Bombshell (Monstrous Ink #2)

Chapter 14

“ A re you sure this is going to work?” Daphne asked as she craned her head to look at where my hands were pressing into her stomach. Underneath my palms I could feel the roll of the baby and also feel just how dense it was. I pulled my hands away.

Daphne winced, letting her head flop back as she sucked in slow, steadying breaths until the baby settled down again. Cash, who’d been hovering at her side since they’d arrived, used a washcloth to wipe away the thick layer of sweat that was forming on her face.

“Yes,” I told her, trying to project a false note of confidence in my voice. “If I can put a barrier around the baby, it can continue growing and shift as needed without hurting you. If we don’t do this, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to deliver this baby and soon or else…”

I trailed off, my throat tightening with anxiety.

Was this how my mother had looked before Alexander performed the cesarean section that would eventually end her life?

“No! She’s not big enough yet!” Daphne reached down to cup her belly protectively .

“She?” I asked with a frown. The chances of a female gargoyle—even a halfling one—being born were exceedingly rare and Daphne knew this. We weren’t sure of the gender of the baby because we couldn’t see it via scans, but it was highly likely that it would be a boy.

Cash nodded, brushing his fingers through his mate’s pink hair as he spoke. “Daphne feels it’s going to be a little girl.”

“It is going to be a girl. I don’t just feel it, I know it,” Daphne said, her chin jutting up stubbornly.

“It’s going to be nothing if we don’t get this barrier put in place,” Alexander cut in unhelpfully as he pushed a little metal table next to me with various tools on it. Upon seeing me looking at it he shot me a grim look. “In case things go sideways and we need to remove the baby.”

I shuddered at that.

“Okay, let’s do it. So a barrier—where do I start?”

“Barrier magic requires the use of all four elemental magics and strong intention. You have to want to protect whatever you are trying to place a barrier around—the more you want to protect it the stronger it will be.”

As he spoke I was still stuck on the first thing required to make a barrier. All four elemental magics. Like I was the fucking Avatar or something.

I’d barely learned how to use water magic yesterday and I hadn’t ever even attempted to use air magic .

A hand slid along my back and I turned as Dallan pressed his ear to my mouth. “It’s the same as water, Lass, except you aren’t pulling anything from the air but the air itself.”

“Easier said than done,” I shot at him, my words barely loud enough for him to hear. I didn’t want to panic Daphne or Cash with my worries about not being able to do this. “What if I can’t do this?”

Dallan’s gold eyes softened. “I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

That did little to soothe my frayed nerves as I turned back to where Cash was speaking softly to Daphne, sharing a moment with her before we got to work.

“Are you ready?” Alexander asked from where he stood on the other side of the bed.

Swallowing hard, I nodded.

“Okay, place your hands on Daphne’s stomach.”

I did, feeling the baby start to move again and watched as Daphne’s slack expression started to tighten with pain again.

“Now I want you to imagine all four elements coming together to create a sphere.”

I paused. “Isn’t there a spell for this?”

“Yes, but it wouldn’t work for you anyway, so why try? Now close your eyes and picture it, Euphemia,” Alexander said and my shoulders slumped a bit as I turned back to Daphne and let my eyes drift shut .

Imagining fire and earth, as always, was easy. They came bounding up in my mind’s eye ready to do whatever I asked. Water was much, much slower, like it didn’t trust me quite yet.

And air? Air was nowhere to be found.

I wanted to throw my hands up in frustration. Maybe Daphne staying in the mansion wouldn’t be so bad… but then I thought about the owner of the mansion who would figure out some way to use Daphne and her baby for his own gain.

But how the hell was I supposed to conjure an element that was, quite literally, invisible?

I can help , a soft voice whispered in my ear as that same strange magic from last night slipped along my senses like a cat brushing against one’s legs. It was much more pronounced now and the feeling of it was like being filled with static electricity. I half expected my hair to start standing on end any second now as the voice spoke again.

I can help you make a barrier, the voice repeated more loudly this time and I realized that it was distinctly feminine. It was almost like the times that Dallan spoke in my head, but that felt comforting like a warm bath, this felt like whoever was talking was trying to force themselves into my brain.

I frowned and resisted the urge to press my hands to my ears.

“Is everything okay?” Daphne asked, a note of worry in her voice.

“Yes,” I told her but my voice sounded odd to my own ears as I ignored the not-so-little voice in my head and tried again .

And again earth, fire, and (begrudgingly) water came at my call… but air still eluded me completely.

That’s not going to work—that’s witch’s magic, the voice said, sounding almost bored.

I gritted my teeth.

And I’m a witch, so what? I found myself responding back. Who are you anyway and why do you keep pushing your magic onto me?

You are not just a witch, little nymphling, so why should you do anything the way they do?

It was evident that this voice knew more about me than I did it.

So what do you suggest? I asked, my inner voice dry and irritated.

Let me connect my magic to yours—then I can help .

Well that was a terrible idea. The person on the other end of the magical telephone line connecting us still hadn’t told me who, or what they were.

Then Daphne groaned again and I found I didn’t care all that much anymore.

Fine, help me. I opened myself up and a gasp of shock left my lips as the voice attached itself to my magic. It felt like both magics were being zippered together, each piece interlocking as the buzzing that I felt when they spoke began to grow louder until I could barely hear myself think.

The pressure of my fingertips on Daphne’s stomach deepened ever so slightly as I felt magic start to drain out of my fingertips and into Daphne. It was clear that whatever the voice was doing, it was working.

I could almost envision the webs of our combined magic forming a soft, safe cocoon for Daphne’s baby that would give it space to grow as needed, but also protect the human woman’s very mortal insides.

“She’s doing it,” I vaguely heard Dallan exclaim, but I was so focused on building the barrier around the baby that I barely registered his words.

As quickly as it attached itself to me, the magic began to fade again.

Don’t trust him . The voice said, growing faint.

My eyes flew open and I frowned at the empty air in front of me.

“Who?” The word slipped out of me before I realized I was talking out loud.

The faerie man. Then the voice was gone and I was alone in my head again.

“Who are you talking to, Lass?” Dallan’s gentle hands capped my shoulders, rubbing up and down to return some of the heat that seemed to have seeped out of my body as I performed the barrier magic.

I was so damned cold, I realized, and my legs suddenly felt rubbery. If not for the Cthulhu’s firm hands on my shoulders and my vines wrapping around his forearms, I would have dropped to the floor right then and there .

My eyes started to roll back as everything seemed to catch up and a wash of violent nausea overcame me so fast that I was seriously considering hurling in the metal wastebasket in the corner.

“Whoa!” Dallan said, lifting me off of my feet and into his arms. “Are you okay, Lass? Talk to me.”

I nodded, still feeling sick as I opened my eyes and tried to ignore the tilting world around me as I looked over at my friend again. “Are you all right?”

Daphne was sitting up in the bed, one hand on her belly and the other firmly entwined with Cash’s as she smiled at me. “I actually feel better than I have in months, Eff. Though I’ll have to admit it is a little weird not to feel the baby’s feet tap dancing inside of me.”

Relief washed through me and I could tell it did so for everyone else in the room because the thick tension that had been present ever since Dallan and the rest rolled up in his car was gone now and the room suddenly felt much lighter.

Dallan’s mouth pressed to the side of my head and I could feel him curiously prod at our bond, as if to ask permission to enter my head unlike my other visitor.

At least some people asked.

Are you all right? I couldn’t feel you for a few minutes there and you had this strange look on your face, Dallan asked, his golden eyes concerned as we spoke with our minds.

It’s… I wondered just how much to explain to him .

I never got the chance though because the sound of footsteps stomping up to the door could be heard outside just as the door was thrown open and Arsenio sailed into the room with a smug expression.

“I knew she was the one,” he announced, his eyes glued to me.

“Daddy, this is a private meeting,” Odette said from behind him as she tried in vain to pull him back outside.

But Arsenio ignored his daughter, yanking his arm away. “There is no privacy here in my home and it wouldn’t have mattered where she performed that spell. I would have been able to feel it. The Source will be pleased that a new Guardian has finally been born.”

“Arsenio…” Alexander began, stepping in between us and cutting Arsenio’s view off from me. “Let’s not talk about this here in front of civilians.”

It was strange to see Alexander defend me to the man who, in my opinion, came first in his eyes.

Alexander had been Arsenio’s right-hand man for far longer than most people in this room had been alive—so to see him go against what Arsenio wanted was almost freakier than the strange voice in my head.

Arsenio looked as if he wanted to argue, but when his bright blue eyes scanned the room and all of the people in it, he nodded tersely before spinning around on his heel and leaving the room .

Alexander turned to me, looking more serious than I’d ever seen him. “Don’t show that magic to anyone, Euphemia, do you understand?”

I frowned at that. What magic did he mean? My own?

No one in the room had heard the same voice as I had, so how did they know I’d gotten help from someone on the outside?

But I never got the chance to ask what he meant because Alexander was hurrying after Arsenio, leaving Odette still standing in the doorway.

“What was that?” she asked, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind her. “I felt it clear across the mansion!”

“A barrier?” I offered before turning to give Dallan’s chest a pat. “You can put me down now.”

“Fat chance of that, Lass,” Dallan said with a shake of his head. “You still look about two seconds from turning the color of curdled milk, so your standing privileges are revoked.”

A streak of stubbornness filled me at his bossiness, but even as soon as it formed it was gone with another wave of nausea. So I just settled into his arms with a sigh and crossed my arms over my chest.

“That was no witch barrier I’ve ever felt,” Odette continued, ignoring our banter as she moved forward and reached for my face, drawing a finger down my cheek. I wasn’t sure who was more surprised when her fingertip came away glowing, her or me .

“I knew it, this is fae magic! Where did you get it?” Odette asked, squeezing the magic in between her forefinger and thumb and stretching it like it was some kind of goo.

I was starting to have a sneaking suspicion about exactly where it had come from, but Alexander’s earlier words made me hold my tongue.

Thankfully, Cash cut in and saved me from having to answer her. “As much as I’d like to stay and find out what magic Effie’s gotten herself into, I’d like to get my mate home for some rest.”

“I’m fine, Cash,” Daphne said as she accepted his hand and started to get up off of the bed with some difficulty.

Cash was having none of that. “You are not fine, Dragonfly, you’ve had what amounts to a concrete statue rolling around in your womb for the better part of the afternoon. You need to put your feet up and rest.”

Alexander’s earlier words rang in my head. “You two can stay in my apartment over the shop so you’re close in case Daphne needs me to refresh the spell.”

I wasn’t sure just how much refreshing I was going to need to do. I could still feel the barrier magic on the edge of my own magic, but it was almost like something—or someone—was taking the brunt of the load and my instincts were telling me that Daphne’s protective barrier would easily last until the baby was born without much interference from me.

“We couldn’t put you out like that…” Daphne said with a shake of her head .

“You aren’t,” I hurried to reassure her. “I’m… I’m actually staying with Dallan right now so the apartment is free.”

I felt Dallan’s grip on me tighten a bit as Daphne and Cash gawked at us.

“Finally,” Cash muttered under his breath, ignoring Daphne’s elbow to his ribs as he gently started to lead her toward the door.

“Wait!” Odette’s gasp stopped them as she stared up at Cash’s face with a frown. “I know you.”

“I’ve been around the mansion…” Cash explained, clearly confused by her words.

But Odette shook her head, her blonde brows knitting together. “No, it’s not that. These clothes—your face… I saw it all in my dream.”

It was my turn to frown. “The ones from your sketches?”

Everyone in the room turned to look at me but my eyes were fixed on my friend who suddenly looked far away as she ignored my question.

“Just my imagination…” Odette muttered under her breath as she turned and left the room without saying goodbye.

There was a beat of silence before Daphne spoke. “Uh… does she normally say weird stuff like that?”

I shook my head. “No, not normally—she’s usually pretty cheerful but I think she’s going through something.”

Making a mental note to ask Odette about her sketches later, I gave Dallan’s chest a pat. “We should head home. ”

Dallan’s gold eyes shifted to me. “Are you going to tell us anything about what just happened?”

“Not here,” I said, glancing around. “The walls have ears here.”

One never knew where Arsenio placed his listening spells, and judging by the way he’d looked at me earlier, I wasn’t sure I wanted to mention the word ‘Guardian’ anywhere near his vicinity.

No, telling them everything I had learned today at Monstrous Ink would be far safer.