I was Already Dead
Iwake up in my own bed with that sour feeling in my stomach and throw back the covers. My feet hit the plush rug, lingering for a second, before I take off for the bathroom and drop to my knees in front of the toilet. Sweat dots my hairline and rolls down my back by the time I’ve finished puking.
I wipe my mouth with a piece of toilet paper and drop it in with the remnants of what I ate last night on the plane and flush before laying my body down on the cool tile and crying. Before I know it, I drift off to sleep.
“What’s wrong, hen?” Rhy whispers as he scoops my body off the bathroom floor and cradles me in his arms. For a second the room spins but then it stops and I feel weirdly fine as he carries me back to bed.
“Did I wake you?” I ask when I notice that it’s stillthe early morning gray outside and can’t be much past dawn. I feel like I could sleep for the next decade.
“Aye,” he answers. “You were gone and I don’t like it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you sick?” he asks as he lays us back down so that we’re facing each other. When he pulls the blankets back over us, I cuddle in.
“I don’t feel sick,” I tell him. “But when I woke up, my stomach hurt and I threw up.”
He touches his lips to my forehead for a second and then says, “You do no’ feel hot.”
“Yeah. It was weird,” I tell him. “Do we have time to sleep a little more? I feel better now, but I’m tired.”
“Aye.”
“Whatever I ate last night must have been bad,” I add and he gives me a weird look.
“Aye, it must have been bad.”
“Either way,” I reply. “I feel like I could sleep for a year.”
I was exhausted by the time we landed back at home. This trip took more out of me than I thought it would. Sure, we were on the go the whole time, traveling all over North America, but still, I’m young and healthy. It definitely shouldn’t have hit me so hard. The ladies’ words from before the state banquet have been rattling around in my head. I can’t help but wonder if I might be pregnant. It’s not like there’s been a lot of contraception used over the course of our relationship.Or any at all. In fact, there were at least two horrifying ceremonies to ensure the continuation of Rhys’s bloodline.
“Then we best let you sleep, love.”
Rhys settles us in. Cocooned in the warmth of his body and the blankets with the early morning light barely making it through the curtains, I drift back to sleep to the lullaby of light rain tapping at the glass.
When I wake again, it’s late morning and I don’t feel like throwing up. But I do feel like I’m starving. I pick up the phone beside the bed and call the kitchens for pancakes and bacon.
I’m up and in leggings and an oversized sweater with my hair twisted into a messy bun on top of my head when the knock sounds on the door. The maid enters with my breakfast, and I smile my thanks to her as she lays it out on the table before making her retreat.
I sit down and dive into the absolute best breakfast I’ve ever had in my life. I kind of want to make out with the chef this morning because this is fantastic. I feel so much better. Whatever this morning was, it definitely was not a baby and obviouslywasa bad dinner on a long flight.
But I still haven’t had a period. It’s probably stress, but still, I’ll have to have Dahlia find some way to get me a pregnancy test. This is the kind of thing I would have asked of Maeve but she turned on me and Rhys.
When will my heart not hurt thinking of her and what happened? At this rate, it feels like never.
There’s nothing on my schedule for today, so I decided to spend some quality time in the library. I need to get my pets back from Auntie Dahlia and hunker down for rainy day cuddles and a game of hallway catch if we can’t go walk through the gardens.
With breakfast done, I brush my teeth and grab my sneakers before heading down the hallway where I bump into my favorite sister-in-law.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” she says, grabbing me and giving me a big hug. It’s the kind that’s so tight, you don’t think you can breathe while you sway back and forth.
“You mean you’re glad Leo is back.” I snicker.
“Hush you,” she says. “I really missed you and this is what I get?”
“I’m just teasing. I missed you too.”
“Of course you did,” she laughs. “I’m amazing. Now tell me all about America…”