But I don’t find that promise reassuring at all. Daire has no plans on coming back.
6
Daire
Iride fast, heading back to my area even though I could’ve taken a few days to rest and catch up with the other riders. I thought I’d be able to face Lindsay in the morning, but my heart is still too fragile. Since I’d heard Shay had died, I’d hoped that I would offer, and she’d accept and off we’d go to reclaim what should’ve been.
But it’s been twenty years. If she wanted me, she’d have said something.
Had she taken me to bed out of pity?
Or because I was there and offering?
I don’t want to think about it. Without the necklace I am naked, vulnerable. But I won’t be going home. I’m stuck in the human world, fighting monsters until I meet one that is smarter and hungrier, or I get lazy and made mistakes.
The further away I get, the wider the wound in my heart becomes until it feels like I am going to tear open and turn inside out. I’m leaving the one woman who I want more than air. I was almost tempted to turn around, but it doesn’t matter. Cillian would’ve already taken his woman to faery to hunt down their attacker. I console myself with the knowledge that I’d given my way home up for a worthy cause.
That had to be enough.
It wasn’t.
Duty was a cold bedfellow.
7
Lindsay
After feeling sick for three days, and the scent of coffee turning my stomach, I pee on the stick and pray that I’m wrong. logically I know I’m not too old to be pregnant, but it should be impossible. I’m on the pill.
But the lines didn’t lie.
“Fuck.” I closed my eyes and swear again, louder. Like my anger will fix things.
It was Daire’s. He’s the only man I’ve slept with in the last six months.
A baby is the last thing I need or want. I’m not doing it on my own again, but I can’t imagine Daire playing family with me and helping me with the café. He hasn’t even been back. The only reason I know he’s alive is because some of the other riders have checked in on him.
I toss the stick in the trash.
I either don’t tell him that it’s his and just get on with it, or I tell him. But that feels like trapping him when he hasn’t bothered to even call, or send a note, or anything. I curse again and stamp my foot. How could I have been so stupid as to fall in bed with a fae, and get pregnant, again?
I force out a breath. I don’t need to do anything yet besides go to the doctor and figure out how far along I am. And for how long I can hide it from the other riders?
They’ll know the baby is fae as soon as she’s born and opens her eyes—all fae babies born in the human world are girls. The riders will want to know who the father is, and I’ve been told each rider can recognize their own. If Daire ever comes by, he’ll know in a heartbeat. Then what am I supposed to say? Oops, forgot to tell you?
How am I supposed to run the café with a baby?
My life is crumbling around me and there’s nothing I can do. I run through options in my head, before finally deciding to call Danni and ask her to help me out for a few days.
Two days later she arrives alone in her old sedan like she doesn’t hunt monsters in her spare time. She hugs me but immediately knows something is different. The longer she hangs around the fae the more sensitive she is to disturbances in the magic—things I can’t even feel.
“What’s wrong?” She comes behind the counter.
“Nothing.” I force a smile but drag her to the kitchen where the human customers won’t overhear.
“Are you dying? Do you have cancer?” Fear pinches her expression.
“No.” I’m eight weeks…in a few more and I’ll start to show and then the questions will start. “I’m pregnant.”
