Page 81 of Incipient

Damn.The cocky little Caster really was a god.

Signing in relief, I slipped the bangle back on and then finished the rest of my routine before making my way downstairs again. To my dismay, the foyer and hallway were both still dark and eerily quiet with no sign of Trace anywhere.

Needing to stay busy, I headed for the kitchen to fix myself something to eat while I continued to wait for him. I highly doubted I would be able to eat anything with my lack of appetite and how knotted my stomach had become, but I wasn’t sure what else to do with myself.

Passing the living room, something snagged my attention from my peripheral. I turned and then gasped at the sight of a silhouette sitting on the corner sofa. It took my pounding heart and my eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness and realize it was Trace and not the twisted angel from my nightmares.

Relief flooded my body just then, but it was doomed to be short lived.

“Jesus, Trace. Where were you?” I asked as I rushed into the room and then stopped short a few feet away from him. He was sitting on the sofa in the dark, leaning forward with his elbows propped on his knees and an open bottle of booze dangling from his fingers. “I was…worried about…you,” I finished weakly, my heartrate picking up speed as I took in his defeated slump of his shoulders and the fact that he still hadn’t bothered to turn and look at me.

“Nikki stopped by All Saints,” he said as he brought the half-empty bottle of what looked to be vodka to his lips and took a painfully long swig.

Everything in my body turned to ice as I stood there and stared at him, eyes wide, mouth gaping, heart thundering in my chest. The knot in my throat made it almost impossible to speak—to ask the question that needed asking. Because I didn’t want to know the answer. I didn’t want to feel the inevitable blowback that was undoubtably coming my way.

But I knew I had to.

“W-what did she say?” I stammered, unable to even think straight let alone speak properly.

The seconds ticked away unbearably slow as I waited for him to say something.Anything.

“Trace…?”

“She’s pregnant,” he answered, his eyes fixed forward to the open window as though he were too stunned to do anything but stare straight ahead.

33. NO ORDINARY LOVE

My breath caught in my throat as icy dread hit me, cementing my feet to the ground. I was so not prepared for this. I’d spentwaytoo much time hoping and praying that Nikki would come to her senses and keep her lying mouth shut that I’d forgotten to plan ahead in the event that she didn’t.

“She said it’s mine,” said Trace, his voice somber as he continued staring forward. “But I don’t even remember being with her. I don’t remember…” He shook his head as though the rest of that thought had abandoned him right along with his memory of that supposed night.

“Did she say…anything else?” I asked, my nails digging into my palms as I curled my hands into fists.

He looked over at me, his eyebrows knitted in confusion. “Isn’t that enough?”

I lowered my head and pressed my lips together. Panic and fear flooded my system as the room tilted on me. I had no idea how to fix this—how to make this go away without revealing the parts of our past that were so dangerous to him. I was going to need to walk the thinnest of lines. Any slight move in the wrong direction could send him spiraling.

“What did you say to her?” I finally asked, wanting to keep him talking without tipping him off.

“I asked her for a paternity test,” he said, his face an unreadable canvas.

My eyes widened in surprise. “Did she agree?” I asked and then took a step forward. Frankly, I was dying to hear how she was going to snake her way out of this one.

“Yeah, she said she’d give me one,” he answered evenly, his forlorn eyes filled with so much grief and confusion. “Then she slapped me in the face.” He brought the bottle to his lips and took another sip.

She agreed to a paternity test?

A new level of panic seeped into my body. Why would she agree to do the test when we all knew it would show that Trace was not the father? Did she know something the rest of us didn’t, or was she really that delusional?

What if the baby did have some of Trace’s DNA since it was Trace’s body that Lucifer was using as the vessel?

No, that’s dumb, I told myself.

It was already clear to everyone that Nikki’s baby was a descendant of Lucifer, and not Trace. Hence the Horsemen. Plus, we all knew how the whole demon-reproducing thing worked anyway, and this was no different from that, so unless she was planning on doctoring the results of the test in order to trick him into believing it was his, we had nothing to worry about.

Then again, she definitely had the ability and lack of integrity to do the latter, and that was before she was carrying Lucifer’s spawn in her belly which would probably corrupt even the saintliest of people.

“Fuck,” he hissed under his breath, drawing me back to the present. Everything about him looked broken and defeated and it made my heart ache for him.

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