Page 56 of Antonio Miles

“Uh…” Tonio’s eyes narrowed and he leaned forward. Squinting. “Why did she turn around?”

“He didn’t move. I did. So you could meet his sister. Congratulations.”

Tonio barked out a laugh. Two tears tracked from his eyes but he didn’t seem to notice. He laughed again, wet and rough, and brought my knuckles up to his mouth and kissed them hard, then he opened my palm and cradled his face with my hand. Then he leaned down and kissed my lips in a long, loving, lingering kiss. Tears tracked freely down both his cheeks into his short beard.

“Now. You’ll never know how much I appreciate all the state-of-the-art equipment and the office renovation and the rushed completion of the new Labor and Delivery house I’ve long wanted.” She beamed at him, while adding with the same disarming smile, “but from now on, you let me have my staff during Miss Garrison’s visits, or I cut your balls off and you have no more babies.”

Yeah. I was gonna like Dr. Simbillo.

* * *

A few hours later

The compound smelled like charred meat, barbecue. Surprisingly, the smell didn’t bother me. In fact, I was ravenous. Darby had Carrie backed against the porch railing, both of them red-faced and laughing, neither one giving an inch on whatever the hell they were fighting about. Veda and Griffin sat on the steps sharing a beer, her head on his shoulder, his arm around her waist. Sully leaned against the garage door with a bottle in his hand, watching the whole scene with dry amusement. Hawk drifted in with Kass and Finch right behind him.

Walking hand in hand with Antonio into the main clubhouse, the laughter mirrored the joy inside as well. The common room had been transformed. Candles flickered on every surface, their light catching on glass bowls of herbs and dried flowers. More than a dozen women sat in a circle on the floor, legs crossed, hands palm-up on their knees. Nadine was there, and Pippa, and Lavender, along with half a dozen old ladies whose faces I knew, but whose names I was still learning. At the center of the circle stood Ellie -- Elvira “Ellie” Blackheart, her long black hair in intricate braids, burgundy lips curved in concentration. She held a bundle of dried sage that smoked between her fingers. The only person I didn’t see was Tillie. I’d only met her once and she had a young child so maybe she was otherwise occupied.

As Antonio and I stopped at the threshold, Ellie’s voice rose and fell in a low rhythmic chant. All the women in the room swayed from side to side in their circle humming a soft monotone to go with Ellie’s chanting.

By moonlit root and river’s breath

Let barren earth awaken beneath.

Seed and womb, by warmth be stirred

Life now blooms by whispered word.

Ellie’s arms dropped. Her whole body went rigid. Her eyes flew open, wide and startled, and she clapped both hands over her own flat stomach with a gasp that sounded like she’d been gut-punched.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” she yelled, spinning to face us where we stood in the doorway. “Tessa! Why didn’t you tell me you were having twins before I did this fucking spell?”

The humming stopped. Every face in the circle turned to us. Antonio’s hand went slack in mine. I stared at Ellie.

“You’re what?” Nadine said.

Ellie threw up her hands, the sage bundle scattering ash. “Twins! There’s twins in the room and no one thought to mention it? Before I cast a fertility circle? Do you have any idea what that means?”

Carrie’s mouth was hanging open. “That means… holy shit, that means…”

“It means the spell just got amplified,” Ellie groaned. “Everyone in this room is gonna have multiples now. Everyone. I cast a fertility spell with a multiple pregnancy in the circle and the magic can’t tell the difference between one womb and another. That’s like… that’s like using a nuke to kill a gnat.”

The silence held for exactly three seconds before Pippa burst out laughing. The sound exploded out of her so hard she toppled backward onto the floor with a startled yelp, arms and legs kicking. Nadine covered her mouth with both hands but couldn’t hold it in. Carrie howled. Within seconds the whole room was roaring, women wiping tears and clutching each other and collapsing into helpless, wheezing fits. Everyone helped Pippa, of course, but by the end we were all laughing so hard tears rolled down our cheeks.

Antonio watched them with an amused smile. Sure, we still had problems to address, not the least of which was Iron’s gambit. But today wasn’t about death, but about light. And lots of it, if Ellie was any good at what she does.

“I guess that explains why Tillie isn’t here,” I said with a grin.

“Yeah,” Nadine. “She said once was enough for a while. I called her a party pooper, but I’m beginning to rethink that stance.”

I stepped into the center of the circle, tugging Antonio with me. The laughter faded to a low, expectant hum. All those eyes on me.

“Antonio Miles.” I turned to face him, squared my shoulders, and looked him right in the eye. “I’m keeping you. I want a ring on my finger, and I want the right to claw out the eyes of all the women looking your way and I want it now.”

For a heartbeat, he didn’t move. Then his mouth curved.

“All you had to do was say so.”

He dropped to one knee, right there in the center of Ellie’s smudged herbs and scattered ash. Then he put a ring on my finger. And it was unbelievably ostentatious.