SWNOVELS Chapter 6
"She's out," Rune says, a look of awe on his face, just as the old clock behind the bar strikes midnight. I open my eyes, which have long been soaked with tears but now get a fresh coating. Just a few feet away, after growing inside me for the better part of a year, I see my baby. She's crying, bloody, and perfect. I'm a broken vessel, torn and sweaty and surrounded by demented intruders, but I don't care. I've never felt love like this. "Rain..." I murmur, saying my baby's name out loud for the first time. She was always going to have that name, but I promised myself I wouldn't speak it until she arrived.
Rune holds the baby with great care, which at first puts me at ease before giving me a funny feeling. He stares at Rain with a kind of reverence that has my hackles up, and he's not making any move to hand her over my way.
"Give her to me," I say in a steady voice, my body absolutely giddy about being done with the throws of labor.
He hesitates. His eyes shift from me to Darius to Zev, and there's a palpable tension between the three. It pisses me off because... because give me my freaking baby.
He's still cradling my daughter when Zev stands, his impressive stature becoming apparent. Darius rises as well, also a taller-than-average man.
"Give the child to her mother," Zev says in a voice that's both calm and terrifying. "I know what you're doing, I know the impulse you feel, and neither Darius nor myself will let you move an inch from where you stand while you hold that baby."
Maybe it's that I'm still in agony and sitting in afterbirth, but these guys strike me as a special kind of crazy. Nevertheless, Rune seems to catch Zev's drift and he carefully leans over with Rain. I'm about to hold the baby I've been waiting so long to meet. "Do you wrap the placenta around the child now or later?"
Rune's question feels like a mix of the right words in the wrong order. Wrap the baby in the placenta?
""Do I what now?"
"Or is that something the elders do while your body mends?"
It's late and I've labored, so I've got zero brain space for these weird questions. Fortunately, Zev steps in.
"She doesn't share your rituals. Here they eat the placenta. Just pass the child, Rune."
While I have no intention of eating the placenta, Zev's suggestion is less bonkers than the previous one. Rune does as he's told, with a mild look of disgust on his beautiful face.
As I take her into my arms, I feel my shirt being lifted. Darius, in the most forward and inappropriate move ever, is taking off my clothes while I'm incapacitated. My bar-owner instinct is to swing the baby at him like the bat I keep behind the counter to scare off the occasional drunk who has one too many. Fortunately, my maternal instinct steps in and stops me.
Darius manages to read the room and explains himself. "She needs to feel your skin." Of course I know about skin-to-skin time and how important it is, but this delivery and my new company has thrown me off my game. I drop a little of the tension and let Darius resume with the unprompted disrobing.
Finally, naked as a jaybird, I get to hold my baby. As soon as I press her up to my breast, she stops crying and my heart melts all over again. Her little lips inch along my skin, searching for a nipple, and it's absolutely the cutest thing that's ever happened in the world.
As she starts to nurse, a hand cups
the underside of my breast to make the feeding angle easier. I honestly don't know which weirdo's weird
hand it is, I'm too absorbed watching
my sweet girl. While my eyes sing
locked on Rain, I half-listen t@more outlandish conversation from these men who should feel free to leave at any time.
"When did you notice the approach of the star?" Darius questions the other two, his calm voice floating over my head.
"We started watching the sky two weeks ago," Rune answers. "Violence in the realm had escalated, and the Readers announced the nearing of the date."
"I arrived last night," Zev adds. "Waited in the woods until the moment arrived. And you, Darius? Surely your kingdom knew of this day well in advance."
There's a tense moment between the two men, neither speaking, breathing or blinking.
Darius finally responds, "Of course. We've known for months."
While every inch of my being wants to scream, what the hell is going on?!, I resist. I'll learn more by listening, and I don't want to do anything that might startle Rain. She's lost the nipple and is making the softest little murmuring sounds. "What now?" Rune asks, his voice quieter than before. "We've arrived at the moment we all expected but never spoke about. There's only one child, and I see only one way out."
Whatever Rune is saying makes Zev tense, as I feel his hand squeeze my thigh more tightly, and it sounds like he's... growling? Lack of sleep and an exhaustive labor have worn me out. I'm sure the growl was just in my head.
Darius puts his hands on my
shoulders, sending a shiver down
my spine that's both exhilarating and
terrifying It may come to that, Rune, but you'll be up against Zev and myself if you make a false move. We all want the child, But she's of no use dead or unhealthy."
Now I've heard enough to pipe in. "I'm sorry, 'you want the child'? I don't know who you are or where-"
My voice stops. It's the craziest sensation, because I know what I wanted to say and now I'm silent, my brain's in a fog, and all I can do is stare into Darius' eyes, like I'm in a trance.
"Let her go," Zev says, though the words don't really register in my clouded head. "She needs her wits about her."
"Let's get her up to her bed," Rune says. "The baby is asleep so the mother should rest as well."
Maybe it's the mention of rest, but my mind suddenly becomes mine again and my voice returns. "Yes, please. And someone call a real doctor, I think I need actual help-"
"You'll be fine," Zev cuts me off. "Darius, carry her up. I'll clean the baby and then come up to tend to the mother's wounds."
"I'll tidy up down here," Rune says. "Needn't create a scene that garners unnecessary attention."
Zev gently pulls Rain away from me, which I allow because I'm not sure I have another option. As Darius lifts me from the ground and starts carrying me upstairs, my emotions overwhelm me. I'm scared shitless, utterly confused, and deeply in love with my newborn baby. And, while this situation makes me feel incredibly uneasy to say the least, it's not lost on me that I've currently got three dashing men waiting on me hand and foot. Unfortunately, from what I've gathered, they came to steal my baby, and the only way that'll happen is if they kill me and rip her from my cold, dead hands.