Chapter 25
25
F or days we work on the womb, but without luck, and without kissing, if you can believe that. Finally I say to Devlin, “Tie the thing to me.”
Hands, who’s been standing on the counter mixing a potion, stops pouring and turns. He’s still wearing the bandage, but the wound is mostly healed. I know because I made Hands show me, which the appendage reluctantly did. Devlin still doesn’t have proof about who attempted the break-in. The security images haven’t been helpful, and I’m pretty sure he still thinks that it was instigated by Storm.
Speaking of Storm—he’s still out of town. He’s texted a few times and I’ve replied—always. But my heart’s not in it.
The only thing that my heart is into is making this artificial womb work.
Anyway, Hands is staring at me, stock-still, after I asked Devlin to tie the womb to me.
The handsome inventor has also stopped. He rakes his hair from his face and stares at me in disbelief.
“What?” I ask, not understanding why they look so concerned.
“Tie it to you?” Devlin folds his arms and frowns. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
Hands makes all kinds of furious gestures that honestly look like he’s cussing in sign language.
Devlin picks up a potion book and flips through it, his gaze dropping to the pages. “Hands is right.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that it’s dangerous.”
I point to the pink womb and scoff. “If it’s dangerous for me, then it’ll be dangerous for a mother. Devlin, you’ve got to try it, otherwise you’ll never know if it’s viable. I mean, you can’t wait until a baby is born prematurely before testing the contraption. That could be catastrophic.”
Hands pivots toward Devlin and signs something. Devlin nods before letting the book fall with a thud onto the table. He shifts his weight from hip to hip, considering, and stares at the book, but speaks to me when he says, “You have a point, but I’m not willing to risk it.”
“ I am.”
He drags his gaze from the table up to me. Clearly, this is his way of letting me know that the conversation is over. Just stare her down and maybe she’ll stop talking . Well, it’s not working.
I cross to him and slap my hand over the pages of the book so that he can’t read it. “Just try. We can always disengage if it becomes too risky.”
He brushes me away, and I wonder if the electrical pulse that throbbed in my fingers when we touched happened to him.
“No.”
“Yes,” I plead as he takes the thick, dusty tome back to the shelf and slides it between two books before picking out another one. “If you try it on me, I won’t sue if things go bad.”
He skims the books with his fingers and stops at one with a dark brown binding. He tugs the book out, raises his head and looks at me. “No.”
I throw up my arms in frustration. “Hands? Will you please speak to him? He’s being completely unreasonable.”
“I’m not being unreasonable! I’m being safe.”
“Well your safety could cost lives.”
He opens his mouth. Closes it. Opens it again, and while looking at me he says, “Hands?” Then he drags his gaze away and studies the creature. “I understand that. But what about—oh, I see. So you’ve already come up with a plan in the two minutes that we’ve been talking about this.”
I bite my bottom lip in excitement, because it’s obvious (hopefully) where this is going.
“Uh-huh,” Devlin replies while Hands signs frantically. “You think so? Is that right?” He slips the book back onto the shelf and sighs heavily, dropping his fingers to his hips and tapping them absently.
He’s so sexy when he does that.
No, I’m not even going to try to filter that out with an, I hate him. I can’t stand him. Get him away from me. He’s the devil.
I’m past all that. I’ve seen who he really is—the smart, caring boy that I knew so long ago. Yes, there’s been the kissing, but it’s more than that. There’s also been us spending time together and me seeing how he cares for his grandmother, and it’s inspiring how much Devlin wants this womb to work, to really work.
Plus, just being in the lab fills me with complete and absolute joy. It also doesn’t hurt that whenever I get a hankering to make a potion, he’s right here, encouraging me.
“Okay,” he says quietly.
My heart explodes with happiness. “Okay?”
“Okay. But”—he points a finger at me—“if anything starts to go wrong, I’m pulling the plug, and I expect not to hear any whining from you.”
I raise my hands in surrender. “You won’t. I swear that I will fully comply with everything you say.”
He smirks and rubs his chin, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Everything?”
I grab a rag off the table and toss it at him. He catches it against his heart. “Stop it,” I say with an eye roll the size of Kansas. “You know what I meant.”
“I do.” He drops the rag in my hands as he walks past me. “Let’s get started.”
“Hands, I want you to keep an eye on Blair. If she shows any signs of stress, you tell me immediately. I’ll be monitoring the vitals of the womb, making sure it’s stable.”
Devlin walks around the medical table that I’m lying on and looks down at me. “You’re sure about this?”
I bat at his arm playfully, like we’re friends or something. “You act like something’s going to go wrong.” He winces. Why is he wincing? “You’ll be here and so will Hands. Everything’s going to be fine, okay?”
He touches my shoulder gently. “Anything feels off, you say something immediately, okay?”
“Okay.” Everything’s going to be fine. Why is he making such a big deal about this? “I’m ready. Now stop being so worried and let’s do it.”
“You’re sure?”
I kick my feet against the table. “Yes! How many times do I have to say it?”
“All right.” He gives my shoulder one last squeeze before striding off and letting his hand follow him, taking his warmth and comfort with him. “Hands! Get ready.”
Devlin waves his arms over the womb and out from it reaches one long tentacle. With magic he guides the elongating limb to my head, where the soft point of it touches my temple.
A jolt rushes through my body as I merge with the magical machine. I can feel it, sense the fluid sloshing through it, experience its warmth.
“How’re you doing over there?” Devlin calls out.
“A okay!” I give him a thumbs-up to prove it. “Just fine.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
He monitors the systems of the womb on a holographic screen he’s got pulled up in front of him. I can see all sorts of numbers running on it.
He drags his gaze from the screen back to me. “Can you tell me what you’re feeling?”
“Connected. I feel like I’m part of the womb. If there was a baby inside of it, I would know, I’m sure.”
He tears his gaze from me to where Hands is playing Igor to his Dr. Frankenstein. “Okay, Hands, are you ready to see if it’s stable?”
“What? It’s not?” I ask.
“We’ve been holding it together with magic. I’m about to release my own hold on it and see if the womb will remain intact. If it passes that test, then I’ll pull the tentacle away and see if it still holds contact with you. If it does, then we’ve achieved success.”
I exhale a breath. My nerves are ratcheted up, because this is it. If the project fails again, I don’t think Devlin will continue tinkering with it. He’ll give it up, and it will feel like he’s given up on a dream. My heart will break for him, because there’s nothing worse than giving up something you love.
He catches me staring at him, which I didn’t even realize that I was doing, and my gaze darts away faster than a cheetah on steroids.
“We’re about to sever the tie,” he tells me.
“Ready over here.”
“And…done!”
There’s a brief moment where my connection to the womb wobbles like Jell-O, but after a moment of indecision, the connection strengthens.
“How’re you doing over there?”
“Great! I still feel everything.”
“That’s good. Let’s give it a moment to stabilize…Hands! How’re things looking for you?” Hands gives two thumbs-up. He’s carefully watching the womb for any signs of instability. “Are we ready to move on to the last phase?”
“I am,” I tell him, tapping my fingers impatiently on the cushioned medical bed. Am I impatient or nervous? Nervous. I want this to work out for Devlin so badly. I want this for him in a way that I never thought that I would, and just being part of it has filled me with a feeling that I haven’t experienced in forever—a freeing sort of joy.
Don’t get me wrong—I love my job. I really do. It’s been wonderful to help customers find the book that they adore and jump into the story. But for the past few months it’s been sure drudgery. No one wants my help. I haven’t been needed or wanted.
But now, here with Devlin, I’ve gotten to experience both. He’s both needed and wanted my help in a way that I didn’t think was possible.
And Devlin, for one, hasn’t judged me in all the time that we’ve been together. We don’t even talk about my power. It’s like it doesn’t exist. Every other guy I’ve dated, it’s felt like I’ve been like walking on eggshells. When do I tell him what I can do? How do I explain it without it seeming like I’ve conned him into liking me?
But with Devlin things are just…effortless.
“Okay, I’m about to sever your connection,” he announces, dragging me from my reverie back to the present.
“I’m here for it!”
He smiles over the holographic screen. “So am I.”
My heart flutters. It more than flutters. It does a little hokeypokey and it turns itself around. That’s what it’s all about!
“And cutting,” he says, lifting a hand.
The tether falls away, and for a second my heart races as the connection breaks. It feels like I’ve been cut off from the source of life itself and I’m falling into a bottomless pit.
But then I bounce back up, and the womb is there. I feel it breathing. I hear the sloshing of fluid inside. If there was a life floating within the fluid, I would feel it, sense it, be connected to it.
“How are you?”
Devlin’s standing beside me now. My lids flutter as I breathe through the new connection that’s formed with the old one being cast away.
“Blair?” His pitch goes up. “You okay?”
I grin from ear to ear. “You did it. It worked.”
He drops his arms onto the table and bends down, placing his chin between the valley of his forearms. “What do you feel?”
“All of it.” I wiggle my fingers and toes, just to make sure that it’s all real. “I’m completely connected to the womb. I sense all of it.”
He smiles and it makes my heart heat up with cozy fire-like warmth. “That’s fantastic!” Devlin turns his head, giving me a full view of his beautifully corded neck and profile. “Hands? How’s it looking from where you are?”
We get another thumbs-up!
Devlin rises and slaps his hands on the table. “You did it! We did it! But before we celebrate,” he adds, cooling his jets, “I want to make sure it’s stable. Let’s watch you for at least an hour. Then we’ll break the connection.”
I quirk a brow. “And after that?”
He winks. “After that, we’ll celebrate.”