Page 92 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“But you’ve seen something?” Axel demanded.
“All Witches have that gift. Some more than others. My premonitions are not nearly what Cienna’s are. You should seek her out.”
“Cienna is not here,” Axel said sharply. “You are.”
“We cannot tempt Fate. I cannot risk it.”
“Then you are risking your life, and I will not be the one to end it,” he said, with a pointed look at Katya.
The shadows had thickened around her, bright embers floating among the dark. Those same embers were in her dark hair, trickles of flames winding among the tight curls. A female who would stand between the world and her child. What a mother was supposed to be and do.
“Just say it, Miara,” Axel said, bringing his hand to Kat’s lower back.
“The babe cannot come before the sixth month,” she finally said. “That is all I will tell you.”
“But he is not due until the seventh month,” Kat said, confusion replacing the menacing notes.
“He will not make the seventh month,” Miara said, using a dropper to fill several vials with whatever she’d just created. “But if he does not make the sixth, you will not meet him until the After.”
Katya lurched back. If his hand hadn’t been there, she may very well have gone over the side of the small exam table.
“You just said yourself, the future is always changing,” Axel said.
“And you insisted I tell you what may or may not happen,” Miara said simply, striding forward while extending the vials she’d just prepared. “These will make your sleep more restorative. I will prepare more for next week when I see you again.”
Kat took them from her. The tinkle of the vials was loud as they shook in her trembling hands.
“What are we supposed to do in the meantime?” Axel asked, immediately taking the vials from Kat and slipping them into his pockets before retrieving her shoes from the nearby chair. He dropped to a knee, sliding them onto her feet.
“The same thing you’ve been doing. Don’t try to figure out fate. It will only lead to madness,” Miara warned. “The Fates are crafty beings, keeping their secrets close. They wander about unknown and unseen. It is why we do not meddle. They are everywhere and nowhere.”
“Now you sound like Cienna,” Axel grumbled, pushing back to his feet and helping Kat from the exam table. “Or maybe Tessa and her nonsensical ramblings.”
“Do not try to unravel their secrets,” Miara warned again. “It is valuable time you will never regain.”
Neither Kat nor Axel spoke as they left her place, located in the southernmost part of the Apothecary District. The Districtcompletely separated the Dispensary District from the rest of the Underground. He held Kat’s hand as they passed the walls of her home, larger than the rest of the shops and homes in the District since she ruled over it the same way the Alpha and Beta did the Leisure District.
The same way Bree, Cade, and Rayell ruled over the Dispensary District.
The thought alone had his throat suddenly too dry.
He forced his mind to Kat, moving silently at his side, her other hand rubbing along her stomach.
“She’s wrong,” he said in determination.
But Kat just nodded, and he fell silent once more. He knew her well enough by now to know she needed to think this through. Needed logic and her books. She’d talk to him, but not yet. Not until she’d gone through all her knowledge and theories. So much like Theon in that way.
Shadows still clung to her, trailing her footsteps and drifting in the air between them. Axel swiped his fingers through the dark, suppressing a shudder as he remembered what it had been like to wield them. When they’d been an extension of him. When he’d been more than…this. When he hadn’t been so utterly helpless to spare her from such worry and fear.
Now his wife and son would have something that he would only ever have memories of.
They were nearing the central road that ran from one end of the Underground to the other, and Axel was about to suggest they stop to rest when Kat spoke first.
“I need to talk to Theon.”
Axel came to a sudden halt, forcing her to stop too. “What? Why?”
And why couldn’t she talk to him? Why did she need to talk to Theon?
