Prowled Darkness (Dante's Circle, #7)(3)

Forgettable.

She closed her eyes and tried to push the doubt away. It wasn’t easy when all she saw when she did was Malik’s face when he’d kicked her out of his place. He hadn’t physically touched her, but he might as well have thrown her away with the day’s garbage.

She hadn’t been good enough for him and, apparently, she’d just have to deal with it.

Eliana splashed some water on her face and let out a breath. “Stop it,” she snapped at her reflection. “He’s gone. He left you. So the f*ck what? You’re going to be a mom. So stop acting like a little fool and learn to be an adult.”

“Some pep talk,” Faith said from the doorway.

Eliana flipped her friend off and rubbed her back with her other hand. She was due in a couple of weeks, but the doctor had said it could be any day now. She wasn’t ready for this, and no matter how many times she lied to herself saying she was, she never truly believed it.

“Your back hurt?” Faith asked as she moved toward her.

Eliana held out a hand. “I’m fine. Just the normal pain from lugging around squirt.”

“Pain and fine don’t usually go together,” Faith said dryly as she pushed her way toward Eliana. When her friend rubbed Eliana’s back, tears sprang to her eyes.

Damn it. Malik should be the one rubbing her back. Malik should be the one making sure she was okay and trying not to comment on how swollen her ankles were.

Freaking hormones.

She let out a breath, annoyed with herself yet again. Malik wasn’t here, but this baby was. She didn’t know the sex because she’d wanted to be surprised, something out of character for her. Usually, she wanted to plan things perfectly, but since the baby wasn’t planned, she’d wanted to keep it all in the same theme.

She wouldn’t be alone for much longer; soon she’d be a mother. And no matter how much her heart hurt, no matter how much she wanted to scream or cry over the fact that she didn’t have a clue what she was doing, she would be damned if she’d hurt this baby because of it.

This was her baby, and she’d love him or her until the end of days.

Faith leaned into her and Eliana held back a sigh. She loved her friends, she really did, but she knew once she had this baby, she’d be even more more separate from the rest. The others might not know it, but she did.

“Talk to me, Eliana,” Faith whispered as she leaned into her shoulder, still rubbing her back. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

Eliana closed her eyes a moment before opening them to meet Faith’s gaze in the bathroom mirror. There was no use hiding from Faith. The other woman always seemed to know everything. In fact, all her friends did these days.

“I’m scared,” she admitted.

“Of course, you are,” Faith said simply. “If you weren’t, I’d be worried about you.”

Eliana raised a brow. “More worried than you already are?”

Faith shrugged and took a step back, keeping her hand on Eliana’s back. “We love you. You can’t lose us, even if you feel like you have to. I know you’re scared about the baby and pissed off that that * Malik isn’t here, but we’re here. We’re going to be kickass aunts and uncles, and you’re not going to be able to get rid of us.”

Eliana let out a watery snort. “Things are going to change, Faith.”

“I know,” Faith said softly. “They do every week it seems like these days.” Her friend let out a breath. “I never really thought about what it would be like for the last of us.”

Eliana blanked her face. She didn’t want to hear what Faith had to say, but telling Faith what to do never ended well. Her mate, Levi, was about the only one who could really do it.

“We all knew our lives changed the day the lightning struck,” Eliana said coolly. If she let her emotions show, she’d break, and she wasn’t ready for that.

“Yeah, and six of us have found our true halves. Six of us went through the agony of our first change and found our way into our new realms. I never thought about what it would mean for the seventh.” Faith’s eyes filled with tears and she quickly blinked them away. Eliana didn’t want to see her friend cry. The woman rarely let emotions that could prove a weakness show.

“All it means is that I don’t turn furry or have pink wings like you.” She tried to smile as she said it, but Faith didn’t even blink at the pixie joke.

“I’m not going to let you fade away, damn it. None of us are. I don’t know what we’re going to do, but you are not going to stay human.” Faith crossed her arms over her chest and set her jaw.

“You really have no control over that.” No one had control of anything.

Faith raised her chin. “Watch me.”

And with that, her friend stormed out of the bathroom, and Eliana followed. Her ankles hurt and she wanted to sit down. Though her heart ached to think about what would happen when the others couldn’t find a way to keep her with them in the long run, she pushed it aside. Little squirt deserved more than that.

She made it back to the table, and the others gave her solemn nods as if vowing something she wouldn’t be able to control. But if that’s what they needed to keep sane, then they could do it. It wasn’t as if it would upset her more than she already was.