by Karen Kincy
“I’m still hungry,” she said.
His eyebrows shot skyward. “Now?”
“We never had dinner.” Her laugh became a moan. “Green beans, remember?”
“You mean haricots verts en conserve.”
“Fancy.”
A little smile touched his lips. “Alas, dinner is cold.”
She tried to think of a clever reply, but the wave of pain drove the wittiness from her mind. Hunching in the bed, she grabbed fistfuls of sheets. She focused outside the window. Sunset colored the mountains pink.
It might have been an eternity or a moment later when the midwife checked Ardis.
“Nearly there,” said the midwife.
Ardis shook her head. The urge gripped her body, an overriding desire, and she gritted her teeth. “I need to push. Now.”
The midwife glanced into her eyes. “Breathe.”
Focusing on riding out the pain didn’t leave Ardis room to reply. She exhaled through her nose as she surrendered to the urge to push.
Wendel paced at the foot of the bed, his face pale, and kept glancing at her face.
“Push,” the midwife said. “Even harder.”
This time, her baby was born. A little girl, tiny and wrinkled, let out an indignant wail. She scrunched up her face and punched the air.
Ardis laughed, her eyes brimming with tears. “Look at her.”
“A girl,” Wendel said.
“She didn’t want to come out.”
The midwife let Ardis hold the baby against her breast, though only for a moment. “The second baby will be here any minute.”
Wendel took the baby girl, smiling at her red little face, and just in time.
Another contraction, hard and fierce, hit Ardis. The urge to push overwhelmed her mind. She bore down with every muscle in her body.
Her second baby was born–a boy, crying a little quieter than his sister.
“Twins,” Wendel said, as if he hadn’t quite believed it.
The midwife handed him a pair of scissors, which he used to cut the umbilical cords, before helping with the afterbirth.
Finally, Ardis had time to rest. She lay back against the pillow, her hair damp with sweat. A baby suckled industriously at each breast. She gazed down at their tiny little heads. Both of the twins had Wendel’s black hair.
“What color are their eyes?” she said.
“His are darker,” Wendel said. “Like yours. Hers are grayish.”
She glanced into his eyes. “Like yours?”
“Perhaps.” He knelt by the bed and stroked his daughter’s hair under his knuckle. “What will we name them?”
“I’ve always loved the name Viola.”
“Viola.” He touched his son’s minuscule toes. “And Wolfgang?”
Ardis smiled. “We can call him Wolfie.”
“Wolfgang and Viola.” It sounded right.
Bliss settled in her bones. She wiped the tears from her cheeks with her wrist.
“Ardis,” Wendel murmured. “The twins…”
She met his gaze. “Yes?”
“One of them has necromancy.”
Her heart skipped a beat. She looked into his eyes, surprise fighting fear, and she knew he worried for the baby. He remembered his rejection from his family. His life as an outsider. Necromancers were abominations.
She bent down to kiss Wolfgang’s head, followed by Viola’s.
“Well,” she said, “you have your work cut out for you.”
He laughed. “Evidently, I do.”
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Author Bio
Karen Kincy (Sunnyvale, California) can be found lurking in her writing cave, though sunshine will lure her outside. When not writing, she stays busy gardening, tinkering with aquariums, or running just one more mile. Karen has a BA in Linguistics and Literature from The Evergreen State College and an MS in Computational Linguistics from the University of Washington.
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MORE BY KAREN KINCY
DIESELPUNK ROMANCE
Shadows of Asphodel
Storms of Lazarus
Specters of Nemesis
Clockwork Menagerie
YOUNG ADULT PARANORMAL
Other
Bloodborn
Foxfire
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Crave the Rose
Table of Contents
Shadows of Asphodel
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Acknowledgements
Storms of Lazarus
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Acknowledgements
Specters of Nemesis
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Newsletter
Author Bio
More by Karen Kincy