Accidental Surrogate

Ella

“I’m ready,” I reply, straightening my shoulders and sitting up, away from my mother, who is also the Goddess. “What do I need to do?”

“You must go,” she urges, her eyes clear and untroubled despite the turmoil in mine. “Into the desert beyond this temple. There, I can communicate more clearly, more fully. I will make your path clear to you.”

“Seriously?” I cry, wrinkling my nose in distaste and looking over my shoulder to where the desert surely waits. “Out into the desert? It’s not something that we can do here, in the comfort of this really nice temple?” My wolf inside me howls at the idea – she wants trees and shade and cool damp places, not the hot desert sun.

The Goddess smiles at me and shakes her head lightly, her glowing blonde hair shaking over her shoulders. “No, my child,” she intones. “You must learn the lessons that this earth has to teach you, and it’s not something you can glean from a structure built by man.” Her eyes drift, then, to my stomach, where my child is growing. “It will be dangerous for you,” she whispers. “You are weaker than you think, girl.”

My stomach sinks at her words and my hands fly to my stomach, instantly wanting to protect my little boy. “Will it…will it hurt him? To learn what I need to know?”

She looks at me evenly, not giving a hint of affirmation or denial. “The future is not written, my child,” she whispers, her voice soft. “Your body is weak, but your child is strong. Your time in the desert will be a trial, your deliverance of my gift to your people will be worse. It is your choice, whether to take these risks upon your body. And in the end, there is no guarantee that it will work. You are…late. The war is well progressed. Those against whom you fight are strong.”

I look around the room at everyone, all of their eyes and their hopes trained upon me in this instant. My hands move over my stomach as I look each of them in the face, but my heart is with my little boy – our little boy, mine and Sinclair’s. This miracle we made together.

as

he’ll grow up in if I do nothing. A world torn apart by war, in which he will always be hunted, always be a target. And one day he’ll grow big and strong, like his father – big enough to take it all on. But until then, when

it’s my job to fight for

my fear as well as my determination shining

leans forward, taking my face in her glowing hands. “I will be with you every step,” she murmurs, her voice soft enough that I’m the only one to hear

away, she turns to Cora and gives her a bright smile. Cora blinks her surprise, shocked to be singled out by the Goddess. And then, all at once, the light is blinding, forcing all of us to close our eyes against the glare. When we open them again, the Goddess

feet and looking around. “But she didn’t give us any instructions – what are we

it, she gave me her love, but also all of the instructions I need to carry us forward. “Come,” I order, getting to my feet definitively.

me out into

Instead, it is only Cora, Regina, and I who prepare to set out into the sands. Roger puts up the biggest fuss at

let you go out there alone,” he growls at me, though his eyes are on Cora the whole time. “I

doesn’t matter what you promised,” Regina intones evenly, coming over to us when she hears him putting up a fight. “This desert is sacred to the Goddess, it is no

an arm towards the priests who work the

gaze back to Roger. “They are castrati,” she says, raising her eyebrows. “Unless

this and slap a hand over my mouth to muffle the sound. It feels wrong, somehow, to laugh like that in the goddess‘ temple – but the look on Roger’s face

when I

at us, but walks quickly away to where