a small travel bottle of mouthwash, a stick of organic ChapStick, a woman’s deodorant, and a razor. Feeling warmed, she touched the short black nightgown and matching robe. They were tastefully simple with a small edge of lace around the border.
Her phone chimed. She checked the screen.
Josiah: Check in, damn it.
Everything’s fine, she replied. I just checked into a motel, and I’m going through the bag.
You must be tired. You pushed it late.
Once I started, I couldn’t stop. She wanted to hear his voice, and her thumb hovered over the Call button.
Before she could make up her mind, he texted, Get some rest, and check in tomorrow night.
Of course, it was late for him as well, and he had been pulling double duty ever since she’d called after Austin’s attack. Reluctantly, she replied, Will do. Have a good night.
You too.
Heaviness weighed her down. She was too tired to shower or take the tags off the clothes, so she brushed her teeth and climbed into the strange bed. Despite how badly she needed to rest, she felt naked and exposed without the basement’s protection spells. It took her some time before she could fall asleep.
The next day she left shortly after dawn and stopped only for food and fuel and to make a quick stop at a pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test kit.
The odds were vastly against it. It was ridiculous to think she might be pregnant after missing one pill. Worse than ridiculous to hope for it.
But when she thought of her rage and pain when she’d considered the childless bedrooms in that big, soulless house, she knew she would welcome a pregnancy if she was gifted with one. The timing couldn’t be more horrendous. Still, she wanted it with all her heart.
She didn’t see any cosmic signs urging her to go in another direction, so she continued to New Orleans and arrived later that morning.
The weather had turned warmer, and there was just something about the scarred, beautiful city that spoke to her. The crooked streets of the French Quarter were steeped in a very old Power that was gracious and deadly. It whispered at the edge of her mind, You may visit, but leave me alone.
Respectful of the warning, and more than a little freaked out, Molly did nothing to seek it out. After walking through the French Quarter, she checked into a motel.
That evening she was happy to leave contact with Josiah to a simple text. Apparently he felt the same. After their brief exchange, she read the instructions on the pregnancy kit and realized she needed to wait a few more days before trying to take it.
Nobody knew where she was. There was nothing she needed to do. Nowhere she needed to go. No crisis that she needed to avert. Everything caught up with her. Everything everything everything.
She went to bed. Aside from a brief exchange of texts with Josiah and leaving her motel room when hunger drove her to find food, she slept for three days.
On the morning of the fourth, her brain and soul rebooted. She was hungry, well rested, and her body had rid itself of the last of the residual aches from the attack.
It had been over a week since she and Josiah had made love. Waiting ten days would have been better—or even waiting to see if she missed her period, but she couldn’t make herself wait any longer.
She went into the motel bathroom, unboxed the pregnancy test, and reread the instructions.
It was simple enough. She had to pee on a stick and wait for the results.
She took care of business, sat on the floor, set an alarm on the phone, and closed her eyes.
Concentrate on your breathing.
Four-seven-eight. Stay calm.
There’s less than a ten percent chance. You know you’re not pregnant. It was just the perfectly bad timing and how it all came together…
You’re only doing the responsible thing by making sure.
The alarm shrilled in the silent bathroom, making her pulse kick. She held up the stick.
The sight of the + sign hit her like a roundhouse punch. As she stared at it, the world shook around her.
After a while, she flushed the rest of her birth control pills down the toilet, showered and dressed, and headed out. Sure, the result of the test was a shock, but… she felt good about it. Really good.
More than that, she felt eager. Every minute, every mile, every new experience took her further away from the unhappiness of her past, and she wanted