More help than she could have possibly imagined.
Chapter Twenty-Four
TOR HAD NEVER beenmore stunned or responded with so much emotion to anything. How else could it be when he spied what sat nestled in a steaming pool of water in the circular cave? Not surprisingly, the tiny dragon spirit had vanished.
But then they had found out what it needed help with.
“It’s...ours,” Raven choked out. She shifted and approached the dragon egg. “How...I don’t understand...when?”
This was what all the safeguards had led them toward. The most important thing they needed to remember. So said Raven's silver scales having vanished. Instead, silver, along with her and Tor’s dragon colors, swirled over the egg shell. Mesmerizing shades of black, blue, and silver.
“Your offspring came to be shortly after you and Tor lay together for the first time,” came a soft, respectful voice before Revna’s parents, Vigdis and Magnus, appeared. “As Mórrígan had hoped, he impregnated you.”
Tor shifted and joined Raven.
“As Mórrígan had hoped?”Raven echoed. Clearly cherishing the little life she had forgotten, she rested her cheek against the egg.“Why would she want me pregnant? When did I have this? How has it evaded her detection? How—”
“I will answer all your questions,” Vigdis assured. “First, though, you should know the moment you and Tor mated, it started a chain reaction, so we have very little time before the enemy senses what you hid from her. A greater treasure than she could have possibly imagined, which says much because she imagined greatly indeed.”
Tor sensed that Raven was beginning to remember the couple the more Vigdis spoke. Almost as if this very conversation was designed to bring back everything she had forgotten.
“From the moment Mórrígan came in contact with you, Raven, she knew you would prove exceptionally useful,” Magnus continued. He crouched beside the egg and swirled fire into the water, warming it even more. “You had shown her a way to not only defeat Loki’s Forge, but a means to slowly but surely defeat the Norse gods altogether.”
“How is that possible?”Tor nuzzled the egg, eager to meet his son. Outside of how he felt for Raven, he had never been consumed by so much love.“Unless, our child....”
“Held incredible, near untouchable power?” Vigdis finished for him. “More power than even his mother?”
“And I knew that, didn’t I?”A fiery tear leaked from Raven’s eye when she lifted her head.“I knew it the moment I conceived.”
The moment Raven said it, the memory came rushing back.
It had happened mere seconds after they were together for the first time. They had felt her womb quicken. Knew they had played with fire and would suffer the consequences. Yet what wonderful consequences they had been. They knew it was dangerous, but that hadn’t stopped them from rejoicing. From feeling that moment of exaltation that all dragons felt when they conceived.
“While dragon seeds can take root relatively fast,”he murmured.“Becoming pregnant that fast is rarer. Yet our son was wise enough to hide his heartbeat from everyone but us.”
“Because he’s smart, your wee one,” Cian said. “He already knew he had an enemy he needed to evade. An enemy that was watching and waiting.”
