Chapter 429: Rowan

Rowan - The Pregnancy Part 1

The argument starts in the kitchens.

Again.

"I told you," Damien says, balancing an absurdly full tray against one broad forearm, "she wanted cinnamon rolls."

Ezra doesn't even look up from the bowl of fresh strawberries he'd stolen from the kitchens.

"No."

He says it with all the certainty of a man delivering law.

"She said she wanted strawberries."

"She wanted both."

"No, she wanted—"

I try to clear my throat.

Neither of them pays me the slightest attention.

Damien nudges Ezra with his shoulder.

Ezra immediately nudges him back harder.

"Move."

"You move."

"I'm the Leader."

"I'm bigger."

"I don't care."

"I know you don't."

I lift the plate in my own hands.

Neither of them has noticed it yet.

Good.

"She asked for grilled cheese too," Damien insists.

Ezra scoffs.

"That was yesterday."

"It was this morning. Like an hour ago."

Pregnancy has made Avery's cravings... difficult to keep up with.

One minute she wants oranges.

The next she can't even smell them without turning green.

Yesterday she'd cried because she desperately wanted blueberry pancakes.

By the time I'd made them...

She'd looked at them with complete horror.

Then she'd asked for pickles.

With honey.

I still don't understand that one.

Damien notices my plate.

"You too?"

I simply raise an eyebrow.

He squints.

"Is that mashed potatoes?"

I nod.

Ezra pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Why?"

I shrug.

She'd asked for them.

With enough butter to horrify every healer in the Institute.

The three of us march toward the Verrath wing like we're preparing for battle.

Damien keeps trying to walk faster than Ezra.

Ezra deliberately steps into his path.

Damien shoulders him aside.

I end up between them when they both attempt to squeeze through the doorway first.

The tray nearly tips.

Damien catches it.

Ezra saves the bowl.

I save the potatoes.

Barely.

The three of us stumble into the common room looking considerably less dignified than any of us would like.

Avery looks up from the couch.

She's curled against one armrest with a book open across her lap, Kuro sprawled on the rug beside her, now fully grown again, one silver ear twitching lazily as we enter.

She blinks.

Looks at Damien.

Then Ezra.

Then me.

Her eyes travel over everything we're carrying.

The silence lasts all of three seconds.

Then she bursts into laughter.

Real laughter.

The kind that folds her in half.

Kuro lifts his head, looking mildly offended that we've interrupted his nap.

"What?" Damien asks.

She laughs harder.

"You..."

Another laugh.

"You all brought food?"

Ezra looks at the bowl in his hands.

"Yes."

She wipes tears from the corners of her eyes.

"Oh my gosh."

Damien sets his tray on the table.

"I fail to see what's funny."

"You all look so serious."

"We are serious."

"I can see that."

She finally catches her breath.

"I appreciate it."

Her smile softens.

"I really do."

She looks at each plate in turn.

"Cinnamon rolls."

Her eyes move.

"Strawberries."

Then to mine.

"Mashed potatoes."

She looks back up at us.

"I was craving all of those."

Damien smirks triumphantly.

"I told you."

"But..."

She looks down at the amount of food covering the coffee table.

"You can't keep feeding me this much."

The three of us answer at exactly the same time.

"Yes, we can." Yes, we can.

She blinks.

Damien folds his arms.

"In fact, I'd argue we're not feeding you enough."

Ezra nods solemnly.

"The healers agree."

She groans.

"They absolutely do not."

"They absolutely do."

I walk over while they're still arguing and sit beside her on the couch.

She immediately leans against me.

Without thinking.

Like she's done it a thousand times.

Maybe she has now.

My hand finds the curve of her stomach almost instinctively.

It's impossible not to.

Three months.

Only three.

And already...

She's showing.

The swell beneath my palm is unmistakable.

Still small enough that she can hide it beneath loose dresses if she wants to.

Far too large for someone only twelve weeks along.

I rub slow circles over her belly while she reaches for the strawberries.

The memory of that first appointment flashes through my mind.

The healer had gone strangely quiet.

Then she'd frowned.

Then she'd asked another healer to come look.

Damien had immediately assumed something was wrong.

Ezra had gone pale.

I'd already been preparing myself for the worst.

Instead...

The older healer had looked up from the scan with the widest smile I'd ever seen.

"It's not one heartbeat."

Silence.

She'd smiled even wider.

"It's three."

Three.

Damien heard only one because they beat almost perfectly together.

Three tiny hearts.

Three tiny lives.

The room had gone completely still.

Avery had stared at the healer.

Then at us.

Then back at the healer.

"...Three?"

The healer had laughed.

"Three."

No one had spoken for what felt like forever.

Then Avery had frowned.

"Oh."

She'd looked genuinely confused as to how she could've gotten pregnant.

"My birth control."

Another silence.

Then she'd slowly covered her face with both hands.

"I..."

She'd peeked at us through her fingers.

"I forgot my shot only lasts a month."

She'd missed it when we'd gone back to her apartment after she returned to finish university.

Life had been... busy.

None of us had thought about it again.

Apparently, nature had.

She'd sat there in stunned silence for perhaps ten minutes.

Not crying.

Not laughing.

Simply trying to process the fact that she'd gone from no children...

To three.

Then...

She'd started crying.

Great, heaving sobs.

Damien had panicked immediately.

Ezra had called for the healer again.

I'd knelt in front of her, terrified something was wrong.

Instead, she'd thrown her arms around my neck.

"I..."

Another sob.

"I'm just so happy."

She'd laughed through tears.

"We're having babies."

Plural.

The word had broken whatever composure Damien had left.

Ezra hadn't been much better.

Since then...

It's been difficult.

Her body has struggled from the beginning.

The healers warned us it might.

Three demi-god babies growing inside someone whose body had only recently become immortal was... unprecedented.

Morning sickness had become morning, afternoon, and evening sickness.

Some days she'd keep nothing down.

She'd lost frightening amounts of weight despite carrying three growing lives.

Only during the last week had she finally started eating again without immediately becoming ill.

Even now...

She's still so small.

Too small.

Her cheeks remain slightly thinner than they used to be.

Her wrists delicate beneath the sleeves of her sweater.

And yet...

Her stomach continues to grow.

Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night simply to make sure she's still breathing.

To rest my hand against her belly and remind myself they're all still there.

Still safe.

Still ours.

Avery pops a strawberry into her mouth before reaching immediately for the mashed potatoes.

Damien wrinkles his nose.

"I'll never understand that."

She points her spoon at him.

"I didn't ask you to."

Ezra laughs quietly.

"You know..."

He watches her eat another bite with obvious satisfaction.

"I think watching you eat has become one of my favorite things."

She smiles.

"Because I'm finally eating?"

"Because you're smiling while you do."

The room grows comfortably quiet.

Kuro lets out a sleepy huff before resting his giant head across my feet.

Avery leans a little more heavily into my side, absently turning another page of her book between bites.

I keep my hand where it is.

Over the gentle curve of her stomach.

Over the three tiny heartbeats that have already changed our world before any of us have even met them.