Pregnant With Alpha’s Genius Twins

#Chapter 203 – The Note

I can’t help the little giggle that comes out of me then.

Honestly, it’s all so strange and ridiculous – and, really, really frightening – that all I can do is laugh and make a joke out of it. It’s a knee-jerk reaction, probably a poor one and a result of my exhaustion, but I’ve got nothing else.

“Don’t worry,” Rafe, I say with a clever little smirk. “We don’t use it to talk about you. At least. Not often.”

Victor looks at me closely then, making a face as if he’s saying something terrible and glancing at Rafe – but he doesn’t say anything at all. He’s just messing with his brother.

Rafe, of course, gets pissed and opens his mouth to say something nasty to Victor but Burton interrupts.

“Please,” he says, looking between us, worried. “You must listen closely.”

I bite my lip, my face falling then. It was a nice moment of levity but, deep down, I do know that something is very seriously wrong. The more I sit at the table and think of it, the more I realize the weakness in my limbs, my heart. The new difficulty I have drawing breath.

Victor takes my hand and looks at me with sorrow and apology in his eyes, but I shake my head at him. Whatever happened – whatever I did – I did it willingly. I’d do it again, a hundred times. A thousand.

“What you participated in,” Burton continues seriously, “what you created – it was a ceremony – honestly, you shouldn’t have been able to do it without guidance –“

He hangs his head for a moment, amazed, before continuing.

“But, you must understand, the exchange you made,” Burton shakes his head here. “It is temporary, at best, without the closure to the ceremony. Without the full consent.”

“Consent?” Victor asks, leaning forward. “What is that, the consent?”

Burton shakes his head again, looking down at the table in confusion. “I don’t – I don’t have another word for it, but that’s the best I can come up with. We grew up speaking of it in a whole other language – one in which even I, a grand master, am still a novice.”

“What,” I say, hesitating and squeezing Victor’s hand. “What will happen to us if we don’t…finish it? Close the ceremony?”

“You are ill now, yes?” Burton says, lifting his eyes and again looking between us. “He is better, much better than he was yesterday,” he says, nodding to Victor, “but you,” Burton turns his eyes to me here. “You are much, much worse.”

“I don’t feel much worse,” I say quietly.

Burton shakes his head. “It will get worse, for both of you. Right now, you are sharing the life force of one person, but in order to survive, you need two. On the energy of one, you will both, unfortunately, run through it, especially because in giving him half of your life you took on half his illness. And with that combination, you will both expire.”

We go still at the table then, Rafe putting his head in his hands. It’s silent for a long moment, the only sounds the laughter of our children in the next room. The sound that gives me strength, though. Energy, hope.

I will push through this, too. For them, if for no one else.

and I can hear his frustrated words coming from between clenched teeth. “Is that they

but then he nods. “In essence, in its simplest form,

need to do?” Victor asks, his face drawn. “How do we

sorry,” Burton says, his eyes filled with

pounds his fist on the table, cursing and briskly standing up from his chair. The laughter in the next room stops as the boys realize, finally, that something is

says quickly, speaking to Victor and I alone now. “But it

Who was she, this woman who

piece of paper out of his pocket. One

the folded note on the table. “Where did you

Burton says quietly, “amongst your things. A message from…one

Victor spits out, in full disbelief. “Edgar is

Edgar gave us all those weeks ago. He unfolds it, then, revealing the cryptic map

his head. “Edgar was born as part of our tribe – but he left at a very young age. But he knew

I take the note from Victor’s hands. Even Edgar knew more about this

a single mom of two really special kids, and now I’m part of some mystical secret cult, one

right

to her,” Burton says seriously, tapping the note with his finger. “She can teach you what I cannot. She will show you how. She’s the

I refold the note, seeing the boys’ rapt

boys, works to wrap up

we have,”

can’t know,” Burton says, apologetic. “But, sir…it is not long. You

at Victor, then, sadness in

of this was over – that we could,

Victor says, seeing my desire for peace and rest on my face. He raises my hand to his lips and presses a kiss to the back of it. “When this is done,

him. We will see it

at my side then,

smile pasted onto my face, I know that he

into my lap and giving him a big hug. So much

over at Victor, then, and see that Ian has climbed into his lap. The four

seriously. “What is going on? You can tell us. We

in my throat. God, I hate to put them through more. But it looks like we don’t have a

nods, believing me, and I’m grateful for that as

taking a little trip?” He’s working hard to keep his voice cheerful, though I know, inside, he’s terribly worried.