“No, I’m too fat!” I growled.
“You are pregnant, but don’t worry, I planned for it,” she said, handing me a pair of black yoga pants that had Booty written across the butt, in pink.
“Wow,” I replied.
“I’d have gotten something better, but this trip wasn’t really planned in advance. I noticed the small bump the last time we stopped to change, so I asked Matilda to borrow these for you.”
“They’re fine,” I said, shoving one leg and then the other into the pants and pulling them up.
“Wow,” Ristan said as he came in, barely containing his laughter.
“If you laugh at me, I swear I will gut you, Demon,” I growled, turning to look at him.
He smiled and handed me the coffee he had been bringing, and left as soon as he did. His lips continued to shake as his eyes kept watch of my reaction. I hated that my body was changing, and I couldn’t stop it from happening. “Give me the cloak, please.”
“Synthia, you’re pregnant, and it’s a good thing,” Darynda said, as Ryder walked in to hear the tail end of her words.
“What’s the matter?” he asked carefully.
“I’m fat,” I mumbled, shooting him a look of mixed feelings. Mostly fears. If I was fat, he was bound to set me aside in favor of someone with more to offer him. I’d watched Witches of the Guild being sequestered because of their misshapen bodies when they got too big.
“You’re not fat, Pet. You are carrying my twins.”
I was overreacting, and it sucked! I couldn’t make my brain stop thinking it. My eyes were leaking tears now. “I’m going to be huge,” I replied, flashing him angry eyes. “You just had to knock me up!”
He smiled, walked over to me, and wrapped me in his arms. “You’re the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, Synthia. Pregnancy will not change that. The fact that you are carrying my babes only makes it more so.”
“Whatever; let’s get this shit over with before I only fit in sheets,” I gritted out.
“I prefer you in nothing more than sheets,” he murmured huskily in my ear.
My cheeks heated with a blush as he kissed me.
“We need to move. Grab the cloak, and finish the coffee. Ristan assured me you would be more human with it in you. I prefer you Fae, personally.”
“Fairy!” I glared.
“I’m going. Drink the coffee, it will help. Be ready in ten minutes, though, the Mages are close.”
“Ryder, if they get too close—”
“If they get within a hundred feet of you, this ends. I will sift you home where I know you are safe, and then I will come back and finish them off.”
“Deal,” I said, not because I wanted to hide, but because I had more than just myself to think about now. I had to worry about protecting our babies from those insane assholes. I wouldn’t allow what had happened to Larissa, to happen to me.
I waited with Darynda and Ristan until the shrill whistle cut through the chilly morning air. Within five minutes, we were loaded up and heading through the mountain.
It took us three days of riding, and another day of coming through a mass of willow trees, before we reached the next camp. The men had to cut through the willow trees at the base, because they’d grown too thick to trek through.
The next place was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. The Darkness was what the Fae had called it in hushed whispers. The entire land looked desolate, and encased in a thin layer of ice. As if it had been frozen, and left that way. Tall thick trees towered sporadically in either side of the thin patch of walkway. Fortunately, we only spent two days freezing our butts off there and the moment we stepped over the thin veil, everything changed again.
The trees were lush and green. Vivid colors made an ocular feast for our eyes. An expanse of vivid blue skies above us, as sun shined across the valley. A waterfall gurgled in the distance, and what looked like a thin walkway was actually a brilliant bubbling spring that led deeper into another stretch of forest.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, watching as a small bird flew by us.
“It is, but it’s also what Kier described as the beginning of the labyrinth. We should reach it within the hour,” Ryder whispered against my ear.
“Great.” That was just what we needed. We’d been on this journey for just a little over two weeks, and we had yet to make it to the location we needed to be at.
“Zahruk, send the scouts out to set a perimeter,” Ryder ordered.
I watched from the safety of his arms as a circle closed around us, and those who Zahruk shouted at spread wide led by Lachlan. The Shifters were just catching up with the group, as they had been around us but not with the caravan of people.