“Yes. I would. I would know our creation,” he says again, so sure.
I think of the dream, and I adjust my position on the bed to accommodate his enormous head and the corner of his spectacles pressing into my skin.
After a minute, when he is still silent, I ask, “Well?”
My insides feel like a cacophony of fluttering butterflies.
He slowly removes his head and looks at me.
It’s as if a cloud has crossed in front of the sun. His face is so shadowy. My stomach drops, not anticipating this reaction.
“You aren’t going tomorrow. We must change our plans.”
I suck in a breath.
That’s it.
My eyes burn, and surprise, joy and worry run rounds on my heart. “I’m still coming with you.”
He shakes his head. “No, it is too dangerous.”
I bolt upright, locking my gaze onto him. “Am I carrying our child?” A fierce urgency claws at me, desperate for confirmation. The weight of his words hangs in the air. He had confessed his deepest longing for this moment, believing he would only be unworthy. Every fiber of my being craves to absorb his every reaction, to reach out and trace the contours of his face, to seal this revelation with a kiss. The silence between us crackles with anticipation as his eyes meet mine, revealing a tumultuous mix of dread and fragile optimism.
Cradling his face in my hands, I beg. “Say it.”
His lips quiver before parting slowly, tears welling up in his eyes.
“You are carrying our child,” he whispers.
All of my love and terror balance precariously within my heart. When I think of how I was treated as a child, whipped and mocked and leered at, a fierce, raging sense of protectiveness flairs to life in my gut. Endu has told us to kill the king to free all humans—that now includes our babe.
If I am to have a child, it can’t be in a world where Rholker still breathes.
“Then I must go with you.” I declare.
As he begins to shake his head in protest, I tighten my grip on his chin. “Teo, consider my feelings. If your father was still alive, would you want him anywhere near our child?”
Teo's jaw tightens as he processes my words, a storm brewing behind his eyes.
I continue. “I will not be denied my revenge. Bring me to fight alongside you. Stand at my side as we slice the head from his shoulders. Present it to me, as you promised on the night of our wedding.”
“Estela, I…”
In an instant, Teo opens the floodgates of his mind, unleashing a torrent of harrowing visions. Death dances beforemy eyes, screams echo in the darkness, and horrors beyond comprehension unfold before me like a grotesque tapestry. Amidst the chaos, I see his mother's tragic fate on the battlefield—wolves tearing at her flesh as she hangs lifeless.
His paralyzing fear reverberates through me like an earthquake as I bear witness to his anguish and resolve to share in his burden.
I lean back.
With every inch of power nestled in my body, I hold my head high. I think of the first vision the Fuegorra gave me, the one in which, surprisingly, I felt his power rumble in my veins somewhere in the future.
I will not die here.
While I do feel confident about that statement, some dark part of my head remembers the image of the crystal card of death. It looms over me, and I choose to ignore it.
“We both know that visions are imperfect. And things can change, but I choose to believe that we will live on past this night. You will let me ride with you. Today, we will kill the king. Tomorrow, we will find and save my brother. In half a year, when the child in my belly is born, it will be the strongest, bravest half-Enduar creature the world has ever known,” I say firmly. Even though, as I speak the words, the images of the cards dance behind my eyelids.
Teo strokes my hand. “I can’t lose you, too.”
