When three days of nausea had passed and I still wasn’t improving, I knew something was wrong.
At first I thought that maybe I’d picked up a strange sickness or eaten something that didn’t agree with me. But then…I wasn’t so certain.
I’d lived in House Terasyn when Syndras’s daughter, Willan, had been newly pregnant. I’d served her tea every morning when she hadn’t been able to keep anything else down.
I’d never had to worry about it before because…well, Kaldur had been my first, whether he believed me or not.
I had to at least consider the possibility now, which was why I’d asked Kyndri for the morning off, so I could get a blood analysis done at the healer’s establishment down the road.
As I waited for the healer, sitting in a small, dark room that had blue wax candles lit, the smell of which made my nose twitch, I was in denial. This was just one thing I needed to discount, one thing that would soothe my worries.
Because if Iwaspregnant…
No,I thought firmly, pushing that notion from my mind, evenwhen I felt the familiar flooding saliva fill my mouth, felt the nausea begin to churn in my gut.
When the healer came in, a Kylorr male with wings so large they nearly didn’t fit in the cramped room, he looked at his Halo tablet, glowing blue in the dark room.
“Positive result for implantation,” he announced. I didn’t even know his name. He hadn’t introduced himself to me. He’d been no-nonsense, taking my blood with a small prick of my finger before disappearing for mere moments.
“Implantation?” I breathed, my gut churning.
“You’re pregnant,” he said slowly, peering up at me over the rim of the tablet. His eyes were yellow. “I’d estimate a little over a month.”
The world tilted sideways, my vision going dark.
When I came to, the healer had his arms around me to hold me steady and had a cold drink pressed to my lips.
“What do you mean I’m pregnant?” I asked, my voice sounding far away.
“Just as I said. Drink,” he ordered me. “It’ll help.”
It tasted foul, but I chugged it down because I didn’t know what else to do. When the contents were drained, he said, “I’ll give you some to take with you. It’ll help with the nausea and fatigue. Is the father a human? Or Kylorr?” When I didn’t answer, he blinked, raising a brow when he asked, “Bartutian?”
“Kylorr,” I finally said, the word falling from my lips like stones as I stared, unseeing, around the room. I cleared my throat, blinking to clear my blurry vision. I realized I was crying. “The father is a Kylorr.”
A son of the Kaalium.
“Hybrid pregnancies are always more difficult,” the healer informed me. “It’s hard to pinpoint the gestation time since it’s different for everyone.”
“On—on average though?” I asked.
“Four months, give or take a few weeks on either side,” he toldme. “So you’re about a quarter through already. But I must warn you, a hybrid pregnancy is rapid. It can be dangerous. You’ll need to be monitored closely and?—”
I stood. The room suddenly felt too small, and I struggled to get breath.
“I have to get back to work,” I told him. “Thank you.”
“But I?—”
I left the room, my knees wobbling. I scrambled to get outside the establishment, weaving down one long hallway until I found the entrance. When I burst through, I sucked in deep lungfuls of the morning air. I stumbled until my back was to the building, letting it support me, but then I slid down, sitting on the street as people passed by, peering at me with curious, raised brows.
I pressed my palms to my eyes when they stung.
I was pregnant with Kaldur’s child.
What am I going to do?I wondered.
At the endof the long day, my feet were aching, I smelled like cleaning supplies and spilled brew, and all I wanted was to bathe in the common washroom at Ikrin’s and forget this day had ever happened.
