Swallowing Darkness Read Free Page A

care of me to understand that words you might say casually may have very different consequences when you are near me.”
    “So you mean if I said, ‘I wish,’ it might be taken seriously?”
    I smiled. “Fairies don’t really grant wishes, Doctor, at least not the kind in this room.”
    She looked a little embarrassed then. “I didn’t mean…”
    “It’s all right,” I said, “but once upon a time giving your word and then breaking it could get you hunted by the wild hunt, or bad luck could befall you. I don’t know how much magic has followed me from faerie, and I just don’t want anyone else hurt by accident.”
    “I heard about the loss of your…lover. My condolences, though in all honesty I don’t understand everything I was told about it.”
    “Even we do not understand everything that has happened,” Doyle said. “Wild magic is called wild for a reason.”
    She nodded as if she understood that, and I think she meant to leave. “Doctor,” I said, “You wanted another ultrasound?”
    She turned with a smile. “Now, would I try to get out of this room without answering your questions?”
    “Apparently you would, and that wouldn’t endear you to me. That you talked to Doyle before me has already put a mark against you in my mind.”
    “You were resting peacefully, and your aunt wanted me to talk to Captain Doyle.”
    “And she is paying the bills,” I said.
    The doctor looked flustered and a little angry. “She is also a queen, and honestly, I’m not sure how to react to her requests yet.”
    I smiled, but even to me the smile felt a little bitter. “If she makes anything sound like a request, Doctor, she’s being very nice to you. She is queen and absolute ruler of our court. Absolute rulers don’t make requests.”
    The doctor gripped both ends of her stethoscope again. A nervous habit, I was betting. “Well, that’s as may be, but she wanted me to discuss things with your primary,” she hesitated, “man in your life.”
    I looked up at Doyle, who was still by my bedside. “Queen Andais chose Doyle as my primary?”
    “She asked who the father of the children were, and I, of course, couldn’t answer that question yet. I told her that an amniocentesis would up your risk of problems right now. But Captain Doyle seems very confident that he is one of the fathers.”
    I nodded. “He is, and so is Rhys, and so is Lord Sholto.”
    She blinked at me. “Princess Meredith, you only have twins, not triplets.”
    I looked at her. “I know who the fathers of my children are, yes.”
    “But you…”
    Doyle said, “Doctor, that is not what she means. Trust me, Doctor, each of my twins will have several genetic fathers, not just me.”
    “How can you be certain of something so impossible?”
    “I had a vision from Goddess.”
    She opened her mouth as if she’d argue, then closed it.
    She went to the other side of the room, where they had left the ultrasound machine after the last time they’d used it on me. She put on gloves, and so did the nurse. They got the tube of gloopy stuff that I’d already learned was really, really cold.
    Dr. Mason didn’t bother asking if I wanted any of the men to leave the room this time. It had taken her a little while to realize that I felt that all the men had a right to be in the room. The only one we were missing was Galen, and Doyle had sent him on an errand. I had been half asleep when I’d seen them talking, low, then Galen had left. I hadn’t thought to ask where, or why. I trusted Doyle.
    They lifted the gown, spread the blueish goo, again very cold, on my stomach, then the doctor got the chunky wand, and began to move it across my abdomen. I watched the monitor and its blurry picture. I’d actually seen the image enough that I could make out the two spots, the two shapes that were so small, they didn’t even look real yet. The only thing that let me know what they were was the fast fluttering of their hearts in the image.
    “See, they look