Page 39 of A Fate of Blood and Magic
“You’re a . . .” I smacked his shoulder, ready to adopt Brenton’s favorite insult. “Arrogant ass.”
I glared at Elias when Leah curtsied.
“It would be my pleasure, Your Majesty,” she said.
“Elias,” I grumbled.
“Okay, okay.” He held his hands up in defeat. “I promise we’ll make appointments from now on, but I’m overly excited and would love to hear the heartbeats today.”
I angled my body to the side and kicked his thigh.
He flashed me his dimples as he rubbed his thigh. “That is, if you have time,” he added.
She looked around the empty room. “I have time.”
“See?” The idiot I loved widened his eyes at me.
“Appointments from now on,” I pressed.
Leah rolled a machine that looked like our ultrasound machines. After touching several buttons, a screen turned on.
“Before you leave, we’ll schedule your two-week follow-up,” she said.
“Could we schedule the next three or four appointments today?” Elias asked. “I want to make sure I don’t miss any of them.”
My heart squeezed at the tender look in his eyes.
Leah held up a wand that again looked like the ones we used in the human realm.
“Are you ready?” she asked, holding the wand.
“Can we record it?” I pulled my phone from my back pocket. “Your mom might like to hear it,” I told Elias.
And I knew our friends would. Ryenne especially. Hell, I wouldn’t put it past her to walk into Leah’s office and demand to hear it in person. I could picture her saying something about being friends with the prince.
When Leah nodded, Elias helped me lie back, giving me a glimpse of how he’d treat me when my stomach was bigger and heavier. I handed him my phone to record.
Leah squirted warm jelly onto my stomach. When she pressed the wand against my stomach, the galloping sound of our boys’ hearts beating echoed inside me. An impossibly fastbeat that was both a delight and a relief. It was a beautiful sound that I already knew I’d listen to over and over from the recording on my phone.
I grinned up at Elias, taken aback by the tears that shimmered behind his eyes. Yet his smile lit up his entire face.
“We’re pregnant.” He said it reverently.
“It’s hard to make out the two different heartbeats,” Leah said, moving the wand over my stomach. “They’re almost perfectly in sync with each other.”
“But there are two of them?” Elias asked.
“Yes, hold on.” She pressed her cold hand against my stomach, and I felt the warm tendrils of her magic swim inside my stomach. One of the heartbeats grew clearer without the distracting whooshing sound. “This is babe number one,” she said, holding the wand still. More of her magic danced through me as she moved the wand again. “And babe number two.”
“No number three, right?” I asked, only half joking.
Although Elias chuckled, his eyes widened in shock.
“Just two,” Leah said.
I missed the babies’ heartbeats the moment she withdrew the wand. After putting it atop the machine, she handed me a warm towel. Elias gave me my phone back and wiped the jelly from my stomach while I played the recording he’d taken of the heartbeats.
“I can’t believe we’re having twins,” I said in wonder.
