Accidental Surrogate

Ella

A few hours later our entire party is gathered in the forest close to midnight, sipping champagne and mingling quietly as we wait for the hour to be right for Jesse’s baptism. We have a priestess here as well, of course, though this one is much more thoroughly vetted than the last.

I’m in incredibly good spirits as I look around at our party of loved-ones, truly enjoying my night, but when my eyes fall on Cora I see that she’s gnawing her lip a bit with anxiety.

“Oh, Cors,” I sigh, reaching out and putting a hand on her shoulder. I glance over at where Roger is standing a few feet away next to Henry with the baby in his arms, both of them talking with Sinclair, who has a sleeping Rafe held tight against his shoulder. “It will be all right!”

“I know it will,” she sighs, twisting her hands together and speaking softly to me. “And that even if it’s not, it’s not like I can change anything, you know?”

“I know,” I say, remembering how anxious I was at Rafe’s baptism. “But mom she can’t have anything really bad in store for him. It’s going to be all good things!”

“Oh, come on, Ella,” Cora says, shooting me a little glare. “It’s not like mom gave us the easy road just because we’re her daughters. We grew up in an orphanage. We had dark priests stalking us our whole lives.”

“But we had each other!”

“I just want my baby to have a good life,” she sighs, looking anxiously up at the sky, almost as if she can bully our mom into giving her baby a blessing if she glares at the moon enough. “It tortures me to think that he’s going to have to go through…half of what we did.”

“He’s going to have ups and downs, like the rest of us,” I say, wrapping my arms around my sister. “You can’t spare him from that.”

“Yes, I can,” she growls. “I’ll just… lock him in a very comfortable little basement. Very safe, very cozy.”

I laugh and shake my head at her. ” Your baby is going to have a big life, Cora,” I say, giving her a squeeze.

cheerful you are six months from now,” she says, reaching out to trail a little finger down my baby bump. I grin as I look down at it, tapping on my little bond with babygirl to say

Cora’s right. “I’ll be a mess

while I treasured every single moment I was pregnant with

grateful to have gotten

Jesse – and as much as I could gush about my pregnancy for days,

an old woman this time, dressed in the silvery-white robes of the goddess. She gives us a warm, motherly

there in front of the goddess, and Henry draws

over readily. I dip my head and give Rafe a little kiss on his sleeping

Henry says, giving us a wink. “Enjoy

will,” Sinclair assures him, running a hand over Rafe’s

forest without me,” Cora whispers, her voice

I feel emotion stirring in me as well, the product of

take a deep breath and sniff,

can’t start crying already,” Sinclair murmurs, his hand warm

I mumble back, laughing a

her arms for Jesse. Cora gives a half -hearted little sigh, but

Jesse, who looks like he peers back at her

this child for dedication?” the priestess says,

his voice steady and more serious than it usually is. “His mother

process from Rafe’s ceremony. “And who will carry him to meet the Goddess?”Books Chapters Are Daily Updated Join &