On a Clear Winter Night: An Irin Chronicles Short Story Read Online Free Page A

have her second baby when I was only ten.”
    Ava’s jaw dropped. “But—”
    “Some Irin siblings are decades or even a hundreds of years apart. Women don’t lose fertility until they want to.”
    “Whoa.” Ava tried to wrap her brain around it. “So your mother and her sibling—”
    “It was a girl,” Candace said. “My aunt was ten years younger than me, but she was one hundred twenty years younger than her sister. Something like that.”
    “Wow.”
    Candace shrugged. “That was normal for us. Irina weren’t limited by time when they had their children. I was over two hundred when I had Brooke.”
    “And you had her at home?”
    She nodded. “Just me and Ezekiel. We were hiding then, and he never trusted human hospitals.”
    “So…” Ava let out a long breath. “What am I in for?”
    Candace smiled. “I think it’s mostly like human birth. Traditionally, Irina don’t use any drugs because the midwife or doctor will sing the pain away. Astrid is very good at it. It’s our own kind of anesthetic. It will still hurt—there’s no way to avoid that completely—but Malachi will be holding you, so—”
    “Holding me? Holding me how?”
    “A scribe sits behind his mate and holds her while she’s in labor. I know that’s not the normal thing for human hospitals, but it’s very comforting. It puts your mating marks against his. Very powerful magic. Orsala taught you the songs for the baby?”
    Ava nodded.
    “It’s the same for scribes. There are special spells Malachi will draw on your skin to help you give birth, and then those for the baby—babies!—when they are born.” Candace’s smile turned into a grin. “I’m so excited for you. Twins are so lucky.”
    Ava spotted a problem immediately. “But has anyone told Malachi what spells he has to write? None of his brothers or his Watcher are fathers.”
    Candace’s smile fell. “I hadn’t thought about that. And Bruno and Karen haven’t had a baby either.”
    Ava felt a sense of panic. What if something went wrong because Malachi didn’t know the right spells? What if her songs for her son and daughter didn’t take because his half of the birth ritual wasn’t correct? Would their daughter be tormented with the constant voices that Ava had experienced from the time she was a small child?
    “Ava.” Candace put a hand on her arm. “It will be fine. Orsala taught you the songs months ago. I’m sure someone taught Malachi, as well. He had his own father for many years. He probably learned them when he was young.”
    “But what if he forgot?”
    “Scribes don’t forget spells like that.”
    Ava let out a slow breath. “You’re right. I’m probably worrying for nothing.”
    “Everyone worries. It’s normal. Don’t panic. It’ll be fine.”

    THE dream sneaked in on quiet cat feet until it sat in shadow across from her. Ava opened her eyes to see the darkness sitting in the armchair across from their bed in the cozy library where Bruno had set up a bed for them.  
    Before her eyes, the cat stretched and yawned, transforming into a lithe, dark-skinned young man with a flow of black and gold hair covering his shoulders.
    Ava blinked slowly. “I told you to stop doing that.”
    Vasu shrugged.
    “Am I dreaming?”
    “A bit.”
    “Why are you here?”
    The fallen angel glanced at her belly. “They are unique.”
    A spike of anger. “They are none of your business.”
    “You’re wrong.”
    A flash of an old vision.
    Two dark-haired children. A girl with a golden gaze, laughing as butterflies swirled around her. A boy, staring back at her with his father’s eyes. An ink-black jaguar curled around the children as a wolf and a tiger paced behind. The tiger bent to the girl, opening his mouth. The great beast closed his jaw around the girl’s nape gently as she continued to smile and pet its cheek.
    Ava opened her eyes with a gasp. “Is it you? The jaguar?”
    Vasu cocked his head. “I do not see what you do,