Reign of Embers

Chapter 4 - What if...?

Aelin

"Congratulations Aelin, you're pregnant!"

I freeze.

"What?"

Yrene laughs, a massive smile stretched across her face, "You're pregnant!"

Slowly, the words sink in - I'm pregnant. I'm finally going to have a child, an heir.

"Tell me you're not joking." I mutter, trying not to get my hopes up even as I start picturing my life with this baby.

"I'm not joking... and there's more. " I give her a pointed look to keep talking, so she does, still laughing with disbelief. "It's twins."

Gaping I join with the sense of disbelief, "Ok what? "

"You're having twins Aelin, twins!"

She throws her arms around me and pulls me into a hug, her brown curls bouncing against my cheek. She pulls away, eyes bright, face flushed.

"How is this possible? We've been trying for 8 years and I've been told by multiple people that I would have difficulty conceiving, and now I'm having twins? Do you realise how rare twins are?"

"As impossible as it sounds, you've managed to conceive fae twins so congratulations!" At that I start smiling, pushing away the thoughts of doubt and terror that start creeping in. "When are you going to tell Rowan?"

Oh Rowan will be overjoyed for sure, but it's a huge change for both of us. We are still healing from the war, and fae pregnancies are dangerous so it will give him even more to worry about than whether or not I'm going to burst into flames in the middle of the city.

"How do I tell him ? I can't just walk up to him and say; hey I'm not going to die but guess what... I'm pregnant! Oh and the funny thing is, it's twins."

A blinding flash of light flares behind me, I leap to my feet ready to put up a fight if needed, immediately followed by a squealed, "Pregnant? Twins? Aelin?"

I squeal and hurtle towards the intruder, ignoring Yrene's protests about me still recovering, and fling my arms around my best friend - still naked from shifting from whatever creature she was posed as.

"How and why are you here? and how did you get in here without us hearing? let me guess a fly or something?" As I say it I let her go, Lysandra sauntering over to my dressing room, and sit back down on the bed, still recovering from my outbreak earlier and the complete shock of my pregnancy.

Lysandra shouts over her shoulder as she searches for something to wear; "We saw Abraxos flying very fast over Caraverre so I screamed at my darling husband that we had to get over here to see what was going on, we packed some stuff for the boys and I shifted into a wyvern and carried them all here, I said that I wanted to be part of girl time after Rowan explained what happened, Evangeline is keeping Gavriel and Zephyr company while Rowan and Aedion be territorial fae and brood over nothing. " She returns to the main chamber wearing a gorgeous sapphire blue dress with silver accents and sweetheart neckline, a smirk on her face, " And by the way I shifted into a moth actually - flies are far too annoying."

Pouting, I survey her outfit choice. "I hadn't got a chance to wear that one yet."

"Yeah well you won't be able to fit in it soon anyway." she sticks her tongue out as she says it, I decide to repay the favour with a gesture of my own. Chuckling, she sits next to me and Yrene on the bed "I can't believe you're going to have twins though, How are you going to tell Rowan?"

"Well I'm glad you're here because I have no idea. He'll probably freak however I tell him. How did you tell Aedion again?"

"I didn't have to with Gavriel as he was in the room when I found out but for Evangeline we made a trail around the manor that eventually spelled out the due date, and with Zephyr, I bought a custom made shirt for Gavriel that said big brother on it and one for Evangeline that said big sister. Aedion was so confused, but then started crying and asked me if I was pregnant. " She smiles faintly at the memory, Evangeline was 14 when Gavriel was born, 19 for Zephyr - she was overjoyed to finally have siblings to look after even with the huge age gap.