Her rapidly advancing pregnancy was harder and harder to adjust to, and she was starting to worry about the health of the baby. It was difficult to imagine how this kind of insane growth could be good for her daughter, no matter what Gregori had said.
“You’re brooding,” Mick said, his breath stirring the small hairs on the back of her neck as they rode along a pale orange stream filled with speckled blue fish that swam backward instead of forward. Jenna could identify.
“I’m not brooding,” she said. “I’m just thinking.”
“Right, thinking dark, grim thoughts in a circular fashion for hours on end,” Mick said. “Where I come from, we call that brooding. And you’ve been doing it for days.”
Jenna sighed, sagging back against him for a minute to try and relieve her aching back. “I’m sorry. I’m just worrying. About the baby and, you know, everything else.”
“The baby is fine,” Mick said, taking one hand off the reins and putting it on her stomach. A tiny foot kicked as if in agreement.
“Nobody likes a wiseass,” Jenna told her stomach. “I wouldn’t start taking his side if I were you.”
Mick chuckled, patting the foot. Or hand, or whatever it was. “Look, I know this has to be scary, but there aren’t any signs that the rapid pregnancy is having any ill effects on either you or the baby. You should stop worrying and just enjoy the experience.” The foot kicked out again.
“Oh, shut up, Turnip,” Jenna said, but she rubbed the spot affectionately anyway. She couldn’t believe Mick had her calling her unborn child after a root vegetable. “Besides, that’s part of the problem.”
“Sorry? You lost me.”
“I’ve been wanting to be pregnant my entire life, even knowing it wasn’t possible. I used to spend hours imagining what it would be like: each little change, every step in my unborn child’s development. I didn’t know all the facts, of course, since I avoided learning any more than the minimum, but still, I would lie in bed at night and wonder about what it would be like to feel a baby growing inside me for nine months. And now it’s all rushing by at the speed of light.”
To her embarrassment, Jenna started crying. Not just subtle little tears that streaked delicately down her face one at a time, but great heaving sobs that shook her whole body and poured over her cheeks as though someone had unleashed Niagara Falls.
Mick let her cry for a few minutes, tightening his hold around her and handing a handkerchief over her shoulder. He didn’t try to tell her she was being silly, which she greatly appreciated. Just rubbed one hand up and down her arm and let her get it out.
Finally, she snuffled and blew her nose, tucking the now-sodden scrap of cloth into her pocket. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make a scene.”
He laughed softly, gesturing around the deserted countryside. “Hard to make a scene when no one is watching. Besides, you’re entitled. I hadn’t thought about that aspect of things. I guess I just figured that most women would be happy to have the entire experience over more quickly, since it looks so uncomfortable.”
Jenna wiped her eyes. Mick might be a kind of Paranormal superhero, but sometimes he was such a guy. “There are probably some women who feel would that way,” she said. “Sadly, I’m not one of them. Mostly, though, I can’t help worrying if spending most of her gestation time in the Otherworld is going to affect my little girl somehow. What if she keeps growing so rapidly once she’s out of my womb? Could that happen?”
“I don’t think so,” Mick said, but he didn’t sound sure. “If Gregori is right, then the baby is somehow manifesting the odd effects of time in the Otherworld in a more obvious way than would happen to someone who is already mature. Which would mean that once she is born, we will know that we’ve missed about six months on the other side. He seemed to believe the whole thing was actually likely to be a mechanism that is keeping her safe, rather than something that might hurt her. Whether she will continue to age faster after that, even Gregori didn’t venture to guess.”
“Oh,” Jenna said. “You know that just confused me more, right?”
“Don’t worry,” Mick said, patting her shoulder and then loosening his hold on her. “I don’t understand it either. Most Humans who come to the Otherworld seem to age more slowly, not more rapidly. But I know little Babs did the opposite. She was brought here when she was a baby, and when Liam and Barbara rescued her, she looked as though she was about five years old, even though only a year or so had passed since she’d been kidnapped. Like we said, time can be unpredictable in the Otherworld.”
“Maybe it affects children differently,” Jenna pondered. “This is just crazy. How can I not worry about this stuff?”
There was a marked silence from behind her.
“What?” she said. “What aren’t you saying?”
“I think we have bigger worries, that’s all.”
“Bigger worries than how fast my baby is going to age once she’s born? Seriously?” Jenna tried not to hyperventilate at the thought she might end up giving birth in the middle of a strange land with no doctors and no hospitals. “Oh Lord. You’re worrying about the actual labor, aren’t you?”
“Shit,” Mick said. She could feel the muscles in his thighs tense where they curved around hers. “I hadn’t even thought about that. I don’t know how to deliver a baby. Shit. Maybe Gregori will know someone. It’s not exactly a skill set that’s in high demand on this side of the doorway. Some Paranormal creatures still have babies on occasion. Like Brownies. Maybe we can find a sprite to help.”
Despite her concern, Jenna had to stop herself from laughing out loud. Now Mick sounded like he was going to start hyperventilating. Definitely a guy, even if he did occasionally turn into something large, furry, and light green.
“Hopefully, we’ll find the third Key and solve the riddle and get me home before the baby is born,” she said, trying to reassure them both. “Right?”
“Right,” he said. “Because otherwise we’re running out of time a lot faster than we thought we would. The Queen told Zilya she could claim the baby two weeks after it is born, if you haven’t solved the riddle by then. We thought that gave us six months, but at the rate you’re growing, we may only have a few days, and then the clock starts counting down. That’s what I’ve been worrying about.”
“Shit,” Jenna said, no longer feeling the slightest inclination to laugh. “Is that two weeks here or two weeks back in my world? And how will we know?”
“I have no idea,” Mick said. He gave the reins a little flick and Krasivaya picked up her pace. “Either way, we need to hurry. Hopefully, Gregori will meet us at the third Key as planned and have some kind of good news from the Queen. She could decide to penalize Zilya for skirting the rules, even if she didn’t technically break them. But we can’t count on that.”
Jenna put one hand protectively over her baby, knowing Mick wouldn’t let her fall. She knew they were running out of time, but no matter what happened, she wasn’t going to stand passively by and hand her child over to Zilya. Jenna was not going to be like her mother. She would fight the faery, fight the Queen, fight everyone in the Otherworld if she had to in order to keep her baby safe. They were going to take her child away from her over her dead body. Literally, if need be.
* * *
THEY rode through lands that transitioned from desert dunes to vivid green rain forest, and then turned into rolling hills that might have been somewhere in England if the grass hadn’t been purple and the cows—or whatever it was that grazed in the open fields—had fewer legs and smaller horns. Cottages the size of shoe boxes gave way to thatched huts that could have housed entire families of giants. And probably did. The odor of Otherworld manure made her wrinkle her nose; apparently, even here, nothing could make that particular smell less pungent.
Actual paths started to appear in the previously trackless meadowland; Day began to worry about being spotted as they gre
w closer to something that resembled populated areas. He unrolled the scroll and peered over Jenna’s shoulder at the map his brother had drawn in meticulous black lines.
“I think we’re getting close to the location of the third Key,” he said, trying to ignore the scent of her hair as it blew into his face. It was a kind of sweet torture sitting this close to her every day and then not being able to touch her at night, but he didn’t blame her for keeping her distance when she could.
He still had no idea how to control the beast he became when he felt she was threatened, and he couldn’t be completely sure the change wouldn’t happen under other circumstances. They both knew that their journey together was only temporary; she was probably smart not to let things get any more complicated than they already were.
“What’s that?” Jenna asked suddenly, pointing at what looked like the tip of a white tower poking out of a mass of smoky gray shrubbery. “Please tell me it isn’t another wall of thorns, I’m begging you.”
As they drew closer, Day got a sinking feeling he was about to get nostalgic for their previous challenges. “Worse,” he said. “I’m pretty sure it’s a maze. I’m guessing that the owner of the third Key takes its possession a lot more seriously than the troll and the dwarf did theirs.”
Jenna twisted around to look at him, her nose wrinkled. “What’s the big deal? There’s usually a trick to figuring out a maze, like taking every other left turn, or something. I’m sure we can figure it out.”
“This is the Otherworld, Jenna, not Hampton Court in London. There’s no friendly groundskeeper to come fetch you out if you get lost, and there are likely to be a lot of unpleasant surprises. Whoever owns that tower in the middle is sincere about discouraging unwanted visitors.”
“Oh.” She looked thoughtful, but not as discouraged as he would have liked. Day tried scowling at her, but she just shook her head.
“No,” she said, as they got closer to the entrance.
“No, what? I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“No, I won’t stay out here.” Her pale face set into a stubborn look he was beginning to become all too familiar with. “No, I will not wait with the horse while you wander around in a potentially dangerous maze trying to find the Key I need to solve my riddle. So, no.”
Day ground his teeth. “Do you hear yourself? ‘Potentially dangerous.’ You’re making my point for me. I will manage a lot better if I don’t have to worry about you.”
Jenna smiled up at him sweetly. “You mean the way you managed that rose barrier without my help?”
He was pretty sure he was going to break a molar. “Jenna—”
Her smile melted away. “And what if those biesy creatures catch up with us while you’re inside the maze and I’m out here?” She slid off the horse and stood on the ground, her arms crossed in front of her chest, blocking the narrow path into the maze. “You really think I’m safer on my own than I am with you? Or that you are more capable of solving this task by yourself than we are as a team? Michael Day, you have a serious problem. And we’re not going one step farther until you and I talk about it.”
Great gods on high. What was it about women that always made them want to talk about things? His brothers had never wanted to talk about things. Even the Baba Yagas weren’t prone to insist on picking everything apart, being much more likely to charge into action and blow things up. No wonder he’d always avoided spending more than a few days with the same woman. It always ended up with TALKING.
“Jenna, we’re in the middle of a quest,” he said in what he hoped was a patient voice. He dismounted, too, and Krasivaya swung her great equine head from one to the other, rolled her brown eyes, and started cropping at the grass near her metal-shod feet.
“Yes, we are,” Jenna said, chin raised. “My quest, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Of course it is your quest,” Day said. “But can’t this conversation wait until we’ve actually completed it? That might make a little more sense, don’t you think?”
The chin went up a little higher. “What I think, Mick, is that you are so afraid that someone else will get hurt on your watch that you aren’t going to allow anyone close to you to take a risk again. Or worse yet, that you won’t let anyone ever get close to you at all. Which is why every time we start getting intimate, you push me away.”
Day shook his head. “I’m not pushing you away, Jenna. You’re afraid of me—of this thing I’m becoming, and whether or not I can control it—and I can’t stand to see that fear in your eyes.”
She took a step closer, standing right next to him until she was so near he could feel the heat coming off of her body and smell the scent that was so distinctly Jenna. As always, his body responded with longing, despite the circumstances. Her icy blue eyes stared directly into his. “Do you see fear now, Mick? I don’t think so. I told you before, I stopped being afraid of you long ago. You’re the one who is afraid, not me.”
He fought not to look away, not to step back—hell, not to turn and run as far and as fast as he could from this woman, whose gaze held only affection, frustration, and defiance. She was right, of course, although he didn’t want to admit it. The great Mikhail Day, once hailed as one of the heroes of the Otherworld, was afraid.
Not of action or fighting. Not of getting hurt or even dying, although these days such a fate was much more likely than it used to be. He would face such things as gleefully as ever, running toward the danger and not away.
But to watch those he loved and valued put themselves in harm’s way, knowing that he might not be able to save them? Jenna was right; the terror that induced was almost enough to freeze him in his tracks and make him wish never to take another step again, lest it be the wrong one and invite disaster.
“You can’t live your life like this,” Jenna said more softly. “Being connected to others always carries the risk of grief and loss. Believe me, no one knows that more than I do. But what kind of existence will you have if you shut everyone else out?”
One without the kind of horror that comes from watching those you loved beyond measure being tortured beyond endurance—all because of you?
“I can’t live through that again,” Day said. “Not for you. Not for anyone.”
Jenna lifted one hand and touched his cheek gently. The gesture almost broke him on the spot.
“I doubt that anyone could,” she said. “What happened to you was terrible. But Brenna is gone. You and your brothers survived. Bella survived. You won. But if you allow what you experienced to deprive you of a full and rewarding life, then Brenna wins after all. That’s not what you want, is it?”
He shook his head, long blond hair falling into his eyes and mercifully blocking the compassion in Jenna’s gaze. “It’s not. Of course it’s not. But I don’t know what I do want. That’s part of the problem.”
“I don’t agree. I think you know exactly what you want, but you’re afraid to allow yourself to try for it.” The hand dropped and Jenna took one step backward, taking all her heat and warmth with her.
Day lifted his head, pushing his hair back out of the way. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you already found what you want,” Jenna said. Her expression was firm, but her voice trembled slightly, revealing how much this conversation was costing her. “And so have I. But while I’m no longer afraid of the beast, I’m not sure I can trust the man. What are you going to do when this is all over, Mick? When we’ve finished this quest and come through to the other side, whichever way it turns out. Are you going to run away again and hide in a cabin in the woods? Or are you going to stay?”
Stay? With Jenna? For a moment, he allowed himself a glimpse of the future she offered him: a greater gift than any he could ever have imagined. A life with a woman who was smart and funny and gentle and fierce. And perhaps a child to raise as they grew older together, laughing and crying and doing all those Hu
man things he’d never had a chance to experience. Building a true family, maybe even reaching out to his brothers and inviting them in.
For that one moment, he could see the vision as clearly as if a crystal ball hung in the air before him. Then reality hit with the power of a giant’s fist, rocking him back on his heels. What if they couldn’t break the curse and Jenna lost the baby after all? Would she still want him around then? Even if she did, how could he possibly ever face her again, knowing how he had let her down?
And what if they did succeed? What if they saved her baby and being with Jenna meant raising a child too? What did he know of being a father, when he’d barely had one himself? If he couldn’t keep his strong, capable brothers safe, how could he be trusted with a tiny baby?
Day clenched his hands. He couldn’t have this conversation now. Couldn’t deal with these thoughts crowding his brain, distracting him from the task ahead. It would have to wait until later, if there was a later. If after they reached the end of their travels, whatever and wherever that was, she still wanted him. Then he’d see if he had an answer for her question. Right now, all he had was the ability to keep moving forward, so that was what he was going to do.
“We have more important things to deal with right at the moment, don’t you think?” he said firmly. “You’re right though. It’s your quest and your choice, and probably too dangerous to leave you behind anyway. So if we’re going to find that third Key and solve your riddle, we’d best get on with it.” He picked her up as if she weighed less than a feather and moved her out of his way, clicking his fingers for Krasivaya to follow. “Come if you’re coming,” he said, and stalked off into the maze without a backward look.
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