The King's Consort Ch. 01

Which meant she had to make the best of it. So, despite the nausea rising in her throat, she took a tentative bite. The first did not cause her body to riot, so she took another, and another, until both her dining companions paused.

"Slow down, Caitlin. You'll make yourself sick."

She paused too, yet another bite hanging inches from her mouth. Caitlin set the fork down and swallowed hard. "Sorry."

Janice patted her arm. "No reason to be sorry. I just know how it is, if you eat too fast." Her smile disappeared as she, herself, took a few bites, turning to Lev. "And you? How is it?"

He nodded enthusiastically, shearing off a thick bite of roast appreciatively.

Caitlin smiled, watching the two of them getting along well. Her mother hated Kalen, but she'd found some common ground with everyone else at the mansion; it made their shared existence far more bearable. She focused on her food, testing, carefully, the roast itself. The meat was rich, despite the absence of spices, and it took her a minute to adjust to the powerful flavor.

Janice was content in the silence, punctuated by the clink of a glass or a scrape of fork on plate. Lev was not one for conversation, and with Kalen gone, Caitlin was a little blue. Her mother knew it, but couldn't seem to find it in her heart to empathize. The magnificent Janice Stone never needed a man. Caitlin's own father had abandoned Janice before she'd even begun to show. But knowing what she did of his work, it was probably for the best, anyway.

That thought alone made her shudder, and Janice noticed. She noticed everything. "What's wrong, Caitlin?"

She shook her head. "It's- nothing. I'd rather not talk about it over dinner."

Janice gave her a troubled look, but accepted the answer. "Well, Lev and I got the plot tilled for the squashes, today. We'll have some big ol' pumpkins before the end of the growing season." She smiled, but the emotions weren't there. "And Marianne said Amandine should be staying a while, at least until your... guy gets back."

Caitlin's heart leaped a little. Amandine? Kalen never told her she'd be visiting. She was the only one of his kind that Janice took a liking to. Amandine had farmhouse commissioned for her mother beside the mansion.

Caitlin took a sip of the orange juice, doing her best not to chug the sweet drink. She certainly needed the calories, but she didn't want to throw up, either. "It'll be nice to see her again." And it would be. She might look like a plump mushroom next to the Grecian goddess, but Amandine made her feel welcome in Kalen's family, so unlike his father, King Eamon.

"Yes. It really will." Janice offered a sincere smile, but she seemed to be skirting the most obvious point of discussion. Kalen.

They'd been this way for the last two months, trying not to rile the other up over him. Caitlin did her best not to mention him, and Janice tried very hard not to belittle him every chance she got. Amandine wanted no part in their dispute over her son, and even seemed to find some measure of amusement in it, however fleeting.

But on this day, the tension was palpable.

Caitlin wanted so badly to tell her how much she missed him, but she couldn't expect any form of sympathy. All she'd get was scalding resentment that made her want to hide in the master suite for a week. No. It was best not to bring him up again, at least in Janice's presence.

She was just lucky her mother didn't have to live in the mansion with them. The distance was good for everyone, and especially for her sex life. Caitlin had no idea how Janice would react to hearing their goings-on if she overheard.

She reddened at the thought, polishing off her late breakfast.

The sun was setting over the western horizon. She could see it through the wide bay windows of her mother's kitchen. With the night came a blessed darkness that she so craved. No longer was she able to press through the permeating veil, but she could still see it... feel it, filling her with vital energy. It was something his kind connected to, giving them power. Her, too, after the strange and inhuman test she'd been subjected to by her father's successor. And once she made that final transition? She would never be separated from it again.

It was one of only three things that made the transition bearable. Kalen was the other, and the third? She held her stomach, feeling that speck of darkness she carried with her always.

"How have you been feeling?" Her mother's voice surprised her. "I know the pregnancy has been hard on you, these last couple of months."

Caitlin shrugged, doing her best to look indifferent. "I'm not as sick. From what you and Marianne said, I thought I'd be worse than this. At least I can eat."

Her mother nodded appreciatively. "That is good."

Caitlin nodded back, but didn't respond. Everything revolved around the pregnancy, now. And she would be subject to it for a lot longer than any normal woman. Three years. The thought rang through her mind, reminding her again the servitude she had to bear.

It wasn't so much that she would be in this state that long. More to the point, she was helpless during that time. She was not allowed to participate in her usual activities, as Kalen had so clearly pointed out with the 'sex in the snow', her mother refusing her help on the farm, and Marianne practically babying her with her services. No one ever allowed her to exert herself, with the exception of Kalen, and the doctor, who recommended a long stroll around the mansion's property daily. With the moon beginning to rise, she felt it might be a good time to dismiss herself for that exact purpose.

Caitlin stood up from the table. "Mom. I- I think I'm going to take a walk."

Janice seemed shocked, then that troubled look returned to her deceptively youthful face. "Take Lev with you, at least. God knows when there's going to be another Gabriel out there, or worse, one of their kind." That answer made Caitlin hesitate from inviting her along, too.

The youth was already up from the table, gathering the dishes.

"Of course, mom. Wouldn't go anywhere without an escort. Not in my condition." She rolled her eyes, irritated that so many of her rights had been stripped away so early in the pregnancy.

Janice eyed him, then Caitlin as if she was required to. "I love you, you know."

She glanced away, guilt weighing her words down. "I love you too, mom." Caitlin didn't know when her mother stood, but she was wrapped in a firm set of arms, graying curls taking up the bulk of her vision. The hug lasted far longer than she expected it to, getting awkward for Caitlin, but not Janice.

When her mother pulled away, there were tears in her eyes. She smiled, but even her smile turned down. "My baby girl. You grew up way too fast."

Caitlin was surprised by the tears stinging her own eyes, and smiled in return. She couldn't reassure her mother she'd always be there, or that she'd be the same person at the end of her journey. But her human self, for what she could control, would always love her back.

Janice sniffed, then tapped on her back lightly as if she were ushering the stubborn old mare into the field. "Go, go. Have your walk."

She wrapped her mother in another, quicker, hug. "Thanks for dinner, mom."

Lev was already holding the door open for her, so she decided not to keep him waiting. He was lanky enough to stand in the doorway, while still allowing her to pass through without brushing against him. She wasn't sure quite how old he was, but he seemed to be finished growing, vertically, at least. Her mother would fatten him up, though, if he continued eating her meals.

He didn't trouble the nighttime chorus of forest creatures with words, not that he could. Marianne was teaching her some of his language. 'Sign language', they called it, and she knew the basics to understand if he spelled something out for her. When they spoke with each other, she was entirely lost, but she'd hammered down the alphabet in a month, and was working on increasing her vocabulary. Lev was patient with her, slowing down until she understood.

The youth was cautious under the night sky. He didn't have the heightened senses she did. But she knew there was no danger here, and her instincts hadn't steered her wrong since she first saw the veil. Here, at the manor, she was safe from prying eyes.

She steered them towards the creek at a brisk pace; it was one of her favorite natural installments on Kalen's property. The path she'd been walking for nearly two months was starting to leave a trail on the ground, where the plants refused to sprout. She was growing on this place as much as it was growing on her. It was satisfying to see her influence, even on so little as a walking path.

Caitlin missed taking these walks with Kalen, but she was happy she didn't refuse her mother by dismissing Lev. She happened to have the authority to trump anything her mother said, and Janice hated it, but that was their life now.

The servants served Kalen and the royal family, not the in-laws.

But Caitlin didn't worry over her treatment, Marianne was the sweetest woman in the world, and Edmund was much too set in his ways to ever be rude, even to a farmer, such as they both were.

She touched her stomach with regret, not anymore.

Sadness reached her in the velvet darkness, but it didn't last. Only a sliver of the moon was visible through the trees, though there was not much else to see of the pregnant globe. The earth's shadow nearly eclipsed the white surface, which made the darkness palpable under the starry sky.

A pinpoint of joy entered her heart, and she basked in the warm spring evening. She allowed the pitch energy to coalesce against her paling flesh and seep into her bones.

The night was beautiful and complete, with the exception of one thing: Kalen.