A Court of Heritance and Destiny

Chapter 7 Etera

She did not know if the nausea came from her situation, the injury, or the fact that she needed to tell Azriel what had happened. Her mentor acted more like a father at times, and he could be just as protective as Ikarad was. Then it was the fact that she hesitated to shift. Azriel would notice if she walked there, or asked Ikarad to take her. Sure she could blame her injured side, but it was healed enough to not stop her from shifting. Azriel didn't need to know that, but Etera still didn't know what to do.

Ikarad had his wing over them when she woke up, and now the warmth of it started to make her dizzy, or was it the other things that was the reason for that? Etera moved in her mate's arms, trying to avoid touching his wings without permission, and not putting any strain over her ribs. She failed the last one, holding back a moan as the lingering pain in her side flared up. And with that the nausea became worse.

"Ikarad..." She tried, hoping that he would ease his grip around her, "Love..." the feeling in her body grew worse. "Love, I need to go to the toilet." No response. Etera tried again to move out from his embrace, only to forsake all courtesy as her stomach turned again and she pushed his wing to the side, hoping that Ikarad would forgive her later.

Two days had gone by since she learned that she was in fact pregnant, but this was the first time she had ever experienced anything close to a symptom for it. She tried to stay calm as her body continued to gag, the feeling all too familiar from those first years. When she had been dealing with guilt over living, over doing things on her own. When she could not allow herself to eat without someone else asking her too. And even then she often ended up like this, battling shame. But while the feeling and visual memory was the same, she did not have the same shame in her body, she did not deal with that type of voices from her past. Instead she was cursing out over her pained ribs and sleeping mate.

"Etera?" Said mate's voice said behind her. "Is everything fine?" She lifted a hand, waiting for her body to calm down before she dared to turn to face him.

"Yea, amazing." She said, her tone and the words did not match. Nor did her appearance, her hair most likely tangled after the night, naked on the bathroom floor. "Sorry if I disturbed you..." she moved to get up and Ikarad swept in, lifting her up in his arms.

"Nothing to be sorry for..." He placed her down on the bed and Etera just smiled. She had planned to talk to Azriel the day before, but the Spymaster had stopped her, he had asked her to take a day, and Etera was grateful for that. She and Ikarad had needed the time.

"It must have been like a punch to the crotch." She said, grinning as Ikarad gave a confirming series of nods.

"It was close to it." He got down on his side, and Etera just looked on as he placed his large warm hand over her stomach. "Feeling better?"

"Yes..." She placed her own over his, she could not stop smiling as she looked at him. "And you?"

"I will ask Cassian to throw me around in a ring later, but that is later."

"Don't mess up your pretty face..."

"Not planning on it." Etera let out a breath, relaxing in the bed for a moment more, just living in the moment. Something she did far too little of. "When is your meeting with Az?"

"After lunch." She closed her eyes. "No need to stress about it."

"For you or for me?" Ikarad chuckled back. "For I might ask Cassian for that round in the ring when you have that meeting."

"It is just a normal briefing, in and out in ten minutes."

"That helps." Ikarad removed his hand and started to play around with a stand of her hair. "Not by much, but it helps."