I smiled, as if coming to that realization had brought about some needed clarity. The panic surrounding me began to evaporate, lifting like a heavy fog. I could just breathe and enjoy the fact that I was pregnant, that I was going to meet my boy or girl in a few months. I had always wanted to be a mother. Even if it wasn’t exactly the way I had intended, I was getting just that.
As my body began to relax, something seemed to hum through my veins, something that had always been there but I had ignored or refused to acknowledge. I could feel my magic in a way I never had before. In the past, I had called it during intense emotions, in times of danger. Now, I felt as though I could call it on a whim, like I had more control over it. But it was more than that. I felt without questioning that I could control any fire, not just the one I managed to conjure.
Curious, I walked over to the stove and turned on the gas, waiting until the flames popped up, then turned it down to the lowest setting until they were little more than glowing blue embers. I stared at them, watching, trying to get a sense of them. After a moment, I held out my hand.
The flames grew, swelling, licking around the grate. I raised my hand, and they shot upward, but only as far as I wanted, not burning anything. When I lowered my hand, they diminished as well, settling as if they had never exploded upward in the first place.
I stared at my hands, for the first time truly sensing the power reverberating through them.
You could help fight the wraith. Sam’s words reverberated in my head, rotating and swimming there. I thought about the way the wraith’s hand had turned to glass, the way sand would under extreme heat. I knew that if Sam or Emma had darted out and tried to break it, his hand would have shattered into a million pieces. Whether he could have reformed it, I couldn’t be certain. Most likely, given enough time. What I did know was that the wraith had been scared. I had made the wraith frightened.
And if I had frightened it, that meant I could hurt it. I could do something about it.
Chapter 18 - Sam
Rachel sat curled on the couch, scanning something intently on her laptop when I walked in. She had a cute furrow to her brow as her eyes darted across the screen, and I had to remind myself that I couldn’t walk over there and kiss her.
“Anything interesting?” I asked.
She tore her gaze away from the laptop, a small, mysterious smile playing on her lips. “I think so.”
Her smirk spread as if she was amused at a private joke. I tilted my head, scanning her from head to toe. There was something different about her. A sort of calm, but also a sort of nervousness. She bit her lip even as her eyes sparkled.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
She gave a half-laugh. “No, nothing wrong. Well, not exactly. It’s…” She hesitated, licking her lips before gnawing on her lower one. She took a deep breath as she steeled herself.
“I have something to tell you,” she said.
I raised my eyebrows, spreading my hands in ago-aheadgesture. She stood, her fingers tightening as they gripped her jeans. I searched her face, trying to figure out what on earth had happened that would cause her to act like this. She bit her lip as she inhaled again.
“I’m pregnant,” she said.
The words didn’t register at first, like they were a foreign language. Then I was sure I hadn’t heard her right. But when I searched her face and saw the nervousness and hope there as she stared back at me, waiting for my response, I realized that I had heard her perfectly.
Pregnant. Rachel was pregnant. With my child.
Without realizing I was doing it, I glanced down at her stomach. It was perfectly flat, of course. But I could have sworn that I could sense our unborn child there.
I hadn’t always wanted to be a father. When I was a kid, I had sworn off women altogether and told my parents hundreds of times that I was never going to have kids of my own. Over the last couple of years, however, I had changed my tune and started thinking about what it would be like to have a kid, to show them the best places to hunt, how to stalk, and play hide and seek. How to be both a wolf and a kid, and I had realized that I wanted that. However, I had never expected it to actually happen, let alone with Rachel.
I swallowed, realizing that I still hadn’t spoken when her nervous smile faded into nothing, her eyes growing wide with uncertainty.
“Seriously?” I asked, surprised at how hoarse my voice was.
She nodded, still on tenterhooks as she braced herself for my true reaction.
I gave a half-laugh of disbelief as my face broke into a cautious grin. “That’s—” I wanted to saygreat, fantastic. But I didn’t know how Rachel felt, and I didn’t want to put any further pressure on her. She looked happy, but for all I knew, she was actually dreading the situation, and I didn’t want to make the situation worse.
“How do you feel about it?” I asked first.
She blinked, confused. “I’m…stunned,” she finally admitted. “But also ecstatic.”
“That’s completely understandable,” I said. “Because I feel more or less the same.”
Relief broke across her face at the words, and I could practically see a veil of uncertainty and fear lift from her features. She beamed.
“Really?” she asked.
