Inbetween - Book 1 of the Guardian series

Chapter 17 - Returning Home

Arms lifted her up. Arms, and a smell she wanted to snuggle into, go back to sleep against. 

Apollo?

No, it was Sol. Close, also with that warmth, with that strength, but she had this sense that he may have done this a long time ago. A very long time ago. Funny how alike they were.  Amelia might have thought this was where her son had gone, except that she had this sense of Sol being around when she'd come here. Or that other woman. Whatever.

"Morning." He said cheerfully as he lifted her up and carried her through the three old women's temple. "Artemis is waiting for you in your tower."

"My tower?"

He gestured with his head at the skyscraper. Amelia nodded and shut her eyes again. She still was somehow overwhelmed by this, head trying to fit all those memories in somewhere. Amelia was lowered into the side of a chariot, complete with a couch. Typical. Sol couldn't handle life without one apparently.

"She wants to educate you on your choices as a mother to be."

Mother to be.

The words hung in the air while Sol lifted the reins and made the horses take off down the street. Early morning meant that most of the City of the Dead was still asleep or sleepy, handfuls of people, the smells of baking bread. Routines and rituals followed when they didn't have to. People coming around with newspapers, with fresh bread, she even saw a cart go by with glass bottles of milk. The man dropping them off at doors. Someone else wandering past with an iPod in their hand. 

The skyscraper was quiet and peaceful. Sol helped Amelia jump off and they made their way inside into the lift. Amelia's name was still there. Good. They hadn't thrown her out for Apollo's break and enter stunt.

The floor was still empty but not completely. Artemis was inside, she'd brought her dogs again, and Sol took one look at the empty space and shook his head.

"I haven't had time to decorate yet." Amelia defended it as he glanced sideways at her. "Apollo has been stalking me."

"He had been. We've thrown Sol's workload at him." Artemis stood up and gathered Amelia up in a tight hug. "Sol told me you got your memories back."

"I'm still Amelia." Somehow she felt she had to say that. Artemis nodded and stepped back to gaze up and down at her. 

"We know." Sol reassured her from the side. He moved over to throw that damn couch down from his pocket and they sat there, Amelia in the middle, as Artemis stroked and touched the bump. Sol started to explore the floor as they talked.

"Just over halfway."

"How do I do this? Guardian ...thing. How can I do anything if it's not safe for the baby?" Amelia was thinking of the harvesters. What a fucked up thing if they... she couldn't even think of it.

"The baby won't come with you to the living world." Artemis said gently. "Look at this."

She was touching Amelia's stomach, slowly, and as Amelia watched the skin and fabric seemed to go transparent. Inside...

It wasn't just a baby.

It was an entire fricken room. Inside Amelia. Inside it was a growing orb of light suspended in the middle of it, just a tiny thing compared to the world it was in, surrounded by stars. She stared at her stomach. That was it. She'd officially gone crazy.

"This isn't the living world. Your baby is in her own world as she comes into creation. Everytime you leave, she remains in this world, and when you return, she'll still be inside you. This is her world, but this is her." Artemis was stroking Amelia's stomach, gently, and the transparent thing shifted. Flickered. Then she saw it. Her own womb, her own growing fetus, this tiny thing just kicking and squirming away inside her. "So you are pregnant here. But in a different sense. You keep the body warm and comfortable as it grows, while your daughter comes and goes from it."