs again. I wouldn't drink anything carbonated for a few minutes."
He sighed. "I read that book about the guy who fought windmills, but I never thought my mate would have a tiff with a stairway."
"Not the whole stairway," I said. "Only the third one up. The lip's too big, or something."
"It can't be. There are regulations and inspections for that."
"We didn't have an inspection," I reminded him. "We had a Santa intervention." I glanced up at the spotlight shining down on our eggs, which were both rocking in their basket. "Hey Santa? That third step can't be good for the babies."
Silver shook his head. "If only I'd known you were this much of a dork when you first walked into my bakery."
"You'd have avoided me?" The ache of rejection made me clutch my chest.
"I would have asked you out sooner." His eyes glittered the way they did when his dragon was near.
He tugged me from my beanbag chair, so I was sitting in his lap with my legs over the top of the cooler.
"Look. There's a crack." The mother-of-pearl shell had split open between the scallops, leaving a jagged fault line down the side of it.
The inner lining was all that held it together.
"Dragons have an egg tooth," I said. "What if it's not a dragon?"
Silver gripped me tighter. "We'll have to wait and see."
We didn't have to wait long. A felt-covered nub poked through the lining, and then another.
With a shake, the nubs forced the shell apart, and it cracked all the way open, splitting into two halves.
Inside sat an adorable human baby with tiny antler nubs sticking from the flaxen hair covering her crown.
"A little reindeer girl," Silver cooed.
"She's already sitting up?" I knew egg babies were further developed than human births, but I wasn't expecting a child who not only could hold up her own head, but could sit on her own and even reached for me to pick her up.
"Hi, baby!" I kissed her forehead and pulled her in close while Silver dug through the nest for a soft blanket to wrap around her.
"Biela," Silver said. "Her name is Biela."
She could already focus her deep gray eyes on Silver's face.
She turned her head to look up at me, and I fell in love.
"Biela Comet. You're going to be the next Comet on Santa 30's team.
" I touched her little antler stub, and it popped out of place.
I caught it before it hit the floor, and the other one went sliding toward Silver.
"See?" Silver whispered as he stared at the little nub.
"Nature finds a way." He held out his hand, and I dropped the other antler nub into it.
Then, he reached above his head and placed them on the vault shelf.
"You're part of my hoard now," he said, lifting her so he could kiss her forehead.
"Baby teeth. First haircuts. It's all going in here. "
I balanced Biela on my knee as we waited for our little dragon to hatch. Her gray eyes took in everything around her, and she wrapped her fingers around Silver's thumb when he offered it.
"I just can't believe how big you are," I told her. "You're practically a toddler!"
"Didn't you notice how heavy the basket was?" Silver frowned at me.
I shrugged. "I assumed the shells were heavy."
Her shell was almost paper thin. Silver collected every little scalloped piece and placed it on the shelf beside her antlers. "I'll reconstruct it later," he said. "It'll be a cute little keepsake for her when she's older."
Biela turned her head toward the nest, and I turned her body so she faced the egg in the basket. It was also splitting down the middle, with only the thin inner membrane holding the two sides together. Something pointy and black like a rhino's horn rose up through the crack, splitting it open.
"There he is," Silver whispered as our little dragon emerged.
He was a beautiful purple, though the egg tooth jutting beneath his upper lip was ebony.
Silver wrapped him in another soft blanket, and he shifted into his human form, the egg tooth falling from his mouth.
Silver plucked it from his chest and set it beside Biela's keepsakes on the shelf.
"Naming her was easy," Silver said. "We only had one girl's name picked out. What are we going to name him?"
His eyes were a beautiful lavender, like his dragon. The unusual color made him look wise beyond his years. "Chiron," I said. "Like the centaur." And the comet.
"Chiron." Silver grinned down at him. "That's a lovely name for a dragon. Better than Amethyst, anyway."
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"We could give him a middle name," Silver said. "Like the humans." Neither of our families had middle names, but we could be the first.
"Chiron Amethyst and Biela Pearl."
Later that night, I messaged Gold, who was set to bring Silver's emerald ring with her tomorrow. "Are you able to adjust the ring for Silver? We need to add two more stones."
"Of course!" I could almost hear her laughing. "Anything for you two."
For the first time, I understood the weight of those words. I would do anything for Silver, Biela, and Chiron, too. I already loved them unconditionally. My parents had probably felt the same way about me, their only child, but they hadn't stood up to Granddad and Bopp until I stood up for myself.
I would do better for my children. I would do anything.