Page 17 of The Child of Rue Royale
“Everything is just fine, baby,” Mother yells through the door, her chest heaving in and out.
Nicola walks back to her chair, plopping down, inspecting the broken edge of her desk. “I special ordered this desk from Morocco.”
I grip the bridge of my nose with my fingers.
“Everyone sit the fuck down and shut up! You’ve had your chances to speak. It’s my turn,” Cassius booms. He’s commanded our attention, and all eyes are on him.
“No man is telling me—”I squeeze Mother’s arm so hard she bites her lip. The look on my face must be dangerous because she quiets with an eyebrow arched. It blows my mind, to be honest. The woman who brought man after man into her bed and cried at their feet when they left is now singing an entirely different tune. I would shout it to her if we weren’t in the company of her enemies.
“Having a son will open a floodgate with the witches no one is prepared for. They will question how a boy was conceived. A possible part vampire child. My mother was just investigated over Franklin’s death. We need time and space to find a path moving forward. This is what will happen,” Cassius goes on. “Aster will go to Bastian’s California house. She needs safety, and she’s safe from—” he looks at me with an aggravated face— “herowncoven there.”
“Cassius,” I spew, not wanting him to offend either one of us.
“She needs protection, and as kin to her child, that’s what we’ll offer.” He holds my gaze like it’s only him and me in the room. “I told you the house was yours. I’ll make travel arrangements for you to go privately. I will just need names and birthdays. I’ll manage anything you need out there. The house is vampire-proof, if—” he looks at my stomach— “if that’s required. I can arrange for a private birth with skilled doctors. A new SUV will be in the garage. Baby furniture, nannies, anything you need, you shall have. We—”
Nicola’s flustered sigh interrupts him, and he glares at her but continues. “Just need the child to be born in safety and bide our time. I will fly in when he’s born so we can address his condition. Test if he needs blood, if he needs darkness.”
I slouch back in the chair, my head suddenly aching, my knee nervously bouncing. Going to California was a dream when I went with Bastian. But now, it’s like I’m an embarrassment being sent away to a convent.
“Chantal will be going with me.”
I clutch Mother’s hand, who now has a relieved look on her face. “I’ll stay here, keep up the facade, deliver the potions, and continue to provide Violetta her cut. I’ll come up with some reason why you have left. Figure out a path forward.”
Nicola fumes across the desk, licking a fang. “Isn’t this just delaying the inevitable? You are going to have a boy. Going to California won’t change that.”
I press my fingers into the ache in the middle of my head. She’s right. No magic, no power can change the fact that I’m having a son.
“Yes, but if someone finds out, she’s in danger here. We need a little distance between her and that danger. For now. Until we have a plan,” Mother tells her, and I can’t help but agree. “And while she’s gone, I’ll be working, calling on spirits, asking for signs for a plan that will help us out of this.”
“I think it’s the right choice for now,” I say. If only I could tell her and Cassius I’m bringing Bastian back. Then there’ll be a whole new world of trouble at my feet.
Nicola nods, her blonde ponytail awry from her scuffle. She knows her opinion doesn’t change anything here. Cassius has taken control, and thank God for that.
Her gaze is down to her lap until she quickly raises it to me, then casts it upon my swollen stomach. She stares for a moment, maybe two, and Cassius and Mother say something between themselves that I can’t hear. I can only hear Nicola’s agony banging in my ears, stealing my breath. Because he is everywhere, isn’t he? Our ghost. My love, her son, his brother. He is in our bones and in our veins. The man we all adored.
It comes out before I can think better of it. But I’ll be a mother soon, and I’m already in love with my child. And this feeling, this acceptance that he’s a boy only seems to be growing, and I’m happy for that. So, I say what I feel she deserves, the mother who has lost her child.
“I’m sorry, Nicola. I’m so sorry. I will be sorry every day he’s not here.”
The red rims around her eyes, her hand clutches her chest, and she looks up to Cassius. “We’re done,” she utters, her hand rising, and he takes it. His face twists with compassion, and he nods gently. She may be a handful, but he loves her and must know her limits. So, his eyes meet mine as he echoes her words.
“We’re done.”
I stand, wiping a tear away, the guilt never ceasing. I want to whisper to her, “I’m bringing him back so you can see him again.” But I can’t, so we walk down the stairs as it hits me all over again, still unable to grasp that I’m having a boy. I’m having a boy. And life is going to be completely different than how I imagined it. How it was set up for me. But I’ve come to learn that’s not the worst thing. Not at all.
I FIND MYSELF IN Aconstant state of guilt. Telling Chantal that I don’t want her to give everything up for me. Her band, her work, her life here in New Orleans. “It’s temporary,” she says. “Besides, you know I’ve been dying to go to California, girlie.”
I apologize to Mother repeatedly, because this time, she’s more upset than me having an affair with a vampire, creating a forbidden potion, getting our house caught on fire and almost getting us killed.
“You’re bringing life into this world. I know it’s been expected of you, demanded of you. But now something else is at stake. The life of a child.”
She refuses to say the word boy. That may be the biggest disappointment yet. All the other things I’ve done are nothing compared to that.
We pack all day, and when Cassius texts the time we’ll be picked up, the three of us cry, huddled in a circle.
“No huddling without me,” Jade says from the doorway, and I raise my arm, grateful she’s come to say goodbye. With two daughters to care for on her own, it’s harder for her to get away. We group hug as Jade looks among Chantal, Mother, and me. “I’ll keep listening, I’m always listening for you.”
Tears fill my eyes. The thought of not having Jade close by for advice devastates me. “You were supposed to tell me everything I needed to know about childbirth,” I cry, pulling my hand down her thick braid.
