Chapter 21
Xev paced the small apartment as he waited for Myone to meet him. Why was she late? They’d both been in battle earlier. His had been wretched.
Kri had been wounded and barely survived it. Apollymi was still enraged and throwing a tantrum that was manifesting in the human world as storms, earthquakes, and tidal waves.
Somehow, they’d managed to pull back in time to save the one true Malachai’s life. For that, she was grateful, and so Xev was still alive.
Barely.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to hear properly again. Or see straight from the magnitude of her tantrum. But he wasn’t dead.
From what he’d heard of the other side, Myone’s battle had been brutal, too. No one had told him if she’d been wounded in the fighting.
Now he was worried. No, he was terrified.
“Where are you?” he breathed.
“Behind you.”
Relieved beyond belief, he turned to find her there, then froze.
There was more of her than he’d expected to find.
A lot more.
Stunned, he stared at her as he realized that it’d been several weeks since they last saw each other.
Either she’d been seeking a lot of comfort with food, or…
“Are you…?”
Smiling, she nodded. “I’m pregnant.”
Tears welled in his eyes as he rushed to her so that he could splay his hand against her rounded stomach and pull her into his arms. “It is mine, right?”
Her smile faded instantly. She gave him a peeved glare. “Seriously?”
Laughing, he kissed her. “I’m teasing.”
“You better be, you beast! I can’t even believe you’d ask me that!”
But what held his attention was the blood on her armor. She was covered in it, and must have come here straight from the fighting. “Tell me you didn’t go into battle while pregnant.”
She visibly winced as she stepped away from him. He could tell she was upset by something more than his words.
Pressing her hand to her brow, she drew a ragged breath, as if what she had to tell him was more than she could bear.
After a few seconds, she turned to face him. “I think I might have killed Malphas today.”
Those words hit him like a blow to his gut. For a full minute, he couldn’t breathe as he stood there, reliving the past. Seeing his brother as a kid.
As a warrior.
Malphas dead? It just didn’t seem possible.
While he wouldn’t consider them particularly close, especially since the war had broken out, he’d never wanted Malphas harmed. Worse? She would have used the skills he’d taught her against his brother.
It’s all my fault. I did this. I killed my brother.
But had he not given her that ability, he’d be grieving for Myone right now.
Better Malphas than her.
Granted it was true, he’d never hated himself more.
Damn.
Xev felt sick to his stomach. “Are you sure?”
Pain darkened her eyes as she nodded. “It was awful, Xev. I’m so sorry. It was the last thing I wanted to do. But the look in his eyes as he came for me…You wouldn’t have recognized him. He was feral and terrifying. Relentless. For a few minutes, I really thought I was dead. He fully intended to kill me. I…”
Xev winced at what she described. “You had no choice.”
Unshed tears glistened in her eyes. “I hope he survived. I stabbed him and got away from him as fast as I could. It’s possible that he didn’t die. All I saw was him falling to the ground.” She drew a ragged breath. “He didn’t return to the fighting, and we didn’t recover his body. So maybe?”
She was right. He was a fierce bastard. It was possible he’d lived. “Did you stab him with your sword?”
“No. My dagger.”
“Then he has a chance.” The dagger didn’t have a living creature in it that would have infected Malphas. Even though Xev couldn’t feel his brother in the aether, it didn’t mean that Malphas wasn’t there.
He could be wounded and hiding.
Until he knew otherwise, Xev was going to hope for the best and trust that Malphas was a fierce survivor.
She brushed her hand over the bruises on his face. “What happened to you?”
“Battle,” he said simply. That was the least of his concern as he continued to stare at her belly where their child was growing.
Our child.It didn’t seem real or possible. In all this time, he’d never once considered this. Never thought that he’d have a child of his own. Especially not one with Myone.
He was thrilled beyond belief, but beneath that was a terror so raw that it shredded his sanity.
“What are we going to do, Myone?”
“I don’t know.”
Neither did he. All he could do was see Kissare in that cell. Only now, it was Myone he saw in Kissare’s place.
I can’t allow that to happen. Not to her.
“Has anyone noticed?”
She screwed her face up. “Malphas did.”
Of course he would. His brother had never missed any detail. Neither of them, actually. Shadow was probably worse about that.
But if Malphas realized she was with child, there were others who would, too.
“Anyone else notice?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. But I won’t be able to hide it much longer.”
True. While she was still small, it was obvious to him. With luck, someone else would mistake it for a bit of extra weight. But as she said, that wouldn’t last.
Just like with Apollymi. Once the others realized she was with child, they’d demand the name of the father.
“What are you going to tell them?”
“Nothing.”
He didn’t like that answer, at all. “They’ll feel his powers.” Which meant they’d know the baby’s father was tied to the Source. Only a Source god or one of their offspring could be the father.
That was a very short list. This wouldn’t be the same as with Apollymi, where the father’s powers had been overshadowed by hers. Kri’s father could have been anyone.
Their baby wasn’t that lucky.
Xev searched his mind for some way to protect them both. “Run away with me.”
“We’ve already had this argument. Many times, Dary. They will find us.”
She was right, and he hated that. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
Neither did he. But whatever happened, they would face this together. “I’ll find some way to protect you, Myone. I swear it.” She would never suffer Kissare’s fate. He wasn’t his father and he damn sure wasn’t Apollymi.
He would fight them with everything he had. There would be no bargain.
The only way they’d get to her was through him.