by Amy Sumida
Horus cleared his throat. “I'm happy because we're expecting our first child.”
“And because you have huge boobies to play with,” Hekate said matter-of-factly.
“Remind you of what?” Horus pointedly repeated his question to me.
“No.” I held up a finger. “I'm not explaining all of this again until everyone arrives. Come on, Goddess of Fertility.” I hooked arms with Katie. “You must be hungry. Let's get you something to nibble on.”
“Ugh, I'm famished. Thank you.”
“We just had breakfast,” Horus murmured as if that should matter.
While Hekate and I were in the kitchen, gathering snacks and beverages for her and the rest of the God Squad (but mainly for her), the God Squad showed up along with Arach and the team. I came out of the kitchen to find them seated around the end of the table closest to the kitchen. Thor had taken his usual place at the head of the table—a small nod of respect we gave him for being the god who started the Squad.
“Hey, you,” I said to Thor as I slid my tray between him and Odin.
“Head of the table” means the center of one of the shorter ends since our table was excessively long and wide. Four to five people could fit on the shorter ends comfortably and I couldn't tell you how many could sit on one of the longer sides—it was a lot. The dining hall had a medieval feel to it, helped along by the heavy, wooden furniture and massive fireplace to the left. Of course, there was also the fact that the room was part of a palace and the very architecture was castle-like.
“Welcome to Pride Palace, Fey-Team,” I said to Mallien and the fey knights. “Help yourselves to some coffee and cookies.”
“The Fey-Team!” Pan repeated with glee. “It's like the A-Team but with a F. And I love F-words.”
“Pan, put a cookie in your mouth,” I suggested.
“Katie!” Horus shouted as he hurried over and took the tray of mugs from her. “You shouldn't be carrying anything heavy.”
“Hygeia said I was fine to lift anything under thirty pounds and this is not thirty pounds,” Hekate snapped back. “Stop fussing, Horus.”
“You are carrying our daughter, Hekate.” Horus set the tray down and turned back to her. “You can't be risking her life.”
The faeries watched the exchange with wide eyes and a certain amount of approval. Children are rare among the Fey and the men doubtlessly shared Horus' opinion that a mother should take great care when carrying one. But the rest of the God Squad lunged for the food and drink eagerly, then sat back to watch the argument with the air of an audience at a wrestling match. A WWF match, to be precise.
“Don't mind them,” I said to the faeries. “They had a bit of a scare early on in Kate's pregnancy and Horus hasn't gotten over it. Go on, have a cookie.”
Rory reached for a cookie warily, his stare going back to Hekate, whose cheeks were turning red.
“I am not risking her life by carrying a tray of coffee mugs!” Hekate snapped. “But you are most definitely risking yours by causing a scene.”
“I wouldn't have to cause a scene if you didn't take needless risks.”
“I'm not drinking the coffee, just carrying it. Not that caffeine would do anything to a god fetus anyway.”
“That's the problem!”
“Is the problem that she's not drinking coffee or that it doesn't affect god babies?” Drake whispered to me. “I'm confused.”
“No, you are the problem!” Hekate shouted before I could answer. “Get out of my face before I bust your beak!”
“Sit down before I redden your ass!”
“Is this what I'll have to look forward to?” Hades drawled to his wife, Persephone.
“What the hell did you just say... to... me...” Hekate trailed off as she turned away from Horus to face Hades. “Hold on, what did you say? What does that mean?” She pointed at Hades.
Hades grinned.
“Are you?” Hekate asked Persephone excitedly.
“I am!” Persephone screeched as she jumped up and went to hug Hekate.
“We are expecting our first child,” Hades said proudly.
“My most sincere congratulations,” Mallien said to Hades. “How wonderful that so many of you are fertile.”
“Thank you,” Hades removed his sunglasses and inclined his head to Mallien, diplomatic enough to ignore the fertile comment.
Mallien, however, gaped at the fire burning within Hades' eyes. Many Fire Faeries had fiery eyes that glowed but the irises of Hades' eyes appeared to be little pieces of brown glass laid over a tiny fireplace in his head. The difference fascinated Mallien and that delighted the Lord of the Underworld. Hades smirked at the Fire-Sidhe and then winked.
“It's like a contagion,” Pan whispered in horror. He leaned away from Hades even though he was two seats down.
“I'll let you in on a secret,” Finn whispered to Pan, his green eyes twinkling. “Men can't get pregnant. So, unless there's something you haven't told us, I'd say you're safe.”
“I know I can't get pregnant,” Pan huffed, shaking his head so that his mop of curls shifted and gave a glimpse of the little horns hidden among them. “But I have a lot of sex—I mean a lot—and I'm a very virile god. I can't risk being exposed to extra amounts of fertility.”
“Fertility,” I murmured as I took a seat between Re and Viper.
“Yes, Vervain, fertility means that you can have babies,” Brahma teased me. The smile he gave me looked a bit sinister, especially when he stroked his close-cropped beard. But then his wife, Sarasvati, slapped him and ruined the effect. “Ow! What?”
“She's having an epiphany, you idiot,” Sara snapped.
“When did you turn into Hekate?” Brahma asked her.
“When you started acting like Horus,” she shot back.
“Well, someone had to pick up the slack,” Brahma grumbled. “Ever since Vervain saved Horus' daughter, Horus has been nice to her. Nice! It's shameful.”
“You're an idiot,” Sara declared again as she got to her feet. She went over to congratulate Persephone.
“Sephy, have you been to the Human Realm recently?” I asked.
“No, you warned us not to.”
“No, I mean, before that. Perhaps around the time you conceived?”
Persephone frowned in thought and looked at her husband. “It probably happened while we were in France.”
“Likely.” Hades grinned as if his sexual prowess was what made it all possible.
“Where in France?” Lugh asked urgently.
“Colmar, in Alsace. It's a lovely town,” Hades said. “Why?”
“Fuck me,” Lugh whispered.
“It sounds as if we've missed something important,” Trevor said to Kirill as they walked in.
“What's wrong with Colmar?” Hades demanded.
“Vervain?” Persephone asked me, her ivy-green eyes wide with worry.
“There's nothing wrong with your baby,” I said immediately. “But faerie magic may have helped you conceive.”
“Faerie magic in France?” Sephy asked.
“That's why I called you here.” I looked over at my newly-arrived husbands and caught them up, “Persephone's pregnant. Have a cookie.”
Kirill recovered first. “Congratulations, both of you,” he said to the second set of parents-to-be in our squad.
“Thank you so much,” Hades said. Then he turned back to me. “Now, explain yourself, Vervain.”
I explained. I went over everything: the spots of Faerie in the Human Realm, the bargests, the broken ward, and the fixing of it. Then I told them that one of the places where we'd closed a rath had been just outside of Colmar, France. I remembered it specifically because we'd stopped for lunch and the place had canals like Venice. Hades was right, it was a lovely town.
“And you think that the magic helped us to conceive?” Hades asked when I was finished.
“Well, I'm not certain that the rath was open during the time you were there but it would be a hell of a coinciden
ce if it wasn't.”
“Then there has been one good thing to come out of this,” Persephone declared.
“Alaric, are you around?” I called.
I'm here and I agree. I think the magic played a part in the conception. There was a great burst of energy over the Earth when the new raths appeared. That could have led to a rise of fertility.
What about the babies? I asked in my mind. They'll be okay, right?
I would imagine so. The magic would have affected their conception, not their formation.
I breathed out in relief. Then I straightened in my chair and asked out loud, “When did it happen? Do you know the date when the magic hit Earth?”
September sixteenth at 4:22 PM Colmar time.
“Well that was specific,” I muttered.
I think specificity may be important, Al said gravely.
“When was it?” Hades asked me.
“September sixteenth at 4:22 in the afternoon,” I said. “Do you know if—”
Persephone gasped before I could finish. I looked at her but she was staring at Hades.
Hades nodded at her. “Yes, I believe that was around the time we got back from touring the canals.”
“Are you saying that you two were having sex when faerie magic blasted through the Human Realm?” Morpheus asked, the blue mist in his eyes swirling with anxiety and his ebony, starlit wings twitching behind him. He was seated on the of the stools I had made especially for winged people.
“I believe so,” Hades confirmed.
“That would do it,” Arach said. “The magic that entered the Human Realm was heavy with fertility.”
“Swelling with it?” Pan asked.
Arach lifted a brow at him.
“Sorry, I couldn't resist,” Pan muttered.
“There are probably going to be a lot of babies born next July,” Eztli noted, casting her crimson, vampiric gaze at Blue, her husband.
“But Alaric said there's no reason for the baby to be affected,” I hurried to say to Persephone. “The pregnancy may be a result of the initial explosion but, other than that, it should be normal.”
“And you thought it was your explosion that did the trick,” Pan teased Hades. Learning that the fertility wasn't contagious had revived his spirits.
“I don't see how it could have been accomplished without me,” Hades shot back.
“A turkey baster would have done the job,” Hekate argued and winked at Persephone. “We're the ones who do all of the work, Hades. They don't call it labor for nothing.”
“Thank you!” I applauded.
“I agree with you completely.” Hades shot a satisfied and very male look at his wife. “And I intend to shower my wife with gifts as I wait on her like a slave throughout her entire pregnancy to make up for it.”
Persephone smiled adoringly at her husband. “I love you, Sizzle-Butt.”
“I love you too, Bunny-Nose,” Hades replied warmly.
“This is all very fascinating and, as I said, I'm overjoyed for your good fortune,” Mallien said to Hades and Sephy before looking around at the rest of us. “But we have a problem to take care of. We were able to put wards around the magical land but that is only a temporary fix. We must find a way to send the magic back to Faerie.”
“Or destroy it,” I added.
“Magic cannot—” Mallien started to repeat the High King's words.
“Yes, it can. All you need is the right god,” I cut him off and looked at Torrent, who'd been sitting quietly throughout the fertile conversation, next to his equally quiet girlfriend, Artemis.
Torrent blinked, then sat up straight and held up his hand like a kid in a classroom. “Oh! Oh! That's me!”
Chapter Sixteen
“What's this now?” Mallien asked skeptically.
“This is not to be repeated,” I said sternly to the faeries. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, of course.” Mallien looked at the faerie knights and they nodded.
“Mandrake?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“You can absolutely trust me, Queen Vervain,” Drake said soberly.
Prince Lugh already knew about Torr, but he gave me an encouraging nod anyway.
“Torrent is an unusual god.” I stopped to smile at Torrent. “He was born of god magic and Internet magic.”
“Magic from the Inter Realm?” Mallien asked.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Torrent has abilities associated with that realm and one of them is that he can see magic like computer code—the language of the Internet. And he can alter that code or even delete it.”
“Torrent, have you ever tried to alter faerie magic before?” Lugh asked.
“No, not faerie magic,” Torrent said, losing a little of his grin.
Lugh shared a long look with the wayfarer.
“My Queen, I must advise against this,” Mallien said. “Faerie magic isn't like god magic. God magic, by comparison, is dead—a tool to be used—while faerie magic is alive. It's elemental, wild, and unpredictable when not controlled. To have this god attempt to destroy it is folly.”
“What could happen?” Thor asked.
Mallien shrugged. “That is precisely my point. I don't know what will happen.”
“Do you have any other suggestions?” I asked Mallien. “Because doing nothing is not an option.”
“Perhaps we could collect the magic in a container?” Lugh offered a suggestion before Mallien could.
“Faerie magic can be set into objects to create charms such as the Rings of Remembrance,” Mallien said pensively, “but to do so, you must first have control of the magic and this magic is unbound. Getting control of it will be the problem. What we do with it afterward is less of an issue.”
“And how is control taken usually?” Blue asked, his jade eyes tight with focus.
“It is not taken,” Arach answered. “Magic is given to us at birth.”
“Or when Faerie works through me,” I added.
“When Faerie works through you, she's transforming or creating faeries,” Arach said. “Both are types of birth.”
“It sounds similar to the way it is with gods. Our magic is decided at birth and no god can take another's magic. With one exception, of course.” Odin looked at me pointedly.
“You think that I can take the magic like I take magic from gods?” I asked in surprise.
Odin shrugged. “You could store it in the emerald I gave you and then return it to Faerie. Theoretically, at least.”
“Theoretically is not good enough when it comes to my wife's safety,” Arach said in a low, deadly tone.
“Our wife,” Odin reminded him, his stunning face settling into stern lines. “I wouldn't jeopardize her needlessly, Arach.”
“I know,” Arach admitted. “And yet it doesn't make me feel any better.”
“Vhat are risks if Vervain tries to take magic?” Kirill asked Mallien.
Mallien shook his head. “Again, I do not know. You're speaking of things that I would have said were impossible.”
“Guess,” Thor rumbled.
“If I were to guess at the worst outcome...” Mallien scowled in thought. “The very worst would be the magic going wild inside Queen Vervain and tearing her apart.”
The table went silent. Except for me; I made a soft, strangled sound.
“How likely is that?” Trevor finally asked.
“Again, I can't say. But if I were to guess, considering the type of magic in my queen, I'd say the probability of it at least trying to hurt her as she attempts to contain it is high. It will not want to be controlled.”
“Destroy that fucking magic, Torrent,” Viper snarled.
“But that could—” Mallien started.
Kirill growled low in his throat and narrowed his cerulean eyes at Mallien. His eyes started to glow with Death magic.
Mallien cleared his throat. “Very well. I shall attend you and offer assistance if possible.”
“Thank you, Mallien,” I said. “Ignore them. They'
re just worried about me.”
“Yes, my Queen, I know,” Mallien said gravely. “I, too, am concerned for you and your homeworld.”
“Well, with those ominous words, let's go kill us some magic!” Pan declared enthusiastically.