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

a truth as deep as my soul, deep as my love for Sinclair. But I think as well of the world he’ll grow up in if I do nothing. A world torn apart by war, in

my job to

as my determination shining on my face. “All right, I’ll do it.

enough that I’m the only one to hear it. “Do not doubt that I am there, guiding

the Goddess. And then, all at once, the light is blinding, forcing all of us to close our eyes against the glare.

Cora cries, jumping to her feet and looking around. “But she

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. “We have far to

me out into the desert to meet whatever the

who prepare to set out into the sands. Roger puts up the biggest fuss at being left

at me, though his eyes are on Cora the whole time. “I promised Dominic that I’d keep

to us when she hears him putting up a fight. “This desert is sacred to the Goddess, it is

them?” Roger snaps, throwing an arm towards the priests who work the temple. “You’re going to tell me

turns her gaze back to Roger. “They are castrati,” she

to laugh like that in the

when I see that she’s

us, but walks quickly away to where preparations are