He scoffs. “No one’s ever used that word for me, my queen.”
“Maybe people don’t know you well enough to use it.”
A pinkish tint spreads over his cheeks. He clears his throat, and the blush vanishes. “You’ll be late for your instructor.”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“Yes.” He holds my gaze instead of dodging it. “People think they want to know me, but the past is best left where it belongs.” He closes the cereal box, flap pressed down with two fingers. “But thank you for caring.”
Caring is the easy part.
But forgetting the things he said last night…
I wish I could.
16
Today’s lunch comes up the way breakfast did yesterday, and the day before that. I clutch the toilet, knuckles bloodless against cold porcelain, throat scraped raw. Three times in two days now.
It’s nerves.
The gala’s only a couple of hours away. Itcan’tbe a bug.
But what if it’s something I ate? My mind flashes to the fashion show in Los Angeles, when one of my models went down with food poisoning, and I ended up walking my finale gown in her place.
Back then, fate cleared my path. Now I can’t shake the thought that it’s circled back to collect, and this time, I’ll be the one on the sidelines.
My stomach knots, and I heave another mouthful of bile into the bowl.
This can’t be happening. Hugo is counting on me, not to mention the donors who expect a preview of the gown I designed.
My month in the House of Aquarius can’t end like this.
Wait.
Has it really been that long since…?
I lean my forehead against the cool rim and count the weeks, eyes drifting to the closed cupboard under the vanity—the one I haven’t opened since I arrived in Hugo’s house.
I’m late.
Reallylate.
I’m not sure by how many days. A week, maybe two? It doesn’t matter, because there’s only one man and one night, and that makes the date about as unambiguous as one can get. I settle a hand over my middle, and a sound breaks free, half laugh, half sob.
A baby.
His baby.
Tears spill down my cheeks.
I can’t wait to tell him.
Except he’s an ocean away, hiding out of necessity, and I don’t know when he’ll make it home to me. I’d give anything to take his hand and place it low on my belly, to watch his expression fill with awe, the fierce lion brought to his knees by this miracle that isn’t supposed to exist.
But it does, because we broke the single most forbidden rule of the Brotherhood. A rule that stood for centuries, tangled up in a so-called curse by a vengeful queen.
If this is a curse, I’ll take it.