Lucas’s blue eyes widen, and he goes completely still for a moment. Then he smiles excitedly, shakes his head, and rushes me to the couch.
“Can someone get the door now?” I ask my familiars, knowing better than to tell Lucas to stop fussing over me as he puts my feet on the coffee table.
“Should we call the midwife?” he asks, looking more than a little panicked. It’s so freaking adorable. If there was any one thing to get my big, bad vampire nervous, it’s his baby girl.
“It was one contraction,” I say, putting a hand on my stomach. As much as that hurt me, Juliet had to feel it too.
“Contraction?” Eliza echoes, speeding down the stairs. “Are you having contractions?”
“What?” Kristy’s voice comes from the foyer. Her bag drops, and she rushes in, followed by Nicole and Naomi. “Are you in labor?”
Everyone gathers around me, eyes wide with excitement.
“Guys,” I start, feeling like I’m about to tell them Santa isn’t real. “I think I had a couple of contractions earlier in the day and one just now. That doesn’t mean I’m in labor. This can go on for days, which would be awesome,” I add sarcastically.
“You felt a couple earlier today?” Lucas is still on his knees, one hand on my stomach.
“Oh, and you didn’t say anything,” Naomi quips with a smirk on her face.
“I didn’t because I didn’t want to get you all worried for nothing. You were the one who showed me that article last night about how strong Braxton Hicks can be and how you can get a rogue contraction here or there and it doesn’t mean you’re in labor.”
“You were really restless last night,” he goes on. “And your stomach was upset which made you use the bathroom several times. Those are more signs of labor.”
I press my lips together and look at him. “They don’t need to know my bathroom habits.” Taking a deep breath, I prepare to get up. “No one wants to have this baby more than I do, but let’s not get our hopes up, okay?”
“Okay,” Kristy says right away. Lucas stands and helps me to my feet.
“I have everything laid out in the library,” I tell them, meaning the spell I was working on. “Using the Key of Solomon circle casting to create a boundary is gonna work. Not for long, but long enough for, well, I don’t know. Julian had mentioned creating a pocket dimension to put them in, but the Horsemen are too powerful to stay in one, unless we created four and kept them apart.”
“Don’t you need four human sacrifices to seal the dimensions?” Naomi asks. “I don’t think you’re going to get any volunteers.”
“True, but if we can use the same magic Evander extracted from the gemstones, we could in theory use the Horsemen’s own power to act as both the lock and key. Though that also runs the risk of them escaping, pulling us in, and then trapping us there forever.”
“Yeah, uh, I think we need a plan B.” Nicole picks up Freya, holding her like a baby. I give Freya a sour look, reminding her that she wouldn’t let me practice swaddling on her.
“Julian was working on it.” I push my hair back. “I still don’t know what it is.”
“Things didn’t go well with the locater spell?” Kristy asks softly.
“No. Wherever Lucifer is, he doesn’t want to be found. And I haven’t heard anything from my dad, which could mean a million different things.” We get into the library and sit around the coffee table. I pick up the gemstone fragment, and it glows bright blue. Then I pass it to Kristy, and it glows a soft yellow, not as bright as when I hold it since I’m not a full witch.
“Do you feel it pull on your powers?”
“Yeah. It’s like it’s sucking it right out of me.” She gives it to Nicole. “Do we have enough of them for all Four Horsemen at once? I did a tarot reading this morning and I, um, I interpreted my reading that the Horsemen are together again.”
“I think they are too.” I get a chill when the words leave my lips. “I don’t want to watch the news anymore.”
“Same,” Nicole says, giving the gemstone to her twin. “The thing that scares me the most is how no one knows what’s going on. Things like this happen every day, every year…ya know?”
“Right.” I pick up my mom’s spell book. I don’t need it for anything. I just want to hold it and run my finger over her name. “Oh, this is off topic, but Abby called today and said Nancy had a secret stash of my baby stuff. Abby is going to bring it over tomorrow.”
“Wow.” Kristy’s blue eyes widen. “I’m shocked she kept anything.”
“Me too. Abby told me that William has no idea. Nancy knows I’m having a girl and wanted to bring me a gift.”
“What’d you say?” Naomi asks.
“Hell fucking no. I don’t want anything from her, and I’m certainly not going to accept a gift so she can get some peace. She made her decision, I’ve moved on, and I don’t want her in my life at all.”
I can feel my friends’ eyes on me, questioning if I’ve really moved on. “I know I’m not the best at dealing, and I’m an ignore and it will go away kind of person, but for my sake and Juliet’s, I have. Remember those lawyers I told you about who wanted me to help them get a case against William? I turned them down. I want him to pay, but I’m not wasting my energy on it.”
“That’s very mature of you,” Kristy tells me, and I laugh.
“Don’t sound so surprised.”
“I’m not,” she says back with a laugh as well. “The Callie we know—and love—likes her vengeance. It’s nice, actually, knowing you’d raise hell for us if anyone even looked at us wrong.”
“It’s my best-worst trait.”
We focus on the spell again, and maybe half an hour later, I feel another contraction. This one isn’t as painful as the others, but it lasts longer.
“Whoa,” Nicole says, almost dropping her notebook. She’s the only one to notice I’m sitting back, grimace on my face. “Are you having another contraction?”
“Mh-hm,” I say as the pain intensifies. So much for being not as bad as the others. I squeeze my eyes closed, not breathing until it’s over. “Fuck, that is not fun,” I huff.
“I’m getting Lucas.” Kristy hurries out of the library.
“Stop looking at me like my water is going to break,” I say to the twins, and Naomi, who’s next to me on the couch, gets up and moves to the chair Kristy had been sitting in. I roll my eyes. “It doesn’t happen like that in real life. Just the movies.” I smooth my dress over my stomach. “Once the contractions are seven minutes apart, Maryellen will come over and assess me again. Then we can actually say I’m in labor. These contractions are too spread out.”
“You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself of that,” Nicole points out. “Are you scared?”
“I’m fucking terrified,” I rush out. “My mom died in childbirth. I can’t go to a hospital. And I don’t know how to be a mother. I mean, look at me! You know what calmed me down today? Organizing and cleaning old bloodstains off my weapons!”
“You’re going to be great at it.” Lucas’s calm voice comes from the library doors. “Being a mother.” The knot in my chest loosens a bit. “Breathe,” he tells me, and I do just that. His arm goes around me when he sits next to me. I lean against him, pushing back all the fears, because when we’re together, we can get through anything. “And if you’re not a good mother, Eliza will be sure to tell you.”
I laugh. “Oh my god, she’s going to be the worst backseat mother.”
“I heard that,” she calls from another room. “It’s only because I care.”
“We all care,” Kristy adds. “Don’t worry, Cal. You have a literal coven to tell you when you’re wrong.”
“That is reassuring in a really weird way.” I look at Lucas, and my heart melts all over again when I see the way he looks at me. Opening my mouth to say something, I cut off when another contraction hits. This one isn’t as bad and is over fast.
“Oh my god.” Now it’s Nicole’s turn to freak out. Everyone freezes, staring at me again. Lucas is calmer this time and puts his hand on my lower back, gently rubbing the spot that’s been hurting the most recently.
“The midwife said not to call until contractions are consistently ten minutes apart,” Lucas says out loud, both informing my friends and reassuring the two of us. “And she’ll come to the house when they are seven minutes apart.” He presses his fingers a little harder against my back, and I lean forward as best I can so he can keep rubbing me. “Until then, is there anything you need, my love?”
“Food, and I’d really like to get the rest of the spell worked out. If we can cast the circle and then the square, I guess we should call it, before I have a baby, I’ll feel a lot better.”
“Then let’s get to it,” Nicole says. “Evander, Ruby, and the High Priestess are meeting us soon?”
“Yeah,” I answer. “Once things are settled at the Academy, they’ll be here.” Grim Gate is still functioning on high alert, with students closely monitored. A select group of seniors have been tasked with their final project of the school year, and detecting negative energy or demonic forces is good practice for them and a second alert system for us.
Several other covens are doing the same. Not all were willing to believe Tabatha when she warned about the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, yet no one could deny the warnings present in any sort of divination work. And there’s a dark stain of negative energy hovering over any area where the Horsemen struck, proving that the sudden flash flood that took out an entire field of crops wasn’t just bad weather.
It was supernaturally constructed to be destructive. It was made to bring pain and sorrow. Like Nicole said, the subtlety of it all is fucking scary. It would be so easy to miss the signs, to write things off as earth having a “bad year” or whatever. And then before we know it, the Horsemen will have taken over.
Which brings me back to what I’ve been working on.
“So,” I start and roll my neck. I’m not currently in pain, but I’m feeling more and more restless. I want to get up and walk for some reason. “Once we get the traps set and we can figure out what to do with the Horsemen, we need to figure out how to get them here.”
“Just go outside,” Naomi suggests seriously. “They all want you.”
“I don’t think they necessarily do,” I counter. “They made a deal with Paimon to help him get to me, but that was only so he’d bust them out of Hell. They know I can’t stop them.” I hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself. What’s the point in denying it? Not even Lucifer could stop them.
“Paimon still wants you,” Kristy starts. “Do you think the Horsemen will uphold their end of the deal?”
“Do you?” I ask, arching my eyebrows. “I mean…they got out, and with the gates being closed, it’s not like Paimon can send them back if they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” she agrees with a sigh and looks out the window, afraid they’re just going to appear. We’ve all been on edge, and the waiting game only makes it worse.
“If they do come back, they’ll wait until they are stronger,” Lucas says. “As much as I don’t like the idea of summoning them here, it would be smart for us to attack while they are still in a weaker state.”
“I don’t like that idea at all,” Nicole quavers. “I know you’re right and I know trapping them and sending them somewhere is the best thing to do. Still, can’t the archangels take care of it? They did before, right?”
“Right,” I say and swallow another lump that is rising in my throat. “I don’t know much, but it seems my uncle Uriel is a real dick and is willing to let humanity fall apart for a few years if it means proving that my dad and Lucifer have been teaming up.”
“We’re not going to let it come to that.” Lucas’s hand lands on my thigh. “Our daughter will not be born into a world ruled by darkness.” He runs his hand up and down my thigh. “I’m still in favor of killing the Horsemen, and I think you can,” he tells me. “When Julian’s divinity blew up, it knocked War loose in his saddle. That’s how I escaped.” He gets up and pulls a book about Egyptian mythology off the shelf, flipping through pages as he comes back.
“What?” I ask, knowing the look on his face. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking we’ve been going about this all wrong—everyone has been going about this all wrong. You can’t kill them while they’re on their horses. Knock them off, and then they can die.”