Beastly - The Dark Heart by Lara A. Steel

Author:Lara A. Steel [Steel, Lara A. & Steel, Lara A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

I was momentarily paralyzed with shock. Jack, Trick, and the children were still sitting around the table, clearly oblivious to what had just happened. So I pushed back my tiny chair and followed Isobel into the kitchen.

She lowered the plates into foaming dishwater.

“Red socks?” I asked.

She glanced over her shoulder at me and nodded.

I went to join her. “What do you mean exactly?”

“The prophecy has already been fulfilled.”

I shook my head desperately. “The prophecy says that I have to carry Jack’s child.”

Isobel smiled. “Exactly.”

“But we...” I took a deep breath, feeling suddenly light-headed. “We’ve never... We definitely haven’t...”

She turned around, grasped both of my hands, and interrupted my stammering. “Heather, this is not an ordinary child conceived in the ordinary way.”

I stared at her, utterly dumbstruck. “I didn’t know there was... any other way.”

“You have the artifact in you. It...” She shook her head and looked me in the eye. “Did Ra’an say something like...”

“Like what?”

“That he feels connected to you?”

My pulse shot through the roof. I nodded.

“As if there was a part of him...”

“...in me,” I breathed.

Isobel beamed. “The artifact works miracles, Heather. It chose you. It chose all three of you.”

“Are you saying I’m pregnant?” I meant to shout it, but my voice was no more than a whisper.

In keeping with the preposterous situation, Isobel nodded enthusiastically. “Congratulations, Heather. Doesn’t Jack know?”

“No,” I whispered.

She turned to go back to the table. “Then tell him. He’ll be beside himself with...”

I grabbed her wrists so roughly that she winced in pain.

“He can’t know,” I said quietly, pulling her to the other side of the room.

“What? Why?”

“He’ll take her away from me. He’ll... take her from me.”

Isobel stared at me. “No, he...”

“It’s part of the prophecy, he said!”

“But...”

“Isobel!” I looked her in the eye with all the urgency I could muster. I had to act fast. Very fast! “I need to get away from here!”

“What?”

“I need to leave! Quickly!”

“He’ll find you. And if he doesn’t find you, that horrible human will.”

“I have to take that chance, I...” It was impossible, but I could feel the child. Right at that moment, I felt it. “If you don’t help me, I’ll do it alone.”

Isobel’s cheerful levity vanished. “You could die.”

“I’d rather be dead than a mother who can never see her child.”

Just at that moment, Isobel’s youngest daughter tottered into the kitchen. She was barely a year old. When she clutched at Isobel’s skirts with her greasy little fingers, her mother closed her eyes.

“I’ll give you some food. And warm blankets.”

I let go of her wrists and stole one last glance at Jack before saying, “Thank you.”

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