Lord's Fall (Elder Races #5)(5)

She could tell when Eva stopped sneering long enough to actually begin to think, and then the shift happened. Suddenly their trip south was no longer an unwelcome babysitting job for an unpopular mate but had become much more.

She continued, more quietly, “The outcome of our trip matters to a lot of people, Eva. I’m not going to risk failure because you and your idiots don’t know how to rein in your snark, or take orders from someone who is not pack and is nonmilitary. I get that your more usual assignment involves solving problems that are more the point-and-shoot kind. If you can’t handle this, say so. We’ll turn around right now and go home, and I’ll start over with another crew that can.”

“Okay,” Eva said after a moment, relaxing from her rigid stance. “I was told you were meeting with Beluviel and possibly the High Lord, but I wasn’t given details beyond our mission objective—to travel with you and keep you safe.”

“Well, I am special and all, being Dragos’s mate,” Pia said dryly. Eva snorted, a near-silent exhalation that sounded almost amused. “And by the way, we’re not taking a flight because Dragos thought we would have more survival capability on the ground. Incidences involving planes tend to have high fatality rates.” Plus only one in their group had a Wyr form with wings, which seemed to bother Dragos quite a bit. He couldn’t imagine flying high in the sky without having the capability to jump out of a plane and take flight if he had to. “Not,” she added, “that I plan on explaining every little decision to you in the future.”

“Fine,” Eva said with a scowl, evidently not liking the sound of that. Then her expression changed. “I would like to ask you just one thing, though.”

Pia studied the other woman. She would make more of an ally with Eva through cooperation than not. Maybe this could be a bloodless coup after all. They might never grow to like each other, but achieving a partnership before they reached South Carolina would be good enough for her. So she said, “Shoot.”

Eva ran her black gaze down Pia’s body as she sucked a tooth. Finally she looked up and met Pia’s stare. “You even pregnant?”

Pia’s eyebrows rose. She hadn’t realized people were beginning to gossip about that as well. “You can’t tell from my scent?”

“You have a strange scent,” Eva said. “None of us have smelled anything like you before, and we don’t know what to make of it.”

Her face twisted into a wry grimace. Fair enough. She beckoned with her fingers and said, “Come here.”

Eyes sparkling with curiosity, Eva stepped forward. Pia reached for her hand, and Eva allowed her to take it. Pia settled Eva’s flattened palm over the small bump of her stomach and waited. She watched Eva’s face transform into wonder.

The dampening spell that Pia used to camouflage the natural luminescence of her skin also seemed to mask the peanut’s presence from others, at least from a distance. The pregnancy didn’t remain hidden when someone actually came in contact with Pia’s body. Even though the peanut was still very small for twenty-eight weeks, the muted roar of Power at her midsection was unmistakable even for someone who was not medical personnel.

Wonder rounded Eva’s eyes. “Holy shit,” she whispered.

Pia rubbed her eyes with thumb and forefinger. Yeah. Holy, as it were, shit.

“I’m confused,” Eva said, frowning. “It doesn’t seem very big but it’s carrying a helluva wallop.”

“I’m about twenty-eight weeks along,” Pia told her. She could see Eva doing the math.

Eva’s frown deepened. “Shouldn’t it be bigger?”

“Nobody knows,” Pia said with a tired sigh. “The doctor says he’s quite healthy, and that’s all that matters. Based on his current development, she’s estimating a gestation period between seven hundred thirty and seven hundred fifty days.” She watched the other woman do the math again.

Eva blanched. “You’re going to be pregnant for two years.”

“Seems likely,” Pia said between her teeth. “Did you know elephants have a gestation period of twenty-two months? Apparently dragon babies might be more complicated. And before you think to ask, no, I’m not laying an egg so he can gestate the rest of the way outside my body. No, no such luck. This baby’s going to be a live birth.”

Somehow.

Eva looked at her in poorly concealed horror. “Won’t he have . . . claws? And not cute tiny, puppy ones?”

“We’re a little concerned about that,” Pia said grimly. “And he hasn’t yet shown any sign of his human form.” Some Wyr babies were born in their animal form, and others were born in human form. Still others, if they were not already in the same form as their mother, shapeshifted while in utero, although that was more rare. “The doctor wants to plan a C-section.”

“I see.” Eva pulled her hand away and stepped back.

They had roused the baby. Pia felt an invisible presence settle around her neck and shoulders, a bright, fierce loving innocence. It was a waking version of what she dreamed so often these days, the peanut draping his graceful, delicate white body around her, his long, transparent wings tucked close to his body. Nobody else but her could sense when he did that, not even Dragos. She put a hand to the base of her neck with a small, private smile.