Page 28 of Cathmoir's Sons

“I’d have stayed up with you if I’d known.”

She gives me a weary smile. “I know, my love. You need rest. You all do. You and Rhodrhi are still recovering. Luca’s lost sleep worrying. Besides, I wanted to savor these moments with the three of you. I don’t know how long it will be before I can be with you like this again.”

I catch her free hand, fold it in mine, and kiss her knuckles. “I’ll find a way to make it sooner than later.”

She draws our joined hands down to her soft belly. “You most of all must be both patient and persistent, my love. Your seed has taken root here. My unawakened self doesn’t know yet but will realize when my menses don’t come. Rage and hormones are a poisonous brew. Never, ever forget that no matter how angry or hurt I am, that I love you with everything that’s in me.”

My mind stutters when she says my seed’s taken root. I hear nothing beyond that.

“You’re kittering?” I whisper in wonder.

“I am. A harvest baby.”

She blurs in my sight; I blink rapidly to focus on her.

“A harvest baby,” I repeat, my mind doing wild loops. I didn’t think I could be happier than I was when I fell asleep. But now my chest is exploding with a wild emotion I have no name for.

“When Rhodes wakes, you can ask him whether it’s a boy or a girl.”

I shake my head. “I don’t care. Caileán, a kit! A kit already.”

She laughs softly, untangling our hands and pressing her fingertips to my mouth. It’s too late for that. My shout’s woken my twin and the human. They grumble sleepily.

“Who’s dying now?” Luca grumbles.

“No one’s dying. We’re living. All five of us,” I whoop.

“Five?” Rhodes murmurs sleepily. His hand slides over Luca, finds Caileán’s skin, and spreads across her belly. “Oh! Five.”

“Boy or girl?” Caileán asks.

“No,” I say quickly. “I want to be surprised. You can find out when I’m not around.”

“I’ll wait.” Caileán smiles slyly. “Or maybe I won’t, and I just won’t tell you.”

“Minx.”

“Cait,” she replies.

“Are we really having a baby?” I ask, still not quite able to believe it.

“We are.”

Despite how tired she is, Caileán beams at me.

Chapter 9

Black Reprimand

KELLAN

Aday after I wake up at Jane’s with jumbled memories of slow-dancing with Luca and strolling through a wintry garden with the Holly King—my mind’s definitely been rolled by a Crow Queen again—I return to Bevington to prepare for Winter Study. Only to find my crystal knife bouncing in the Air above a pile of mail.

The first envelope I open is a summons from the Academic Standards committee.

As a junior professor, or even an assistant curator, summons from the Academic Standards committee are never what you want to receive. But since my last act before the Yule break was to report that I took students into a dangerous situation in which they were injured and might not be back in time for Winter Study, the summons isn’t unexpected.

That the interview is set for that afternoon, and that Dean Quinn and Charon Carver, The Mr. Black, will be attending, is not expected.

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