Page 39 of Reindeer Flames
"He said you could lay the eggs any moment now." She grabbed my wrist and tugged me off the stool. "Go home and call him, and don't come back until you have to carry your eggs outside your body!"
I couldn't believe she'd kicked me out. As I waddled to the subway station, I felt a stabbing sensation in my gut. I dropped my hand to my bulging waist, expecting it to come away with blood, but the stab had come from inside.
Gold was right. I was about to lay our eggs. The moment I sank onto the bench on the subway car, I texted Hart."Call Cuthbert. I'm on my way home."
Our birthing assistant beat me there, since his office was only a block away. When I arrived, he had already created a hefty spell dome over our back yard.
Hart helped me out of my clothes in the den, since taking the stairs to the bedroom seemed like unnecessary torture. My belly skin felt too tight, and everything hurt, from my breastbone to my balls.
Even shifting hurt. Once I was in my dragon form, Cuthbert had me roll onto my side. He disappeared around my flank andthen returned with a reassuring smile. "The eggs are coming. Roll onto your stomach."
That was easier said than done. My wing was pinned beneath me, and the other wasn't close enough to the ground to grip anything. I flailed for a moment, and then a giant griffin tugged on my free wing, giving me the counterweight I needed to roll onto my haunches.
Back on the ground, Cuthbert stood before me once more, still in his clothes. My astonishment must have shown in my gaze, or perhaps he was used to people questioning his ability to shift without destroying his attire.
"I'm a griffin," he said with a shrug. "We don't shift, so much as change places with our human forms. My body is tucked away somewhere safe, and when it returns, my clothes are still intact."
"That's so cool," Hart said. He'd gone into the house to get some rope from the basement to help me roll over, and now we didn't need it. "I shredded a perfectly good pair of jeans, the last time I attended family dinner."
"I hear that happens?—"
I drowned out whatever wisdom Cuthbert was about to impart with a deafening roar. From the way it reverberated off the spell dome, the sound was trapped inside with me, while Cuthbert and Hart continued their conversation outside the barrier.
"Okay, Silver, it's time for you to push." Thankfully, I could still hear Cuthbert. "And Hart, you'll need to catch the eggs."
"Won't they crush me?"
Cuthbert shook his head and laughed. "Not at all. They are about the size of footballs. A dragon Silver's size won't have any trouble laying them, but we won't take any chances."
I resented his statement about my size. The eggs felt like giant stones in my abdomen.
"Footballs. Okay. Got it." Hart took off his coat. Though his silky beard made him appear more ruggedly handsome than when we first met, he looked every bit the athletic jock on Santa 30's team. He walked out of sight behind me, and my entire lower half clenched. I roared again, though it sounded more pitiful than the first.
"That's it, Silver," Cuthbert said. "Push into the contractions. The first egg is almost here. I can see it!"
How embarrassing. I tried not to think about it as I focused on my breathing. When my lower half clenched again, I was ready. I pushed, and Hart cheered.
"Woohoo! Caught it!"
The next one took three more pushes, and then Hart cheered again. "Two perfect eggs! Come meet them, Silver!"
He didn't have to tell me twice. I shrank into my human form, still on my hands and knees in the sodden brown grass beneath the snow my dragon's body heat had melted. I'd barely felt the cold in that form, but now I shivered.
I stood and took a step, surprised how quickly my body recovered after shifting. It was almost like I hadn't carried the eggs at all. Even my stretch marks were gone.
In a wicker laundry basket lined with soft blankets at Cuthbert's feet lay our two eggs. They were larger than footballs, but the same shape on top, with a gentler curve on the bottom. One was a beautiful mother-of-pearl reflecting every color of the rainbow, and the other was a deep purple that reminded me of twilight. I couldn't stop touching them.
Hart returned from inside with my parka. Once I covered my nakedness, Cuthbert dropped the spell shield.
"The hard part's over." Cuthbert patted us both on our backs, and then he left out the gate with a wave.
We had four more months until the eggs would hatch. If the hard part was over, why did it seem like it was just beginning?
CHAPTER 20
HART
Incubatingour eggs was almost too easy. Each morning, Silver partially shifted and breathed fire into our oven, heating their warming stones. Then, he switched out the stones with the ones that had gone cold overnight and tucked fresh bedding around them in their fireproof nesting basket. The basket made it easy for me to take them out of the nest in the corner of our bedroom.
