“Give that to me,” Bernadette said to a servant.
The servant unquestioningly gave her their hammer. “I need a chisel.”
The servants nearly fell all over each other trying to run back to the tool shed. They were blessedly quick in helping her up as her legs trembled. She took the hammer and chisel and pounded into the rune until a large chunk came from the center. Bernadette wasted no time to deface the second one when another contraction came on.
“There’s no point now that he’s dead,” Thius said from the council room looking out. “But if it makes you feel better, by all means.”
It would make her feel better. Once freed from the grips of a contraction, Bernadette set to work on the second rune. This time she cracked through the center but wasn’t finished. She struck the chisel into the edge of the swirl and a chunk fell to the ground.
Thius grabbed her by the hair and pulled her backward. “Time for you to rest and have one last drink, mother.”
Bernadette stumbled back as she fell to the ground. She grabbed at his hands and fought, but she had no traction on the marble floors. “Get out!” Thius shouted.
The councilmembers stood as quickly as they could manage, but they stopped suddenly as an olive-skinned man with blond, curly hair and yellow cat eyes appeared in the high councilman’s chair.
Alexi smiled at Thius, but this was a deceptive smile. “Would you kindly let go of her?” he shouted.
Thius was so startled that he let go. Servants rushed in to help Bernadette upright. She nearly got there, but another contraction came, and she fell to her knees as her water broke. “As you can see, Bernadette is in labor. Not that any of that will matter to you. You’ll be dead.”
Faster than any jungle cat, Alexi pulled out his sword and decapitated the nearest elder. The blade hit so hard that sparks flickered as the sword made contact. Leaping on the table, Alexi mowed down several councilmembers this way. Bernadette shouted for him to stop with the first breath she had. He looked at her with that charming smile.
“Even after all that’s happened, they’re still your children. That’s why I love you,” Alexi said, pointing his sword at Thius “This one I will not allow to live, however. The risk is too great.”
Thius put a hand up to deflect the sword, but it was no use. Alexi’s sword hacked through his arm and embedded deep into Thius’s face. His face split and broke away in pieces before he fell to the ground with a groan.
Bernadette’s contractions were too strong to fight it anymore. She allowed the servants and Alexi to help her on the table, where Alexi proceeded to help her deliver their baby.
“Just like all the other times,” he soothed.
Bernadette pushed as her contraction demanded. Her skin flexed to seemingly impossible feats. The all too familiar sting around the opening of her vagina meant the baby’s head was crowning. Alexi pulled the small person from her and Bernadette choked back sobs of relief.
For the first time in centuries, Bernadette felt safe. She had given birth to babies with uncertain futures, she had given birth alone and screaming in the jungle, but she had never given birth to a genuinely free child. One that she could raise without fear of forgetting or losing.
“It’s a girl,” Alexi said with tears in his eyes.
The servants were crying. The councilmembers were crying, as they had never seen a woman give birth.
Xavier looked at the remaining councilmembers and said, “All those in favor of naming Bernadette our queen?”
Knocks sounded unanimously from around the table. Bernadette was now and forever their undisputed queen. She couldn’t care less.
“The boys!” Bernadette cried.
“They're fine,” Alexi said. “Just outside awaiting my signal.”
“Did you cut the Lethologica down?” She asked.
“No, but whoever did saved me the trouble.”
Alexi handed Bernadette the baby. She didn’t look like one of the jungle children. She had their soft skin, but her hair grew in thin locks and her eyes were cat-like, just like Alexi’s.
Bernadette looked at Alexi questioningly, but he could only shrug. “It must be because of the moon.”
Chapter Twenty
They named the baby girl Claire after Claire, who had gone down to the catacombs shortly after Bernadette had run away. Bernadette visited her grave and told her about everything that had happened as if she were still alive, but she knew in her heart that the woman who posed as her mother for all these years had been holding on for far too long for her sake. The woman who allowed her people to cut open her body to further their lies was put to rest.
Life with a baby was hectic, not nearly as hectic as the droves of children and grandchildren fussing over the baby all the time. Bernadette was constantly shooing people out of her room as not to spoil the child. The baby seemed to know when the moon was out. Claire would cry the moment the moon came out and would not stop until Alexi held her.
Winter was in full swing. The former servants knew what to do and helped ready the Mármaros for the onslaught. They did so with Bernadette’s help and not out of obligation. They never found out who cut the Lethologica crops down and never found the remains, but Bernadette was happy never to see or hear of it again. It was one mystery that no one felt the need to resolve.
The remaining children Bernadette had with her brother drank the jungle water and for the first time, a bridge between the two races was created. All her fears for Gabe being unable to interact were unfounded. Many of the servants struggled to speak after being silent for so long, but Gabe was somehow able to reach them in ways she couldn’t.
Otto made bridges of his own with a girl his age. She had blue eyes and giggled whenever he spoke. Cal had forged relationships with many girls, to Bernadette’s amusement. Adam still clung to her, which Bernadette never grew tired of, but once he became self-assured and stable, he began to follow Jon around like a shadow while Tom hunted with a pack of fellow hunters.
Bernadette looked out at the ocean while she rocked her fussy baby. The moon had once again emerged, which meant Claire was expecting her father. As if on cue, Bernadette felt his arms slip around her waist. “I could hear her screaming from the moon.”
“You were late,” Bernadette explained.
“As are you.” Alexi lifted his eyebrows.
Bernadette looked down at her stomach, looked back at the god of moons, and let out a small sigh. “This world will run out of room with all our children.”
“Then we shall leave this place,” Alexi said, looking at the sky. “Start a colony elsewhere.”
“I don’t think I could live on the moon,” Bernadette scoffed.
“The moon goes to many worlds,” he explained.
Bernadette tore her eyes from his face, unsure if he was serious or not. That was the thing about Alexi—she never knew if he was serious. He never lied, but his truths were so outlandish and strange. They were not always true for anyone besides himself.
“Years from now, of course,” she said. They had so many young children to look after and another on the way. “Maybe someday.”
Alexi steadied the baby in one arm and pulled Bernadette in tightly as he kissed her on the temple. They watched the ocean being pulled toward them as promised every night. It wasn’t happily ever after, but something like it.
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Daughter of the Mármaros Page 15
