Taken by the Blood God (Devil Springs #4)

Chapter 34

Chapter

Thirty-Four

Minerva

Three days turned into a week and a week became two. Then, three. Then four. I missed Talant. So much. I hadn’t realized how lonely I was until my house was full of arrogant blood god. Even when Ally lived with me, I’d been lonely. Not for the company of another person. But for the kind of attention a woman received from her lover. I’d been starved to touch and be touched.

In the short time that Talant and I were together, I’d gotten used to having him there. To turning to him in the night. To the heat of his hand on my skin or his body against mine.

Every time I thought about going out into the backyard and talking to him again or just telling him to get his ass back in my house, I would remember how I felt when I realized he’d lied to me. The anger was almost gone, but the pain of his betrayal remained. I feared that it would never fade. I wanted to let it go, to forgive him, but I just…couldn’t.

Davian left five days after I released him from his vow to remain in Devil Springs. He texted me when he reached Dallas, to say that he’d gone to a few different cities but that he was going to stay there for a while. I was surprised that he not only had a cell phone but that he used it to text me. I was also glad he’d found a place that he liked enough to settle down. I couldn’t believe he’d chosen such a big city. Then again, it was easier to get lost in a place as big as the DFW area.

The beginning of the fifth week, I was working in the shop alone. I’d followed Ally’s advice and suggestions and hired two young women to work for me. One was a shifter who’d just graduated high school, and the other was the daughter of one of my coven sisters. One of the few coven sisters I got along with. They were both intelligent and hardworking. They were still training and spending their shifts with me which meant I was at the store as much as I had always been, but I knew that it wouldn’t be long until I could leave the shop in their capable hands.

I was looking at the upcoming week, trying to figure out when each of them would work, when the bell over the door rang.

I looked up to find Talant standing just inside the shop. My mouth opened but no words came out.

He held an iced coffee in one hand and a small white bag from Marjorie’s bakery in the other. I didn’t move, staring at him in silence, as he walked over to the counter where I sat and set the coffee on the counter beside my arm. The bag went next to it and the scent of chocolate drifted out.

Finally, words came to me. “What’s this?” I asked.

“I brought you a little treat.”

“Um, thanks,” I murmured, looking down at cup and bag.

“Marjorie said that brownies were your favorite.”

I looked up at him and felt a blush rise in my cheeks when I saw the intense way he was watching me. “They are.”

“I won’t forget,” he said.

“Thank you.”

He walked out without another word. I drank the coffee and ate the brownie, thinking about him the entire time.

The next day he returned, this time with a rare book on magic. One that I had been wanting for my personal library for years. When I asked him where he got it, he merely shrugged and said that he had his sources.

The next day he brought me lunch from Sami and Remi’s restaurant. Once again, my favorite from their place, pastitsio.

The day after that, he brought me a ruby the size of my thumbnail. When he opened his hand, palm up, in front of me, I could feel the stone with my magic. It buzzed with anticipation, as though it was waiting for something.

“What is this?” I asked him.

“It’s a ruby from a very special place,” he explained. “It’s a lot like Devil Springs. Magic congregates there, and it imbues everything around it. The trees, the ground, and the mountains. Even the gemstones from this place are touched by the magic.”

He reached out and took my hand, touching me for the first time in nearly six weeks. My legs nearly gave way at the press of his fingertips to the back of my hand. Tears burned the backs of my eyes. I managed to blink them back and focus on what he was saying.

“This ruby is large enough to hold even the strongest spell. It can be used to provide protection or any other use you might think of for it.” He turned his hand over, depositing the stone in my palm. His fingertips brushed my wrist as he closed my fingers over it.

“Talant, where did you get this?”

His smile was faint. “I told you. It comes from a very special place. A magical place.”

I stared down at the ruby, awed by the magical signature it emitted.

I looked up at him. “You aren’t stealing the things you’re bringing me, are you?” I asked softly.

Talant laughed, his voice just as quiet as mine. “No, I’m not stealing them. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen a dragon in the flesh, but I did learn a thing or two from them.”

Confused, I asked, “Such as?”

He winked at me. “How to hide a hoard.”

Talant released my hand, leaving me clutching the ruby. My skin felt chilled where his hand had been holding mine.

Feeling bereft, I watched him leave my store for the fourth time in one week. I was so tired of watching him walk away from me.

Cradling the ruby to my chest, I realized that I had my answer. I could forgive him. I was already on my way to doing so. I didn’t want to keep living my life this way. I missed him every time I woke up in the morning and every time I laid down to sleep at night. The tears I managed to fight off earlier returned, filling my eyes and trickling down my cheeks.

Goddess, why was I crying so much lately?

As I pressed my fist to my heart, I hissed at the tenderness of my breasts. They’d ached the past couple of days. That explained the emotional rollercoaster I’d been on this week. I was about to start my period.

Wait, when was my last period?

With everything that had happened in the past few weeks, I couldn’t remember exact dates, but it had been a while ago.

Oh. Shit.

I closed the shop early and headed home because there was no way I could focus until I had an answer.

As soon as I got home, I went into the stillroom and gathered my supplies. I hadn’t used this spell before, so I had to consult my grandmother’s grimoire for a list of what I needed. I did know that this spell would tell me if I was pregnant with the same accuracy as any over-the-counter test.

I placed a dried rose in the bottom of my smallest cauldron. Murmuring the words written in the grimoire, I added the other herbs and tinctures that the spell required. Once that was done, I poked my middle finger with a sterilized needle and squeezed two drops of blood over the mixture. Then, I breathed magic into the cauldron.

Pink light filled the bottom of the space, and I watched in shock as the rose bloomed. My mouth fell open when the single rose suddenly became two.

A quick consultation of my grandmother’s grimoire confirmed my suspicion. Not only was I pregnant, but I was carrying twins. TWINS!

I backed up to the chair in the corner and collapsed into it. How had I gotten pregnant? I wore a birth control amulet. They were even more effective than human forms of hormonal birth control.

How had this happened?

And what was I going to do?

After a long moment, I realized I had no idea. It was time to stop sequestering myself from my friends and family. I needed help. And an emergency supply of chocolate since wine was no longer an option.

I cleaned up the remnants of my spell and went to find my phone. It was time to call reinforcements.

An hour later, Ally and Sela arrived together, carrying a box of petit fours from Marjorie’s bakery. I’d asked them to pick it up from the bakery on their way to my house. As soon as Ally walked in and saw my face, she hurried over and threw her arms around me.

“Minmin, what’s going on?” she asked, squeezing me tightly.

I sank into her hug. I hadn’t realized how much I needed it until she was here. When Ally released me and stepped back, she saw the tears in my eyes. Which made her eyes fill as well.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No, no. I just realized how much I missed you.”

Then, she was hugging me again. “I missed you, too.”

“All right, all right. It’s my turn,” Sela said, nudging Ally out of the way to give me a hug.

My niece just laughed and moved aside, picking up the box of petit fours where Sela had left it on the table beside the door.

“You okay, Minerva?” Sela whispered in my ear.

“I will be,” I whispered back.

Releasing her, I looked at them both. “Let’s go into the kitchen and have some tea with our treats. And I’ll tell you why I asked you here.”

Once we sat down, I let the entire story spill out. How Talant lied to me. How much it hurt because I’d been falling in love with him.

And the fact that I was pregnant.

When I was done, they were both looking at me with their mouths hanging open.

“This all happened since the last time we talked?” Sela asked.

I nodded.

Ally shook her head. “I didn’t even know that you were interested in Talant like that. Why didn’t you tell me? We’ve been talking a couple of times a week since he’s been here!”

I shrugged. “You just mated Dax. And you had a lot to deal with leading up to waking Talant. I didn’t want to give you more to worry about.”

My niece scowled at me, crossing her arms over her chest. “And if I told you something like that, what would you say to me?”

“It’s not the same thing,” I insisted. “I’m supposed to take care of you. Not the other way around.”

Her eyes narrowed even more. “I don’t agree. I’m an adult now. I’ll always need you, just in a different way. But because I’m an adult, that means that we take care of each other. Understand?”

I nodded, blinking back more damn tears. Goddess, I loved my niece so much.

“Okay, now, back to your issue with Talant and my future cousins,” Ally said. “You asked how you could let him back in when he had the power to hurt you so much? The power to bring you to your knees?”

I nodded.

“You realize that you have that same power over Talant, right?” she pointed out. “He said he loves you and that he’ll wait as long as it takes. What is love, but giving your heart to someone and giving them the ability to hurt you to your core?”

She had a point, but before I could say that Sela interrupted.

“Tal deserves to have his ass kicked for lying to you,” she said.

“I don’t disagree, but I’m not sure what comes after that.”

Sela rested her elbows on the table, leaning over them, a serious expression on her face. “Can you forgive him?”

When I opened my mouth to tell her that I was already well on my way to doing that, she lifted a hand to silence me. “Stop, and really think about your answer. It’s not just about forgiving him. It’s about letting the past go. That’s part of it. You can forgive someone but not be able to get past whatever wrong they did to you. If he never did anything like that again, do you think you could trust him eventually?”

I followed her advice. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and thought of all that Talant did to protect Ally. Everything he did for his brother. Everything he had done for me. All that he kept doing for me.

The answer was simple. Yes, I could forgive him.

Before I could tell them what I decided, Ally chimed in, “Even if you can’t forgive him, he deserves to know that you’re pregnant.”

A moment after the words were out of her mouth, the back door flew open, and we all turned toward the sound, rushing into the sunroom to see who had opened it.

Talant stood in the threshold, his hands curled around the doorframe. The spell I’d created to keep him out was sparking and crackling as it fought to push him out of the house. But he planted his feet and gritted his teeth as he refused to let it.

“Is it true?” he asked. “You’re pregnant?”

Of all the times for him to eavesdrop…

I looked over at Ally and Sela. “Can we talk tomorrow?”

Ally just smiled and came over to hug me, but Sela glared at Talant until I cleared my throat. Finally, she came over to hug me as well.

“If I don’t hear from you by noon tomorrow, I’m coming back over here with back-up.”

I smiled and hugged her tighter. “Thank you for being a good friend.”

With that, Ally and Sela left. I waited until I heard the front door close behind them before I waved my hand and released Talant from the spell I’d used to bar him from the house.

He stumbled through the door, almost falling on his face. I had to bite back a laugh because it was the first time I’d seen him truly off balance.

Once he recovered, he walked over to me, stopping just a few inches away. His eyes lowered to my abdomen. “Is it true?”

“Were you eavesdropping?”

“Yes, but not intentionally.”

I frowned at him. “How can you unintentionally eavesdrop?”

“I was trying to take a nap when they came over. Even with your spell in place, I can hear you talking when you’re in the kitchen. I was trying to ignore it when you started your discussion with Sela and Ally. At first, I wasn’t listening, but then—” He paused, looking chagrined. “I was hoping that I would get some clue as to how you were feeling about me. I…” He trailed off, pausing before he continued. “I was afraid it might be too late, and you were never going to forgive me.”

I sighed. “I’m already starting to forgive you,” I admitted. “But it will take me some time to get there. And you will have to be brutally honest with me about everything for a while before I can automatically trust anything you say to me again. The fact that you lied to get what you wanted is why it felt like such a betrayal. It wasn’t about protecting me. You were thinking of yourself.”

He nodded. “I was. I was desperate. I never wanted you to doubt how I felt about you. I wanted you to know how much I loved you before you discovered the truth. You’re not a replacement for Cassia. I know you’re not her, and you never will be. You may carry her power and her memories, but everything else about you is you .”

“I understand that now,” I admitted. “I’ve been having more dreams, seeing the world through Cassia’s eyes, and we couldn’t be more different.”

“So, what’s next?” he asked.

I took a deep breath. “Well, I suppose you should move back in the house to start.”

“And?” He moved an inch closer to me, his expression full of hope.

“And you take care of me while I grow our babies.”

There was a pause. “Babies?”

“According to my grandmother’s grimoire and the spell I cast, I’m carrying twins. I’ll have to make an appointment with a midwife to confirm, but I’m confident the spell is accurate. My grandmother knew her stuff.”

“Twins?” he repeated, blinking rapidly.

“Twins.”

Talant stared at me in awe before he fell to his knees. His hands reached for my hips, but he stopped before he touched me, looking up for permission. At my nod, his fingers curved around my hips as he moved even closer to press his lips to my belly.

“I have been doubly. No, triply blessed,” he sighed. “The three of you are a reward I don’t deserve.”

I reached down to cup his face, tilting his chin so he looked up at me. “I think you’ll work hard every day to take care of all three of us. But that isn’t why you deserve us,” I said.

“Why then?”

“Contrary to popular belief, gods aren’t perfect.”

He smiled a little at my words but kept silent when I laid my thumb over his lips.

“You’ve made mistakes,” I continued. “But you’ve spent centuries paying the price. Since you’ve awoken, you’ve done what you could not only to protect me, but to protect my niece. A woman that I love like a daughter. You carry more humanity than you realize, and humans deserve love and family, no matter how imperfect they are. So do you.”

He got to his feet, sweeping me into his arms. Instead of carrying me through the house, he portaled straight to my bedroom.

As he laid me on the bed, Talant brushed his hand over my abdomen again.

“I’m so happy I waited for you, my little witch,” he murmured. “You are worth every year I spent in that stone tomb.”

More damned tears filled my eyes. “Thank you for waiting for me.”

His eyes moved from my belly to my face. His expression became achingly tender when he saw the tears streaming from my eyes. “I’m glad I don’t have to wait any longer to tell you that you’re mine.”

“I’m yours?”

“We exchanged blood, Minerva. Other than Davian, no one else has ever taken my blood. We were connected from that moment on. The more blood we share, the tighter the bond between us will become. I hope that you will let me mark you as my mate, not only with blood but with magic.” He stretched out on top of me. “Our children will bring us even closer together, too.”

“You’ve already vowed to be mine. Do you think a mating mark is necessary?”

He nodded, pressing his lips to mine. “I want everyone who sees you to know that you and I belong to each other.”

I couldn’t hold back the shiver that worked its way through my body at the touch of his mouth. It had been weeks since he kissed me, and the simple caress was nearly enough to melt my bones.

“Kiss me again,” I whispered.

“I’ll kiss you forever.”