Iron Crowned Page 0,105

..."

"We go into my savings," I finished.

She nodded. Her face was grim, a far cry from the giddiness she'd shown when she and Tim had stumbled out of bed this morning. A bitter part of me thought maybe I could pick up extra cash by charging her rent. I dismissed that, of course. None of this was her fault.

"I know there's ... stuff ... going on, Eugenie, but why can't you start taking more jobs? You cut the workload before, and we still did okay, but now ... there's next to nothing. Your savings can't hold out that long. And what on earth did Enrique do that got us such a large bill?"

I ignored that and simply stared at the numbers on the screen, my heart sinking. "I've got a lot of equity in the house."

"What?" Her jaw nearly dropped. "You'd risk your house instead of just taking on more work?"

A terrible image came to my mind: me, trapped in some small apartment with two screaming babies. End it, just end it.

"It's just an option," I pointed out. "A safety net. And speaking of which ... Did you talk to Enrique?"

Lara nodded. "I did. I'm going to do a little administrative work for him on the side."

"Good." One less thing to feel guilty about. "You'll be okay then."

"This isn't about me! I don't understand. Why can't you just take a couple of jobs? I've got reams of requests! There are easy ones, like that ghost the other day."

I tried to hide my dismay at that. "I haven't been feeling well, that's all. And this is kind of a physical line of work."

Lara's blue eyes scrutinized me for several seconds. "Then maybe you're the one who needs to be looking for another job."

"No!" I exclaimed. "This is what I do. It's the only thing I do."

"But if you're sick - "

"I'm fine. I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow and then ..." I faltered. And then what? "And then I'll be fine. Back to work. My appointment's at noon, so hell, you could schedule something later that afternoon. Find me a troll or a banshee."

She sighed. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset." But it was a lie. My volume had increased without my realizing it, and I felt flushed.

Lara rose, shutting the laptop and picking up her plate. "Just get yourself better. We can figure this out then. Do you need a ride or anything tomorrow?"

"I'm not that sick," I told her. And, of course, I could always have my unlicensed teenage sister drive me. "We'll be back in business again soon, you'll see."

Lara gave me a tight smile, trying to hide concern but failing. She wandered off to Tim's bedroom, and Jasmine sat up on the couch, where she'd overheard everything. "That's a good idea, you know," she said. "Sell this place. Just move to the Otherworld with the kids."

I started to rebuke her but paused. It was an option. I'd have plenty of daycare there - a whole castle of babysitters. My daughters would be raised like royalty. They were royalty. But raising them there meant they'd probably lose whatever humanity was in them. They would be gentry for all intents and purposes. Was that what I wanted? It was already happening to me.

"They may be boys," I reminded Jasmine. "Then it's back to work."

Kiyo called that night, wanting to know if I'd heard anything. I told him it was too soon for the results but that I'd let him know when the doctor called. It was a small lie. As I'd slipped to Lara, I was actually going back to the office for the results. Twins had popped me into a high-risk category, apparently, and along with delivering the results in person, they'd wanted to do another ultrasound. I didn't want Kiyo around for that, obviously, but I wouldn't have minded him coming over that night. I wanted the contact, the love. Most importantly, I wanted to feel like he wasn't repulsed by me in my current state.

When noon came the next day, I went like someone going to her own funeral. My mind was blank, unable to focus on anything, and Jasmine probably would have been a safer driver. She'd come along; there'd been no discussion. Neither of us spoke on the drive over, and I could see she was wound just as tightly with tension. Whatever happened, it was going to be big.

"Soon," I murmured as we walked in. "Soon this'll be over, one way or