Ciera was silent a moment, allowing Dane’s words to sink in. “You think I’m amazing?” Even without magic? “But I keep messing everything up.”
“No. You don’t. You’ve helped me see that I need to do something else. I need to get Rosa out of this city and start fresh.”
“Dane, I need to tell you something—” At that moment, Ciera jolted from cramping in her stomach. It’ll pass. You still have eight months before the baby’s ready. She looked up at Dane, concern in his expression. The cramping didn’t stop, it only got worse.
When warm water ran down her leg and she heard it dripping on the floor, she slid her chair back and forced herself to stand, phone still against her ear. She wouldn’t let it go, it was her connection to Dane.
Dane’s words were full of panic. “Your water broke! This is it, the baby’s coming this time.”
He stood, dropping the phone and pounding on the glass mirror behind him. Was it a magic mirror? She read his lips in the reflection. “She’s in labor! Send her help!”
The door behind Ciera buzzed open, but what happened next was a blur. Ciera couldn’t focus on anything but the intense pain in her stomach and that they were taking her further away from Dane. She was wheeled outside in some type of chair, in shackles. A vehicle with flashing lights and a loud siren drove her to a hospital. Workers ushered her to a room and dressed her in an odd, faded blue gown with her hands still in chains.
Her heart hammered and she tried to fight back, but the frequent pain in her stomach and her small size left her helpless. The humans had figured out who she was. Why else was she being treated this way? It had to be time for her dissection.
She tightly grasped her invisible wand and tried to pull comfort from it, despite her inability to use her magic, but instead she made her own wish.
Oddly, it wasn’t to return to her father or to spare her from the dissection.
It was simple.
All she wanted was for Dane to be there with her.
Chapter 16
Dane
Dane followed the ambulance to the hospital. Bursting through the main entry doors, he pushed his way to the front of the reception line and panted. “Where’s maternity?”
The woman pointed to a set of elevators. “Fourth floor.”
Dane squeezed into the crowded elevator and slumped into a corner. Things weren’t moving fast enough. He tapped his foot, then pushed the lit-up elevator button again and again.
When he sunk back into the corner, he caught an odd reflection from a man in a wheelchair beside him. When Dane turned his head, his jaw fell open at the sight of a silver prosthetic arm.
The exact arm with clawed fingers Ciera had described.
Was she telling the truth?
It has to be a coincidence.
Perhaps he should mind his own business, but he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t ask. Dane pushed himself out of the corner and tapped the gray-haired man on the shoulder. “Excuse me. This may be an odd question, but is your name John?”
The man cocked his head. His words were a little slurred. “Do I know you?”
“Not exactly, but I must know. Is your name John?”
“Yes. Why?”
Dane, you’re a fool for not believing her. “Do you know Ciera?”
John slowly shook his head. “I’ve never heard that name before, but my thoughts are a little fuzzy. They’ve given me some medicine and I’m not thinking quite straight.”
“Ciera has violet eyes and purple hair. The sweetest smile. Simply beautiful and the most interesting personality, too. You’d remember her if you met her.”
John wrinkled an eyebrow. “Violet eyes? Purple hair?”
“And a small little mole on her left cheekbone. It makes her appear adorable.”
John was shaking his head. “Hmmm. I dreamt about someone like that almost a year ago, or so. I couldn’t get her image out of my mind, but it was just a dream.”
Dream? If Dane hadn’t been exposed to Ciera’s wild ideas and completely naive behaviors, he would have dismissed this. Instead, he pressed on. There was something here for him to discover. “So, you never met her? She says she’s pregnant with your child.”
John kept shaking his head. “Can’t be. I never met her and my dream wasn’t like that. All we did was touch a fingertip and a purple light began to glow.” His words flowed out as the elevator stopped at the second floor. Shuffling around, they let some people to exit.
“What else?” Dane urged.
“The week before that dream, I was told I could never have children, though I’m probably too old for them anyway. I had a hard time dealing with the finality of it, so I made a wish.” He shook his head. “That was a ridiculous wish, but that dream made me feel…I don’t know…content with my fate.” His words now slurred to a nearly indiscernible level.
“Sorry, sir,” the nurse pushing John said. “His meds are kicking in. We need to get him to surgery.”
John’s eyelids were heavy, and Dane backed up, allowing them to exit the elevator on the third floor.
Dane’s mind rushed with all sorts of things. Was the man telling the truth? It wasn’t possible this was true, but his most prominent thought was that none of it mattered. He needed to be with Ciera.
Dane stopped on the maternity floor, rushing to the desk. “I need to see Ciera. She’s having a baby right now.”
The glow of the computer monitor reflected off the woman’s glasses. “Are you the father? Only the father is allowed in.”
Father? He took a deep breath. “Yes. Of course I’m the father. Let me in.”
She pushed her glasses up and pointed down a corridor. “Check in with the officer outside room eight. It’s way at the end of the hall.”
Dane didn’t stop. He ran straight toward room eight’s door. Reaching for the handle, the security guard stopped him. “You can’t come in.”
He was a thief. He could lie with the best of them. “But I’m the father, and she needs me.”
Dane pushed his way inside and stood beside Ciera. Her eyes lit up at the sight of him, but then fear shone through.
She whispered, “They’re going to dissect me.”
Dane took her tiny, soft hand. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I’m here. You’re not alone.”
She smiled, and his heart galloped. Why had he spent all this time without a partner? He knew, deep down, he had been waiting for someone special.
Waiting for someone just like Ciera.
She breathed heavily and gritted her teeth.
“Push,” the doctor said.
Dane’s eyes teared, remembering the birth of his own daughter. That day changed his whole life. Would this day change Ciera’s too? How could it not?
A tear flowed down Ciera’s cheek. Dane’s world spun, and he couldn’t focus on what was happening until the doctor placed the baby against Ciera’s chest.
The smile on her face made Dane feel complete.
“It’s a girl,” she whispered to him.
The baby opened her eyes and clear, beautiful violet eyes stared at Dane, making him smile, too.
He wiped his tears and leaned down, placing a kiss on Ciera’s forehead for no other reason than it felt right.
Chapter 17
Ciera
Ciera’s skin tickled as her heart pulsated with magic. She felt its electricity flow through her body, completing her. She wiped her eyes with the hospital gown and stared at the smear of tears on the fabric. With her magic returned and the baby no longer physically connected with her, why was she still crying? She had blamed those feelings on the child inside her, but they should have gone away with the return of her powers.
She needed to get a grip on her emotions. This was so unlike her. Had this human world changed her? Had Dane? Rosaleen? Or the baby in her arms?
Wrapping her fingers tightly around the invisible wand tucked beside her in the hospital bed, she pulled at her magic and stopped time for everyone excep
t her and her child. The doctor at her feet, the nurses beside her, and Dane froze in place. When her little girl cried against her chest, Ciera pulled her closer, unable to stop her own flow of tears.
My daughter.
Those words seemed foreign yet they felt so good. Better than the return of her magic. The girl was part of her. A part she never would have wished for, yet couldn’t imagine being without.
Kamda.
The word hit her from her childhood. Her grandfather had given Ciera that nickname. It meant one who fulfills all the wishes of others. That fit her daughter nicely.
Ciera smiled. “Kamda, it is. Do you like that name? You’ve granted wishes I didn’t even know I had, and I have a feeling you’ll grant more—even if you don’t have magic.”
How could she even have considered getting rid of her child? Being human, did Kamda have power over her like Dane did? But she didn’t care. Dane was frozen beside her bed, clutching the railing. He had a smile on his face, but was that a frozen tear in his eye?
Dane had asked her to do him a favor and hold the child before she turned him or her over to the father. She hadn’t understood why, but now, as she brushed her finger against the baby’s soft cheek, she understood that holding the baby changed everything. Dane was wise, and she hadn’t known it.
Kamda opened her eyes, and it was almost like gazing into a mirror. Equally vivid violet irises to her own stared back. That shouldn’t have happened, but Ciera shouldn’t have been a purple fairy, anyway. Could it be possible the baby had magic?
“You can’t stay here,” Ciera whispered. “What if you grew wings and were captured? Dissected?”
She looked up at Dane again. He was also so different from her, yet their hearts were in the same place.
It had been so long that the urge to grant a wish was all-consuming. Besides, she was a true fairy godmother now.
What was Dane’s wish?
To have a complete family. A mother for his daughter. A life without stealing.
What was Ciera’s wish?
She looked down at the child cradled in her arms. Her wish was similar to Dane’s. A complete family…to feel like she belonged…to make sure her child always felt loved. Ciera thought to all the lessons she’d had about the terrible things in this human world.
No wonder we were forbidden from coming here. We would have found out that many parts are not so bad. Full of loving people, like Dane, and Rosaleen.
She took a deep breath and waved her wand to unfreeze him.
“What’s going on?” Dane’s eyes widened as they took in the frozen doctor and nurses.
“Don’t look at them. Look at me,” Ciera said, setting her wand on the bed then stretching a hand toward him. When his focus was on her, she spoke clearly. “Listen to me. I told you I’m not from here and need to go home. I can’t bring my baby there, but I think there’s a place I can go.” A place where the fairy council’s rules don’t apply. She squeezed his hand. “I was wondering if you and Rosaleen would like to come with me. Start a new life…together.”
Ciera let go of his hand and gripped her wand again. She pulled her magic, waved her wand, and said the magic words. “Dibbity, dobbity, doo!” She bit back a smile as her, Dane, and the baby were swallowed in a flash of light.
Dane stood beside her and Kamda in a beautiful garden outside the hospital. She was dressed again in her immaculate fairy gown and her abdomen returned to pre-pregnancy size. She gently squeezed the baby in her arm. She twisted around and gave her beautiful silver-streaked purple wings a flap, lifting off the ground briefly before setting herself back down. Oh, did she miss them.
Beside her stood Dane, his jaw opened wide as he rubbed his hands down his face. “I must be dreaming,” he said. “You have wings. We’re not in the hospital. What just happened?”
“I told you I’d fix everything with magic. It makes no difference if you think you’re dreaming or not. Your answer will be the same. While they took me to this hospital all tied up in chains, all I wanted was for you to be near. The thought of going home now, without you or my child, would break my heart.”
The unfamiliar tight expression on Dane’s face dissolved and the softness Ciera had grown accustomed to returned. “I understand that feeling. Your daughter is family.”
“And you and Rosaleen need a fresh start. There’s this land called Erde where we can start over…together.” Ciera moved the baby to one arm, tucking the wand in her waistband and clutching Dane’s hand again.
A sly smile turned one corner of Dane’s mouth up into a grin. “Are you proposing to me?”
“Proposing? I don’t understand.”
“Marriage.” Dane laughed, then turned Ciera slightly to examine the wings on her back. “You really aren’t from around here, are you?”
Ciera sighed. “I told you that already. And I’ve never been good at keeping tradition. Men always raise their babies, but with her…” She readjusted her grip on Kamda. “That’s not an option. I can’t let her—” Her eyes met Dane’s. “—or you go.”
Dane shook his head. “A fresh start in a place called Erde?” Dane bit his lip and rubbed his free hand through his hair. “Ciera, there’s something I need to tell you first. You may not want me along. I found John at the hospital. He was going in for surgery.”
“You found John? Why would this change my mind?” Kamda let out a small gurgling sound and Ciera held her tighter. “Oh.” Her wings lost all their energy and felt like dead weight on her back. The thought of giving up her child now tore at the pit of her stomach.
“You can try to be a family. He seemed like an okay guy.”
“But I don’t know him. I know you and want to be with you.”
He dropped her hand. “I’m just a thief with a complicated past. You’re this amazingly strange, but wonderful person. I don’t want to hurt you or her.”
“But—”
“John says he met you in a dream.” Dane touched the green vines that climbed up the wooden arch they stood beneath. “I knew this wouldn’t end well. I kept telling myself you were crazy, but part of me believed you from the start, even though it made no sense. I had spent so much time protecting Rosa’s heart and mine that putting my faith into something I didn’t understand was not possible then.”
“Yet you showed up to rescue me.”
“How could I not? You’re all I think about, Ciera. Maybe I’m dreaming now, but even if its make-believe, I’m happy to be here with you for however long I can be.”
“So, you’ll come with me?”
Dane rubbed a hand through his hair, and his shoulders sagged. “I know my answer without hesitation, but I need to consider Rosa—”
Ciera put an index finger to Dane’s lips. “Shhh. Not now. Think about it, okay? Talk to her. I want to treasure this moment, and I have a lot to think about as well.”
Ciera pulled Dane close and kissed his cheek, then smiled as she found his lips. She loved this human tradition of kissing. Hopefully, she got to do more of this in the future—with Dane. “I’ll be back soon.” She grabbed her wand, then pulled the magic from deep inside and said those magic words, “Dibbity, dobbity, doo!” With a wink, she sent Dane home to his daughter.
She sat on a cement bench under the vines and softly rubbed her child’s cheek. Humans may not be allowed in the fairy realm, but there were no rules against them in Erde. The solution seemed simple, but she needed to see John. She needed to set things right with the father of her child.
~ ~ ~
Two days had passed before Ciera had the nerve to see John. She had spent the time hiding with Kamda along the Erdian Sea. With a wave of her wand and the magic words, she found herself standing outside a hospital room in the human realm.
She brushed the purple fuzz on top of Kamda’s head and cradled her close. “We’re here. This is your father. I may have to leave you here.” Ciera blinked away her tears as she knocked on the door. How could you love someone so much after only knowing them fo
r a few days?
“Come in,” came a voice she recognized from nearly ten months ago. It was kind, yet much weaker than she remembered.
The large wooden door creaked open and on the hospital bed lay a man she barely recognized. The same silvery hair and kind, brown eyes, but he was only a skeleton compared to what he had been. Dark shadows rode high on his too prominent cheek bones. The man tried to sit up, but shook with weakness as he pulled on the bed rail with this only arm. The silver one was gone, leaving nothing in its place.
“Do I know you?” He squinted at Ciera.
“Yes. We met nearly ten months ago. Actually, we met in a dream.”
He laughed and laid his head back into the pillow. “Purple hair and eyes are pretty hard to forget. I’m getting worse every day. Dreams seem real now. I met a guy in an elevator who knew you a few days ago. The nurses say it wasn’t a dream and the love and determination I saw on his face seemed real as well.”
Ciera took a step back and shook her head. “Love?” Dane loves me? “But it’s impossible for someone to love me. Dane and I just met.” Kamda squiggled in her arms. Impossible to love someone so quickly. Not true. Tears tickled her cheek. For her whole life, she thought nobody, besides her father, would love her. Now, she had love surrounding her.
John coughed, then wiped his mouth with a rag.
“Are you okay?” Ciera asked, bouncing her daughter in her arms.
His voice was weaker than before. “Yeah. Fine. As good as it gets for a dying man.”
“Dying man?”
“Bone cancer. It metastasized. First, they took my arm. Now my leg.” He patted the blanket over his body, showing his missing appendage. “I’m coughing up blood. I don’t have long to live. But it’s okay. I’m sixty-four, and it was a good life.”
“Would you want to live longer?”
“I wish I could.”
Ciera felt her magic pulse. A wish.
Hidden: A Pregnant Fairy Godmother's Journey... Page 9