42. Annabelle

My head restson Castor's chest. He's sleeping like a champ. Like he's not worried about the other guys at all. I suppose I should be as confident as he is.

My block buzzes, and I crawl over to the other side of the pod bed and lift it. It's Kai.

I turn back to Castor. His eyes are cracked open. "It's your sister."

"She's waking me up, and we don't even live in the same apartment anymore. What time is it?" His voice cracks.

"Morning." The city's artificial daylight shines in from the corridor.

"Right." Castor rolls out of bed and walks to the bathroom as I answer.

"Morning, Kai." She's been miserable lately—at least, that's what her block messages have said. Her mates weren't letting her go anywhere even before the lockdown.

"Hi," a deep, definitely not Kai's voice says. "This is Dar. Kai is having the podlet, and she would like you to attend."

"What? Ah, okay. I'll be right there." The line goes dead. I roll off the bed. I remember something about mermaids asking other mermaids to attend births in one of my cultural lessons, but Kai and I definitely hadn't talked about it. I find the tunic that Castor ripped off my body last night on the floor and race to the bathroom.

"What's up, Starfish?"

Starfish? I kind of like it. "Your sister is having her podlet, and Dar says she wants me there."

He turns the shower off and grabs a towel. "Kai? Now?" His face drains of color.

"Yeah, now. I'm going to hop in the shower." I race for the water.

"No time, let's go." He shakes his head, and I turn the water off, throwing clothes on as fast as I can.

Dar forgot to mention where Kai was giving birth. We end up taking a detour to Kai's pod's empty apartment and then head up to the Glyden penthouse. The elevators open, and I'm not sure if it's a party or a birth. All of Kai and Castor's parents are there, plus his brothers and a lot of males I've never met. Cheers go up when they see me. It's then I remember I didn't put on my glove. I shove my hand in my pocket and give a few of the people I know one-armed hugs.

"There you are, Annabelle." Julius, Castor's oldest dad, grabs my free hand. "Let me take my newest daughter to my other daughters." I turn around for Castor, but he's being grabbed and congratulated on our mating. The only reason I've made my way through the hoard of males is Julius.

"How is she doing?" I gulp. I've never seen someone give birth. Farm animals? Sure. I'm not sure I want to see this, but if Kai wants me here, I'm here.

"Good, good. This could take a while. First podlets are slow to make their way into the world." He leads me down the hall to Kai's old changing room.

Kai's screaming.

"Well, I'll be leaving you here." Julius drops my hand like a hot lava rock.

"Males aren't allowed in?"

"Mates, yes. Dads, mercifully no." He opens the door, his eyes turned away from the room. Kai's in a large glass tank but not shifted. Her head is above water. There are two medical people I don't recognize. All five of Kai's mates. Soren's new mate Yana, Ophelia, and another mermaid I don't recognize. The third mermaid makes a beeline for me.

"Hi, I'm Sara, Nole's mate. I'm sorry we haven't met before. Kai, Annabelle's here." She smiles at Kai.

"Hey," Kai grunts, but she doesn't open her eyes.

There's a lot of sitting. Kai's mates rotate through standing next to her, getting things she wants, while the rest of us sit in hard dining chairs next to the wall. Ophelia picks up a tray of food and walks it around the room. I take a sandwich and nibble at it.

Kai's mate Ellery wobbles next to the tank. But Ophelia stands behind him and says something in his ear. He straightens but doesn't say anything back.

I lean over to Sara and whisper, "What do you think she said?" It's the first time I've spoken in an hour.

Sara stifles a laugh. "I'm sure it was a threat."

I smile back at her.

Kai groans loudly, the water swirls red, and a perfect little podlet comes out of her. I want to look away, but I can't.

"Oh, look at that. Bright gold, just like yours." Ellery kisses Kai's head. The podlet has a golden fluke and a tuft of blonde hair on the top.

"You did so good, darling," Bennett, another of Kai's mates says.

Kai bursts into tears. She reaches down and takes the podlet up onto her breast, and when she does, it changes to a perfect little baby before my eyes.

"It's a mermaid." Kai turns to her mates swarming the room.

"A mermaid. Her first podlet is a mermaid," Ophelia says quietly, her smile taking over her face.

Sara loops her arm in mine. "Now we go sit in the other room and get drunk."

"Really, that's tradition?"

"It will be if we do it." She laughs.

"Where have you been?" I smile at her.

Sara shrugs.

I look over my shoulder at Kai, surrounded by her mates, and nod. I'll say congratulations later. Sara and I walk away from the birthing room, but she takes me past the crowd in the living room and down a back hall, one that I've never been in before, to another sitting room. Eventually, it ends up being the three of us, Ophelia's three daughters-in-law: Sara, Yana, and I. Another cheer sounds from the living room, this one even louder. Sara's block dings.

"Poseidon!" Sara says.

Yana gives her a look. Guess Yana doesn't like swearing.

"What? This is a whale. What Atlas said was true. They're surrounding Braesen. Annabelle, isn't that your Zaffiro mate in this picture? Did you know about this?" She holds up a picture of Eros next to Atlas. They're holding tridents, and Atlas is pointing to the edge of the picture, at the back of a fluke that looks a heck of a lot like Nico's.

"Yes, my mate. And maybe? Excuse me, I need to go." I'm down the hall with only one wrong turn. I find the front room where I left... "Castor!"