Page 63 of Fire Dragon
“It’s just that you seemed so serious earlier.”
“It is important, but so is this meal.” When the meal was ready, she brought the laden plates over to the table. “Let’s eat.”
In case he felt inclined to bring the subject up again, she decided to introduce the other important, more critical issue. “Do you have any idea why they’ve created a weapon that can amplify fire?”
At that, he held his mug in both hands and planted his elbows firmly on the table. His gaze, however, drifted outside to the lake. She could hear the churners start up in preparation for another heavy dust storm. The grit of a Konbrack wind would take an extra toll on the machines that kept the lake oxygenated and the fish healthy.
He addressed her question. “Fire can do tremendous damage and cause terrible pain and scarring to its victims. My best guess is that their purpose is to terrorize the population, fire being a more visceral weapon than the cleaner use of bullets.”
“We’re dealing with psychopaths.”
“You won’t get a disagreement here.” He brought the mug to his lips and drank, but his gaze was still fixed elsewhere. She knew him. Liam was thinking hard.
Emma wanted to suggest ways she and Liam could face this weapon in battle, but nothing came to mind. Whenever she thought of a potential Magi attack, she had always supposed the enemy would finally use dragon-riders as the ADF does and improve the more traditional weaponry.
No one expected an amplification device of unknown potential. The video showed how the weapon expanded a dragon’s natural production of fire. But what else could it do? What other damage could it inflict?
All her training at the range with her telekinetic loading ability wouldn’t have much effect on the new weapon.
Was Santos expecting them to perform a miracle like making it rain?
If the ADF couldn’t repulse the Magi, the invader could lay claim to the region by the simple fact they couldn’t be ousted.
Later, when she’d put the dishes in the dishwasher, her heartrate spiked. She knew it was time to reveal her news. She was sure that what she was about to tell Liam was the last thing he ever wanted to hear.
As she returned to the dining table, she watched him check the clock on the wall then shift his gaze to her. “So, what is it you wanted to tell me?”
“Right.” She sat down adjacent to him with the distant view of the lake in front of her. “Liam, there’s no other way to say this than straight up. I’m pregnant. My birth control failed though I have no idea why. Pregnancy is rare, but it does happen.”
His mouth was agape as he stared at her. “What?”
Her words probably sounded like she’d spoken them in a foreign tongue.
“I’m pregnant. I’ve been having symptoms for several days now and I’m certain I’m with dragon.”
His eyes narrowed as he tilted his head. His cheeks took on a drawn look. He didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally, his voice was very low and quiet as he said, “You’re serious. But…I mean…how is this possible? I don’t understand. You’re certain?”
“There’s no doubt. I can feel this life. I felt it for the first time last night when I showered. I’m sorry, Liam. I know this must be a shock. But beyond that, I won’t apologize further. This child happened.”
With the truth out in the open, Emma leaned back in her chair. Something inside her began to open and to ease down, something she’d held tight for a very long time, maybe since the deaths of her parents.
All these years, she’d been afraid of life, even though she’d embraced the warrior profession. It seemed so odd. Odder still that a life growing inside her would have changed her attitude about what it was to be alive, to experience a world where, though long-lived, one day even she would leave Dusane forever.
On the other hand, she couldn’t begin to imagine what this would feel like for Liam.
His voice sounded thin. “I don’t want to go through this again.”
In her old life, she might have been flippant in order to drive a wedge between them, the way she’d been brutality curt when she’d spoken of his wife not so long ago. But now, she held back. She knew what this child would come to mean for her, in fact what she already meant to her. She felt it in every cell of her body, that this was her dragon to love, to cherish, to nurture, to raise with every hope all the mothers before her had ever experienced toward their offspring.
Without knowing this child, she loved her.
But as she stared at Liam’s bowed head and at the tension in the muscles of his shoulders, she asked the dragon gods of old if there was anything she could say to him. She knew the kind of man he was, the level of responsibility he would feel toward any child of his. She had no concerns on that score.
“I know this is a lot to take in, right before a battle. Yet my heart told me you needed to know. Don’t ask me why. You just did. I don’t want secrets between us, nothing like that ever.”
As she searched her heart, however, she knew the rest lay with Liam, how he would process this unexpected revelation. What it would mean to him right now and in the future. These were things she couldn’t control.
When he lifted his head, he met her gaze squarely. “You should go south right now. I’ll get another battle partner. I’ll see if Charlotte’s available or maybe Beth. But you can’t stay here and you sure as hell can’t take part in whatever is going to happen in the next couple of hours.”
