Chapter 5 #5
“Oh, and could we not talk about my body increasing in size in any way? Also a hard line for me. Especially in mixed company.” Again, she was ignored. Lovely.
A third female troll, with the clipped certainty of someone reciting policy said, “No stress. Stress harms pups.”
Nick turned, looking over his shoulder, and gazed at Kara again.
Then he turned his attention to the advancing formation of maternal troll energy currently converging on the space between him and his mate.
Then back at Kara. “Have they suddenly lost their minds? Did you use some sort of witchy/healer spell on them?”
The gold had faded from his eyes. Confusion replaced the rage as he switched from being ready for armed conflict and instead, faced unsolicited prenatal care advice from beings who could have used him as a training weight. “I genuinely,” he said quietly, “preferred it when they wanted to kill us.”
“I’ve not done a thing,” Kara told him. “I’m growing a child and they’re simply recognizing it for the miracle it is.
Not to mention, I did just save one of their kids’ lives.
I think, I mean, probably. Who knows, he might not have died, but let’s just go with the fact that I did do something awesome and now I’m hungry. ”
“You’re also babbling,” Zara added.
Aphid stepped closer with the unhurried ease of someone who had never doubted his own competence and dropped directly into an elegant lean against the cave wall.
“To be fair,” he said, dusting his sleeve with the back of his hand, “the broth and protein is probably non-negotiable at this point. She does look tired.”
“First we’re talking about my size, the fact that my mouth won’t stop spewing words, and now we’ve moved on to me looking like I haven’t slept in weeks and might fall over at any second,” Kara told him.
Aphid frowned, confusion filling his eyes. “Zara mentioned the word spew. And I don’t think that’s exactly what I said.”
“Not really the point, my guy,” Wadim spoke before Kara could. “It’s what she heard.”
Zara and Rachel nodded at the same time as Rachel offered, “Let that be a lesson, Aphid, for any future relationship you might have. What your female hears, versus what you say is very important to what happens after the words have been spoken.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” Gavril muttered, though there was a bit of a smile on his usually stoic face.
Zara turned her attention to Kara. “You good? I mean, babbling can mean lots of things in woman speak. So, I wasn’t saying that as a criticism, more as a ‘hey, just pointing this out.’”
“Aside from the troll whiplash I’ve got going on, I feel moderately functional,” Kara said.
Nick, who had finally managed to pull his wolf back under control and now looked fully human again, helped her stand up and wrapped an arm around her waist, tucking her in closely.
His other hand went to her stomach where he gently rubbed her.
“I felt what that healing did to you,” he said softly, leaning down close to her ear.
“You’re beautiful always, but you are very tired.
Don’t give me any attitude about it, mate,” he said, his voice dropping an octave.
“You need to eat and then rest. We can figure out the rest of this mess after those two things have been accomplished. And we will be discussing the brick bat to the face comment.”
“So damn bossy,” Kara muttered as she looked up at him. He was so handsome, and the adoration in his eyes made her stomach do little flips, just as it had done since the day they’d met. Kara didn’t think that would ever change.
“You like it when I’m bossy,” he told her with a wicked grin, because of course he chooses a time like this to flirt.
Kara narrowed her eyes on him. “Behave.”
“With you? Never.” Then he turned his attention back to the rest of the room. He didn’t let her go, didn’t let even an inch of space between their bodies. “Rachel, can you check her over?”
Rachel was at her other side a breath later, the healer's hands already moving in the quiet, habitual way she assessed for any injury without announcing the assessment, her dark eyes tracking over Kara with the focused attention of someone who had learned to do triage on people who lied about their condition. “The magic output—” she began.
“Was a lot, yes,” Kara said.
Rachel’s lips pursed. “You're shaking.”
“I’m managing the shaking,” Kara argued.
“Based on the teeth chattering,” Zara offered, “I’d say the shaking disagrees with your management.”
Nick’s arm tightened, and Kara leaned into it without deciding to, the way she leaned into him generally, not because she needed to, but because his body was like a magnet to hers.
She didn’t just desire to be close to him, she needed it.
Especially when she felt vulnerable, like now.
Despite her words, Zara was right, she was not managing the shaking at all.
But she didn’t want to appear weak in front of the trolls.
It was still unclear if they were friend or foe.
Perhaps they just wanted to fatten her up so they could have a better meal when they finally cooked them.
And, maybe her imagination was running away because all her other brain cells were exhausted.
A small, rough hand closed around her finger. Kara looked down.
Torvik had slid off the stone slab at some point during the chaos and was now standing beside her, his repaired leg bearing his weight. His amber eyes turned up at her with an expression that was equal parts solemn and commitment. He tugged her finger. “Are you my aunt now?”
The question reverberated in the cavern with the thoroughness of a stone dropped into a very still pool, and for a moment every conversation, every maternal troll, every cage-escaped wolf, every fae looking decoratively unbothered against an iron door, every single thing in the room paused and collectively redirected its attention to Kara.
She looked at the ceiling. The ceiling was stone and unhelpful and offered no guidance. Rude.
“Great Luna help me,” she said, to no one and everyone, with the tone of a woman accepting the terms of a situation she had not negotiated and could not appeal.
She looked back down at the child and gave him a small smile, and shrugged.
“I think that’s probably up to your parents.
I’ve never been an aunt before. I might suck at it. ”
Torvik shook his head. “People who suck don’t help others.
You helped me, so you’re not sucking. And you’re going to have a baby.
I can be your baby’s friend and protect it.
” He gave a sharp nod as if that somehow made his words law and tightened his grip on her finger and looked around at the assembled crowd with the serene authority of a child who had gotten the answer he wanted and saw no reason to continue the conversation.
Gavril, from somewhere behind her, made a sound that Kara recognized as his version of a laugh, brief, controlled, the kind that arrived and departed before it could be held against him.
“Let’s just be glad it’s not Jen that he asked to be his aunt,” he said.
“With Kara, at least the kid has a chance at being somewhat normal.”
“My mate is not raising a troll child,” Nick practically snarled.
Kara tapped his hand that still rested on her stomach. “Babe, maybe let’s not insult the troll race by implying that it would be uncool to raise a troll child. Yeah?”
“Bit late for that,” Wadim said, as he straightened his jacket, and then pulled Zara to him. “The bossy one, who totally doesn’t look a day over 99, looks like she’s ready to feed Nick to some rabid baby trolls.”
Kara groaned and leaned her head against Nick’s shoulder. “And now you’re insulting their babies. Have any of you ever tried to use a filter?”
“Wasn’t born with one,” Wadim said.
“Don’t like using one,” Zara added.
Aphid’s voice was smooth as he answered. “Fae aren’t exactly known for their verbal tact.”
Gavril legit snorted a laugh. “We’re all quite clear on that. We know Perizada, remember?”
Kara glanced around at all the trolls. Some were watching them with quiet interest, others were still going about doing the bidding of the three eldest women who seemed to be in charge, and others looked quite annoyed that there would be no supernatural stew to eat for dinner.
“I feel like it could be worse, I mean considering past situations we’ve been in. This one feels a little less dire,” Rachel said.
“Now that we’re out of the cages and it looks like they’ve lost interest in eating us?" Wadim asked.
“Exactly,” Rachel nodded.
Zara cleared her throat. “I think everything feels less dire when nobody wants to eat us. Although, it also removes a bit of the excitement. My adrenaline is beginning to drop and I’m realizing how hungry I am, which means Kara must be starving because she’s feeding two.”
The Troll King, still on one knee, raised his ancient eyes to Kara’s across the cavern. Something moved in them that she didn’t have a name for yet, something that had been waiting a long time to see what it had just seen, and had now seen it, and was deciding what came next.
The ground pulsed again, deep and slow, from somewhere far below.
And Torvik, wholly unconcerned with ancient prisons and deep-dwelling corruption and the weight of danger pressing down from all directions, leaned against Kara’s leg with the casual confidence of a child who had decided she was safe, and stayed there.