Page 129 of Stars in Umbra
Rina woke with a slow, rising discomfort deep in her belly.
A cloying nausea began to twist in her stomach before her eyes had even opened.
She lay still for a moment, blinking up at the ceiling, acutely aware of the steady, warm weight of Mo’s arm draped over her waist.
With care, she eased herself from his embrace, inching backward, attempting not to disturb his rest.
He murmured an incoherent phrase in his sleep but didn’t stir.
His brow was smooth for once, his mouth slack, his lashes brushing the bruised curve of his cheekbone.
He looked so impossibly peaceful that it made her chest ache.
She slipped from the bed and padded barefoot to her room, pressing the door shut behind her before racing into her bathroom.
The retching came fast and dry, violent and unforgiving.
Her knees hit the tile, and her hands gripped the cold porcelain edge of the sink as her body betrayed her.
But it wasn’t the nausea alone that alarmed her.
It was the unmistakable hum beneath her skin, her finely tuned alert system, developed after years of military service and battlefield instinct.
It told her when danger was near or when something was irrevocably off.
She washed her face, trembling, and opened the cabinet above the basin. Behind a box of old dressings and a faded bottle of disinfectant was a pregnancy test.
A dusty, forgotten specimen from another life.
Her fingers hesitated only for a second.
She checked the expiration date and exhaled in relief.
It was still viable.
With a sigh, she tore the seal and perched on the toilet seat.
She did what needed to be done, her arms braced over her thighs, her breath short and rapid as minutes crawled by.
Then the test kit pinged, and she picked it up with trembling hands.
The double pink line was strong and unmistakably positive.
She stared at it, her inhale catching, panic rising like floodwater.
Fokkinhellshit.
How had she gotten pregnant?
She’d had protection,she thought in a wild tear, rubbing the device lodged under the skin of her arm.
Also, she hadn’t slept with anyone other than Mo, and her implant meant she’d been confident she had nothing to worry about.
With a jolt, Rina remembered his voice in the darkness, timbred and solemn, chanting those spine-chilling words.
Za ki zama tawa kuma uwar ‘ya’yana.
You are mine, and you will be the mother of our children.
