Stone Cold

Chapter 44

“I hear two heartbeats coming from you.”

“What?”

The soft hold she had on his cheeks immediately turned loose making her hands fall to her side. His gaze on the other hand was already fixated down, staring unblinkingly at the bright material of her dress pooled around their kneeling bodies. He had zoned out of the scenario, clearly trying hard to focus on something incomprehensible to her human senses. His pale hand, partially covered with traces of a crimson liquid, made contact with the velvet hugging her torso. His long thick lashes gradually lowered to caress the smooth skin resting above his cheeks before lifting up again. He kept repeating the gesture again and again, almost as if he were matching the movements of his eyelashes with a sound coming from inside her.

A heartbeat.

She watched stunned as his plump lips slowly curled into an ‘o’ shape, parting for a mere moment, followed closely by his upper teeth sinking into his bottom lip before his tongue clicked against the back of his incisors.

“You are with child.”

The sentence, mouthed to her without any sound, seemed to have brought back life to his glassy gaze. It was no longer lowered down impassively towards the ground. It was now directed towards her slightly bulging belly with an extremely soft expression.

“With-”

Before she could let the rest of the words out he hurriedly lifted his fingers to her mouth. He was shaking his head.

‘He doesn’t want me to speak in fear of Cyrus overhearing…’

Tears pricked the reddened rims of her eyes as her quivering hand lifted up to cover a large cold one already resting on top of her womb. Her lips slowly mouthing a single word to his intense stare,

“Baby…”

“Our baby.”

A lone tear slid out of the corner of her left eye, witnessing his gaze become even softer as he mouthed the word ‘our’ to her.

“Do not be afraid, love. I’m here, every step of the way.”

Not waiting for her to reply, he leaned in suddenly engulfing her in a bone crushing hug that filled her insides with great warmth. Keeping one hand glued to his, resting on the velvet hugging her trunk, she gingerly raised the other one. Just as she was about to clutch his shoulder with her shivering fingers, he leaned back to meet her watery eyes with a determined gaze. The blood lacing his lips had long dried.

“We shan’t stay here in the open. The coachman must be going around telling people.”

His sickly pale complexion didn’t seem to have improved yet the newfound discovery of the truth wasn’t allowing his deteriorating health to show.

“What about Cyrus?”

She had completely forgotten about the man standing behind them in the shadows watching their heartfelt exchange silently. Gabriel.

“I cannot sense him near.”

“This could be one of his tricks.”

Gabriel’s frown seemed to have deepened.

“What else are we supposed to do? I cannot allow any harm to come to my… people.”

‘Child.’

She could tell how desperately he wanted to say that word out loud. His gaze was speaking volumes yet the fear of losing the gift granted upon him just a mere moment ago had become too big. It was driving him out of his wits.