11

I woke to fighting and chaos. My magic sent a pulse before I could even open my mouth or eyes. I sighed when people instantly went quiet. "Thank you. What happened?"

"You're fine," Lageos said firmly. "The same thing happened to your mother."

That didn't answer the question though, so I wasn't surprised when several people jumped all over him.

"Stop," I ordered. "Just stop. Not everyone is going to be involved with my personal and private medical information. Enough. As long as someone knows what happened, enough."

"Your healer doesn't though, Your Highness," someone objected.

"Because you fuckers won't leave and let her be examined!" Neldor roared. "And you have the audacity to—"

"Nel," I whispered, glad when he immediately shut it. "Take note of the problems and we can spank them later. I'm awake and coherent. Now disperse and let my healer do her job before you piss me off."

"Yes, Your Highness," several grumbled.

I listened to Neldor and Julian practically lose their minds demanding why Lageos allowed the circus and crazy. I swallowed a sigh. "Because it was informative, right?"

"Very," Hudson grumbled. "Something needs to be done about naming a medical proxy or something if you are ever unconscious again, Tams. Several nobles were almost panicked about the idea of Neldor being involved in your medical anything. They were light fairies and their intentions were pure. Truly. They were scared for you."

Neldor shot him a less than friendly look, but Hudson simply shrugged.

"We should know that," I cut in before anything else happened. "I'm annoyed that my dad was here and they still got in the way of my healer. That cannot be allowed."

"I allowed it to see what happened and to shut this down in the future," Lageos explained. "But we need to clear everyone now so Calarel and I can speak to you privately." He let out a small growl when several people objected. "I would say Julian but—"

"I agree," Julian whispered. "We're only engaged. Tams will tell me if she's ready."

"I've never not told any of you before," I reminded several of them, not sure what this could possibly be but always agreeing with my dad and the calls he made about my health. I glanced around and realized we were in the sitting room of the castle and shot my dad a shocked look. "You didn't even remove me from Faerie when I was unconscious?"

"No, I knew what this was," he said, staring down the others.

That worked and the rest of them left.

He smiled at me as he came and knelt in front of me as I sat up. It was a sad smile though and I recognized it. He was going to tell me something that he wouldn't be here for. It was the smile he gave me when he was going to talk about my future.

The future he wouldn't be a part of.

Tears filled my eyes and he nodded. "Don't be sad, my beautiful daughter. This is a blessing. You are fine and healthy. I am simply mourning that I won't be here to celebrate with you when it happens."

"Children," Calarel sighed. "You sensed she can now have children."

Lageos nodded as I gasped. "Yes, it's early, but we expected that since your wings were as well and you're part demigod." He waited until I nodded. "I felt the same… Pulses that your mother experienced." He searched my eyes. "Your mother did not faint though. That worried me."

I opened my mouth but then closed it. "I think it was the timing." I tried to say more but then licked my lips, glancing between him and Calarel.

"I can step out, Your Highness," she offered.

"No, I just…" I sighed, scrubbing my hair with my free hand and grasping my dad's with my other one. "How literally do we believe that I am a mouthpiece to the gods?"

"Very," they both said immediately, Calarel continuing. "Not words or—your gut. I've heard you talk about your gut and morality the way it's been passed down that the gods guide the heirs and queens."

"Yes," Lageos agreed. "Your mother would sometimes get flashes." He studied my eyes. "What happened? Something in the meeting wasn't acceptable to the gods according to the morality of fairies, right?"

I slowly nodded. "It happened the same time as the nerve charge thing to my body. It was a gut feeling and almost like—they don't approve of fooling humans to make funds for Faerie. It was as if you were disappointed in me for even considering it but more. And at the—can they give me messages at the same time?"

He shrugged. "Probably. I wouldn't expect the gods to be patient or communicate well. Given how impetuous my siblings were, it would be silly to think the gods were any better."

I nodded. "I think one gave me a message of disapproval and said not to fool humans and one told me a better suggestion to help while that was also going on with my body." I sighed and scrubbed my face. "So fucking weird."

"What's the suggestion, Your Highness?" Calarel cleared her throat. "Sorry, that wasn't for me to ask. I haven't…"

I chuckled. "Yeah, I would ask too." I smiled at her to let her know that there weren't any hard feelings. "I'm not… The sorbet. They—the god want—suggested…" I blew a raspberry and looked at my dad. "Seriously, this is fucking insane."

He chuckled and kissed my forehead. "You are such a treat. I love you so much."

"I'm glad. Love you too, Dad." I felt better that he thought I was amusing at least. I took in a deep breath. "Expand the sorbet but for humans. Their rare fruits. Sorbet now is the easy cheap fruits like oranges and limes. Or like even the good ones are mango and raspberry but… We—ours are actually and truly healthy even if treats.

"That was the vibe I got. Grow there and help that world like helping ours. Give back and remember we now get a lot from that planet and help them, not trick them to make money. Grow rare fruits that are healthier and expand that way." I shrugged. "It was a suggestion or opportunity more than a command. But I saw fairies giving it out to poor communities like…"

"Donating time—community service?" Lageos offered, nodding when I did. "Yes, that would be a message from a god. Give and take. A warning for sure. Your mother would get those when things would cross the line or people would suggest things too far."

What he was saying hit me like a ton of bricks. She was warned never to just go kill Queen Elora. I nodded. That was a line the gods wouldn't allow.

Fine, I could be angry at them instead of her. If that wasn't okay to them then they could fucking handle more shit instead of letting all of this pain and death play out. Could they do more than give warnings if they were going to involve themselves? Seriously?

I had a flash of something in my mind and hissed at the migraine I suddenly had.

"Ask and ye shall receive," I grumbled knowing exactly what it was.

"Did you snark in your head and receive an answer?" Lageos asked, mirth in his tone.

"I think so but about something else," I answered. "There's no rune that's simply an X. I asked for clearer lines, and it was just made clear to me that I should always use my magic to put that on myself before…"

"Intimacy so your vast magic is never confused about if you're ready to have a child," Calarel spelled out, nodding when I did. "Right, well, may the gods forgive me, but let's check you out in the way of fairies so I earn my salary."

I snickered at her sass. Fair enough.

She did and even confirmed that my cycle had started which was right on time, so that explained why now. She warned me that it was going to be much, much harsher than normal and I would eat even more than normal.

Was that even physically possible? Seriously?

She promised to speak with Irma and that the hobgoblin would figure it out, but it was best she know to help me anyways. I was fine with it. I wasn't going to hide this. I was clear that even when I could have children I wasn't going to until at least fifty or so. People could deal with that or not.

It wasn't my fault that things weren't stable. They could fuck off.

Seriously. If nothing else, this would quiet worries that I could have children in the future given I'd grown up with humans and as an unknown. So I thought telling people I could should shut them up but making it clear that I wouldn't have a child or heir until Faerie was stable and at peace for at least a decade was reasonable .

When Calarel left, I glanced at my dad and he smirked. "That wasn't all you were taught, right?"

"No, and our relatives need to seriously take turns if they want to talk to me. That fucking hurt."

He threw back his head and burst out laughing. "Tell me."

I did better and showed him. I showed him how one of the gods gave me a vision on how to easily make diamonds that seemed like they were made in a lab. They were between one to two carats and probably worth a thousand dollars each to sell to a distributor or jeweler and I could do three at a time easily.

Easily .

"They will get bigger or I can do more as my power grows, but I can make piles, so we need to set up some back network or way to make this work," I told him.

"I'll handle it with Iolas so it's always running," he said.

For even when he was gone. I swallowed loudly and looked away.

"I know, I know, Daughter," he whispered, leaning in and kissing my hair "I will always be with you. So will your mother. We will always watch over you from where we sit in Paradise. Never doubt that. If nothing else, I am relieved that my family can send you messages. I will make them send you our love."

That was the first comforting thing I had about all the weirdness about being related to gods . I nodded and asked him to send in the guys, doing my best to keep it together.

He nodded and left, probably knowing I would start crying the moment he did.

Lucca was holding me not even a minute later. "It doesn't help when he says you're fine and it's not about the news you learned when we find you crying, cream puff."

"I have less than a year with him," I rasped, trying to tell him what was going on and keep it together.

"Yeah, we figured it was something like that," Julian whispered as he kissed my hair. "Are you really okay?"

I nodded. "So forgive me for blurting this all out because it's all crazy and waiting has to kill you guys."

"You know us too well," Darby grumbled.

I raised my head and gave him the best smile I could. "I'm not thirty yet but—"

"You can have kids now," he finished for me knowing that would be difficult for me to say. "Right, that's why Lageos wasn't worried and knew what this was, but it would make you both sentimental."

"Yes, but this changes nothing," I said firmly. I was glad when I heard snorts echo in the room. "My mom didn't faint from that, just the pain, and apparently my period is going to be a super bitch."

Neldor snorted alone then. "Twice a year normally for royals and heirs. Mother was… Yeah, I heard the same for your mother. It's not clockwork, but a couple of times a year it just happens that you will have—Mother was in bed the whole time and Father was a mess that she was in such pain, that she would be vulnerable."

"Wow, that's a bit much," I muttered. I hurried on when I saw the shock in his eyes. "I'm not picking on her. I'm just saying that like we didn't need anything else to be shitty for us."

"No, you really didn't, Tams," he sighed. "So why did you faint? What other crazy?"

I told them and the four of them looked at me with the crazy I felt while Neldor just stared at me in awe. It was hard to accept, and I gestured to the others. "I'm with them, Nel. I try to be cool about this, but this is super-duper weird to me."

"So just so I'm super clear here," Hudson said with a heavy sigh. "One of your grandparents gave you a vision of how not to get pregnant on accident with your crazy ass magic and invented a rune X for you?"

"And how to make lab diamonds to sell for Faerie," Julian added.

"And extend the sorbet company to sell to humans," Lucca muttered.

"Plus, a warning not to con humans for money from a different one," Darby mumbled as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah, basically. So makes sense why I fainted. Kinda wanna drink, right?"

I really, really wasn't shocked when they all agreed, especially when I showed them that I could make lab diamonds. I went to say something else, but my eyes went wide as I dropped the diamonds and slapped my hand over my mouth. I teleported over to the side of the room and could only find some fancy-looking vase.

"Yeah, Mother did that a lot too," Neldor muttered as he helped me with my hair as I puked into the probably priceless vase. "Let's get you home so Irma can baby you like you'll need."

"Maybe let her finish first," Julian chastised as he put healing runes on me.

"Those won't really help much even at her power level," Neldor told us. "If they did then our mothers wouldn't have suffered. It's more about preparing and just—a few times a year she'll be sick. It's horrible, but Mother said it was the price of being able to birth a future queen and conduit to a damn planet."

Awesome. Fucking awesome when I didn't even want kids and thought I would be a horrible mother.

"Okay, and her telepathy will be a problem when she's like this," Lucca mumbled.

Great. I just puked harder and was glad when Hudson said none of them were upset and knew how I felt. They also knew I knew I'd have to have kids and it wasn't about not wanting to have their kids.

When I got everything out, Neldor used magic to clean it all up and make the vase like new. I thanked him with a wave—or I hoped he knew that was what it was for. I grunted as Hudson picked me up, snuggling against him.

"Shit, my first period wasn't this bad," I groaned as I rubbed my stomach. Then I groaned again when I felt that sensation every woman knew and dreaded. "Put me down. I don't want me to—"

"Wrap this around her waist," Darby said quietly as he handed over his suit jacket. "Cover her bottom so no one sees."

"Yeah, got it," Hudson muttered as he quickly adjusted me with Lucca's help.

"And my mortification is complete," I bitched.

"Oh no, you bled onto your suit pants. Not that," Lucca chuckled. "Yup, that is just too much for the grown men here." He snorted. "Tams, I've seen you covered in other people's blood because you were kicking ass and killing them. I don't give a shit that your body is doing something totally normal and it means we can have cubs one day. Now, what flavor of Gatorade is best?"

I thought about that a minute. He made a very valid point. "Thanks, Lucca."

"Anytime, cream puff. What flavor?"

"Whatever Irma says I'm having." I rubbed my stomach again. "And maybe if I can get that shot to not want to puke Dr. Salzman gave before. I already had a migraine from the vision things and—"

"I already have his contact pulled up to do it when we're in service," Julian told me. "Someone grabbed the diamonds?"

"Yeah, I got them," Darby promised.

Neldor opened a portal for us once we were out of the castle, but something happened when we went through it before the one from Faerie.

"Get my dad," I mumbled before I fainted.

I woke again and he promised I was fine, the pressure of going through the portals just throwing me off when I was already fragile and all over. Calarel gave me a shot for nausea and Irma had the fae version of Gatorade ready for me and easy food and soup. The more I could eat the stronger my body would be to help me.

"We would like clarification on what you said about not keeping this quiet," Julian said once I was doing a bit better and propped up in my bed. He gestured between the five of them and my dad. He nodded when I sighed. "It's better to be clear. I also agree that you need to handle this medical situation. What happened was disturbing."

"Yes, but I'm in pain and having a hard time thinking," I grumbled as I looked at my dad. "You. Of course, you. Darby is my fiancé. Julian and I are engaged, but we are mated ."

"Yes. I would also suggest Iolas as your godsfather." He sighed when I winced.

"Let's get Shael, Taeral, Iolas, and Stefanie in here," I said after a minute. "I want it damn clear they don't have the authority to do much, but they should be able to—they should have been able to get me the fuck out of there if I was unconscious and then secured with my healer. The nobles cannot overrule something like that. I'm not allowing them the authority to take me into—"

"There's no taking you into surgery or anything like that, Tams," Neldor drawled.

"That's my frame of reference, so maybe don't shit on it," I snapped as I hissed and grabbed my side. "Fuck, I'm not in fucking labor. This shouldn't fucking hurt like this. Am I growing another fucking uterus or something?"

"In a manner," Calarel said, and I wasn't the only one who looked at her like she was growing another head . She sighed. "Your body and magic are… Realigning your womb to facilitate now being able to conceive."

"Why the fuck did I have to have periods before if I couldn't? The whole point of having periods is you're able to have kids. So I went through that to not have them? That makes sense," I bitched.

"This is going to be fun," Hudson muttered. He immediately held up his hands in surrender when I opened my mouth to tell him to get out. "Sorry. My bad. Sorry. What can I do?"

"Fuck if I know, but it really fucking hurts, you stupid fucking dragon!" I groaned again and massaged my stomach as I stared at Calarel waiting for answers.

"There are human women who suffer through their cycles and are unable to have children. I'm sure you know this, Your Highness," she told me. She waited until I nodded. "Most fairies don't start as early as you did. I'm sure you did to blend. Most fairies start closer to eighteen and it's more to…"

"Flush the system. That was how your mother used to say it," Lageos drawled. "Make sure it was all working before it was important to work."

I sighed. "Yeah, fine. I get it. Yeah, even smart for my magic to blend me even if I was locked down from those vaccines." I let out a slow breath. "Am I doing like a heating pad or whatever? Like I don't want to be a baby here, but I also don't know what to do and not make this worse."

"You can do whatever you feel would help, Your Highness," she assured me. "This first one while your magic basically alters your womb will be the worst you have. After this, yes, you will have a painful period once or twice a year, but nothing this bad." She winced.

"What?" I growled.

"The period your mother had after giving birth to you was as bad as this first one," Lageos told me.

"Mother said the same," Neldor offered as he handed me a pillow. "I used a rune to heat this up. Tell me if it's too hot or not hot enough. I can adjust it."

I took it from him and held it against my stomach, sighing in relief. "Fine, I don't want to kick you in the nuts right now."

"I'm so glad?" He stared at me like I'd lost my mind.

I probably had.

"That's what women on Earth say goofing around sometimes when they're dealing with period pain or pregnancy stuff," Lucca told him quietly. "My aunt said it constantly to my uncle every time my cousin kicked while she was pregnant."

"Yeah, it's normally during pregnancy and giving birth, but the whole ‘realigning of my womb' seems fitting especially since all of this will be to have his fucking kid." I growled when the room went tense. "Oh, shut the fuck up. I'm in pain here . Don't get all fucking weird and—"

"Do you want something cold for your head, my sweet mate?" Julian asked gently as he got in the bed with me. "How about those sundaes you like?"

"That sounds fucking perfect if my stomach calms the fuck down a bit," I whined. "Do we have like Kaopectate for fairies? I want ice cream!"

And no, I didn't get any better and was a complete pain in the ass the whole time.