I adjust my seat with a wince at the tender muscles of my hips.
“Do you need some healing salve?” Stella asks.
I clear my throat. “I’m good. I have some. I just feel… off.”
I didn’t notice it as much before, but the jarring displacement of something different I’d felt this morning hasn’t faded.
Stella straightens. “What kind of off?”
“You think it’s a witch thing?”
Stella tries to look patient, but fails. “Have you been meditating?”
Being raised by humans left a lot of gaps in what I know about magic and myself. It’s not like there’s a crash course called So it Turns Out You’re a Witch. Stella has done her best to teach me as much as she can, but as the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know.
My cheeks burn. “I’ve been a little busy.”
Stella waves a hand. “Everything is a witch thing. You are not only your body, and you need to keep track of what your senses are telling you. So, what kind of off are you feeling?”
I crease my brow. “I’m not sure?”
She exhales, back to trying to be patient. “You won’t know until you go looking.”
I take a breath and try to tune into the sensations of everything to pinpoint this disconnect. The savory whiff of food from our finished plates. The warmth of my coffee cup. My sore body. The humming wards of my apartment.
I close my eyes on my next inhale, the air cooling my throat, expanding my lungs. Both Stella and I have magic, hers clusters tightly around her, while mine is a little spacey, searching. I place my hand on my heart, wondering if the dick of a dragon broke more than I let myself accept. There’s a tinge of campfire there, and I slide my hand to the bite he’d left at the crook of my neck, Kalos’s sneering face flashes in my mind and my hand wanders away, retreating. My lungs fill again, and I embrace the sensation of my chest moving before moving on, lower.
The sensation sparks, and I try to focus.
Something is there. Something new.
I open my eyes, and Stella is staring in shock at where my hand is resting on my lower stomach.
“Oh. My. Gods,” she says.
5
KATARINA
“THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE,” I breathe. I can’t be—I can’t even think the word right now.
Stella makes a high-pitched mouth sound. “Not impossible, just highly improbable.”
“But I have an amulet!”
Now Stella frowns. “What amulet?”
My face burns. “The one that magically stops STIs and… pregnancy.”
Stella’s face pales. “I’ve never sensed that kind of amulet on you. Show me.”
I undo the thin chain with shaky hands and hold it out to her. It’s a simple thing—silver with a tiny medallion the size of a bead. Stella holds the chain, and my stomach drops at the conflicted, angry look on her face.
“Did Nemo give you this?” she asks.
“Yeah, forever ago.” I’d barely turned eighteen when he’d caught me kissing a guy. The next day, he’d thrown the charm at me gruffly saying I needed to protect myself.
Stella’s lips thin, and she places the necklace on the table. “And he didn’t tell you you’d need to get it charged?”
“What?”
She sighs. “Most witches get a permanent one when they come of age. One that charges itself from the witches’ magic. It’s more expensive up front, but most would agree that it’s a better option than the ones that need to be charged yearly by the maker.”
There’s a numbness in my fingers and face. “That’s one that has to be charged yearly? This whole time I’ve been wearing a useless amulet?”
I’m reeling. The protection I thought I had is a joke. Thank fuck for condoms.
Stella’s face is pained. “I should have said something as a charm maker, but it honestly didn’t occur to me. You haven’t been seeing anyone, and some witches have weird side effects, so it wasn’t odd to me that you didn’t have one. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” The numbness starts to recede, and I shake my head. If I’m going to blame anyone, it would be Nemo, but even he didn’t do this on purpose. It would be just like him to be so thoughtless to not mention anything. Or so self-centered he didn’t even know.
Really, this is just another casualty of my ignorance.
And now I’m… pregnant. My lungs empty on that thought. Stella places a hand on my shoulder. The warmth of her presence is a comfort I’ve lived without most of my life.
“If this is unwanted, there are options. Safe options. If it’s from last night, it’d be a simple thing,” Stella tentatively says.
My hand goes to my stomach again, protectively. I clock the instinct and I shake my head, trying to dispel the reaction.
I can’t be getting attached. It might be the best option.
“It’s from last night. If I had any other wild nights, I’d have told you,” I say.
Stella snorts. “I figured… it’s just surprising.”
Surprising is one word for it.
What kind of mother would I be, really? What life could I provide?
A pretty good one actually.
I am more than a product of my upbringing, a statistic of unwed and pregnant too young. A lot of people get pregnant in their twenties on purpose.
I have my own business that is doing okay. I’m making my amends where I can, other than last night. I’m healthy and smart, if a little reckless at times. I have a best friend and resources.
I could have this. I could have a child, a family of my own. Tears come to my eyes.
I want this. Oh, fuck, I really want this.
“Dragons are really rare,” Stella says, oblivious to my internal thoughts.
“Stella,” I croak.
When she takes in my tears and the hand still on my stomach, she leaves her seat and wraps me in her arms.
“Oh, honey, everything is going to be okay, no matter what you choose.”
I sniff. “I’m scared to want this, but…”
“But you’re attached?” Stella pulls away with her arms still around me, her smile is understanding.
I nod. “I want to keep it.”
“Then let’s do this!” Stella does a little dance. “You’re going to be a great mom. This is so exciting!”
I hiccup a laugh that turns into a groan.
I’m pregnant with a dragon’s baby.
I bury my face into the silky fabric of her shirt. “I’m going to have to talk to him.”
Stella runs her fingers in my hair. The action relaxes my tight shoulders. Discomfort has my throat swelling.
“I know he was a dick, and he’s a scary dragon, but did he make you feel unsafe?” she asks.
I bite my lips. Despite everything that happened last night and how he’d threatened me in the beginning… my instincts say he won’t harm me. Maybe that makes me stupid, but my instincts have saved me more than once.
Little queen. I shake the memory of the words from my mind.
“No,” I say.
Stella nods. “Then yes, I imagine you’ll need to talk to him eventually. Our world is a small one, and someone is going to notice you giving birth to a dragon. But it doesn’t have to be right now, or even this month. You can take however long you want to take. It might be better when you can prove the pregnancy other than just knowing because you’re a witch.”