Velaris's Heir

Part 5

I stared at her blankly. Pregnant. But... that wasn't possible. I was taking a tonic. You couldn't get pregnant if you took a tonic. It just wasn't possible. There had to be a mistake. I opened my mouth to say as much, but she held up a hand to stop me.

"I can see that you think I'm mistaken," she said patiently with a kind smile, "but as you surely know I don't make mistakes when it comes to this. This was the magic I was born with. I can sense if somebody is pregnant, how far along they are, when the baby should be expected, and the gender when it has been about nineteen weeks or so. It is no mistake. Hop up on here," she patted the bed and I did as I was told and sat on the side. "Please lift your tunic up to about here." She gestured on her body and I did as bid and watched her.

She pressed her hands to my lower belly and I could feel her magic venturing out inside me. It felt so strange and foreign that I gasped and jerked away.

She smiled again and pulled her hands back slightly. "It's alright. I just have to feel for the baby so I know how far along you are, how old the baby is. I won't hurt either of you."

She brought her hands closer again, but didn't touch me. She raised her brows in question. I nodded and relaxed. She placed her hands on me once more and I felt her probing for—for the baby. I looked at her face to see her eyes were unfocused. I wondered if she was actually seeing my baby.

It only took a few moments, but when she found him, she said with her ever present kind smile, "There you are," she said. "Would you like to see?"

Speechless, I nodded.

"Go ahead," she encouraged. Did she mean...? It was the only thing she could mean. I entered her mind, noting that she left it open for me to do so.

I could see what she was seeing inside me. Everything was a reddish orange color. I could see a small circular shape in the center. Small, infinitesimal, but most certainly there. A small sphere of life. A baby. I saved the image in my mind. I would show it to Rhys—maybe paint it so I always remembered.

A baby. A baby in my belly.

I pulled out of her mind and looked down at myself. I didn't have a bump—but I suppose I wouldn't have that for a while yet. I almost laughed at myself.

Rosieda pulled her hands away from my torso and blinked a couple times.

"There. See? A little baby." She smiled warmly at me before turning to her shelves of glass bottles. She muttered to herself as she shifted through them. She grabbed three and walked back to me. "Have you experienced morning sickness yet?"

"Um, well, I was throwing up this morning," I replied.

"Okay so this—" she held up a dark brownish bottle— "will help with morning sickness. Take some before you go to sleep every night for about nine to ten weeks. These—" she held up the hand that had the other two bottles in it— "are vitamins you'll be needing. Take them daily, too. I'll write out instructions for all of them so you remember which is which and how much to take. Okay?"

I nodded, but I was hardly listening; I was still trying to process it. I was pregnant.

"It's a lot to think about, isn't it?"

"How'd you guess?" I tried for sarcasm, but you could hardly hear it in my voice.

She chuckled. "I've seen this sort of reaction before. Many, many times."

But I was still confused. I had been taking a tonic. A tonic that prevented pregnancy. I still was taking it. "The tonic. I've been taking a tonic. How—? You can't— I thought you couldn't—"

She looked surprised. "Oh." Her brow furrowed before she asked, "Did you stop taking it at anytime? Anytime at all?"

"No, I—" I stopped myself and thought about it for a minute. "When Rhysand, Azriel, and Cassian went up to the House of Mist a few weeks ago. But I didn't have sex during the week so I didn't bother taking the tonic." He had come back grinning like an idiot and drunk off his ass. He walked inside and no sooner had he seen me than he had picked me up and kissed me deeply. We had then spent an entire day and a half tangled up together in our room—and a little downstairs—while our Inner Circle found somewhere else to be.

Rosieda shook her head. "You must have gotten pregnant during that week." At my baffled look she explained, "Sperm can survive up to about five days, so if you had sex before he left and then stopped taking the tonic after he left, the sperm would have been able to fertilize an egg."

"Oh. Well, I wish I had known that. But I've been taking a tonic since then..." I placed my hand protectively over my lower belly as horror washed through me. "Oh gods. Is he alright? Has that affected him? Will it affect him?" My breathing increased with my fear.

"Woah woah woah. It's okay. Calm down," she said soothingly. "The tonic doesn't hurt babies in the least. It prevents pregnancy, but does not—I repeat does not—harm, damage, or otherwise affect the baby itself."

I felt weak with relief. I sighed and flopped backwards onto the table-bed, my head hanging over the other side. "Thank the Mother," I whispered.

She chuckled and laid across the table beside me, supporting her weight on her elbows as she looked down at me. "Your baby is perfectly healthy. He or she is about five weeks and two days old." She looked up at the back wall as she rambled on. "The morning sickness should end between week thirteen and week sixteen. It's different for everybody. Some have morning sickness throughout the entire pregnancy. Which sounds so miserable, you know? To feel nauseous that often. Some have morning sickness all day and night. Some only have it for a few weeks. But the average is between thirteen and sixteen weeks." She cocked her head to the side and looked at me with a smile. "I'm boring you, aren't I? Come on. Up up."

She offered me her hand after she stood on her own two feet and pulled me into a sitting position and then off of the table.

"Okay, take these." She handed me the bottles.

We headed back into the store and I made my purchase and Rosieda wrote down the instructions that went with each medicine. I thanked her and started back to the streets. I was almost out of the store when I heard Rosieda call my name. I turned and found her walking to me.

Stopping in front of me she asked, "When are you going to tell Rhysand?"

Shit! I hadn't even thought of telling him. I shielded all thoughts of pregnancy immediately so he wouldn't accidentally see. "Ummm... I don't know. When would you suggest?"

"Wait no more than a few days. You probably shouldn't keep it to yourself for too long."

"Okay and how do I tell him?"

She told me a few things people had done in the past and which ones she thought were the cutest. "You could always get another opinion. Like asking one of your sisters or Mor. I don't know if Amren is into that kind of thing, but you could ask her. Or—no, she not back yet is she? So, your sisters or Mor."

I thought about it. "Alright, I'll be back in a couple days with another opinion or two and I may do a little more shopping. For now, thank you and good night."

"Okay, now go home and get some sleep, you look tired."