Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of The One #2)(2)

“Sleeping—unless Jonah’s picked him up again when my back was turned. The man’s bedazzled.”

“As a daddy should be. Isn’t today your six-week checkup, Doc? Big day for you.”

“This doctor’s already given her patient the all clear, but Ray’s going to formalize it. Big day for you, too. How do you feel?”

“Great. Excited. A little nervous.”

“I’ll be tuning in—and I want to see you in here when you’re done.”

“I’ll be there.” As she spoke, Arlys laid a hand on the mountain of her belly. “This baby’s got to be about cooked. Much longer, I won’t even be able to waddle.”

“We’ll check it out. Good morning, Clarice,” Rachel said as the first patient of the day came up the walk. “Come right on in. Good luck, Arlys. We’ll be listening.”

Arlys started to waddle—really, what other word was there—and stopped when she heard her name called.

She waited for Will Anderson—her childhood neighbor, current town deputy, and, as it turned out, the love of her life.

He laid a hand over hers on her belly, kissed her. “Walk you to work?”

“Sure.”

He linked fingers with her as they walked to where he’d lived during his first months in the community. “Okay with you if I hang around and watch?”

“If you want, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take to set up. Chuck’s optimistic, but—”

“If Chuck says we can do this, we can.”

As her belly pinged with nerves, she let out a breath. “I’ve got to go with you there.”

Chuck had been her primary source during the Doom, a hacker and IT genius who now ruled over what technology they had. In the basement, of course. The man was a confirmed basement dweller.

“I want to see you at work,” Will added.

“What do you call what I do at home with the New Hope Bulletin?”

“Work, and a boon to the community. But we’re talking live broadcast, baby. It’s what you’re meant to do.”

“I know some people are worried about the risk, about drawing attention here. The wrong kind of attention.”

“It’s worth it. And Chuck not only knows what he’s doing, but we’ll have the magickal shields going. If you can reach one person out there, you can reach a hundred. If you can reach a hundred, who knows. A lot of people still don’t know what the hell’s going on, where to get help, supplies, medicine. This matters, Arlys.”

It mattered, a great deal to her, when he risked his life on a rescue.

“I was just thinking about what matters.” She paused outside the house, turned to him. “You’re top of the list.”

They circled around to the back of the house to the basement door.

Inside, what had been a large family room now stood as a computer geek’s wet dream—if he dreamed of cobbling together components, cables, hard drives, motherboards, gutting ancient computers, reconfiguring desktops and laptops, hanging various screens.

She figured Chuck did.

He sat at one of the keyboards in a hoodie and cargo pants, a backward ball cap on hair recently bleached white courtesy of the community beautician. He’d gone bright red on his pointed little beard.

In the theme of bright red, Fred’s curls bounced as she popped up from where she’d been sitting with three four-year-olds and an array of toys.

“Here’s the talent! I’m production manager, gofer, and assistant camera.”

“I thought I was the gofer.” Katie, mother of three, kept an eye on them from the arm of the sagging sofa Arlys knew Chuck often slept on.

“Co-gofer, and supervisor of the power boosters.”

Katie looked at her twins, Duncan and Antonia. “They’re excited. I just hope they—and everybody—know what we’re doing.”

“We make it go for Arlys and Chuck,” Duncan said, grinning at his mom. “Me and Tonia.”

“Push!” Tonia giggled, lifting a hand. Duncan pressed his palm against hers. Light glowed.

“Not yet.”

Hannah, blond and rosy against the twins’ dark hair, got up. She patted her mother’s leg, as if in comfort, then walked to Arlys. “When’s the baby come out?”

“Soon. I hope.”

“Can I watch?”

“Ah …”

On a laugh, Katie rose to swing Hannah up and kiss her. “She probably would.”

“I don’t know about that, kiddo.” Chuck swiveled around in his chair. “But you’re about to watch history, and the debut of New Hope Broadcasting.”

“We’re up?”

He grinned at Arlys, gave her a finger salute. “We’re up. Definitely up with some help from our boosters.”

The twins jumped up, eyes alight.

“Not yet, not yet.” This time Arlys held them off. “I need to look over my notes, and … things. I need a few minutes.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Chuck told her.

“Okay, um, just give me a few.”

Rattled when she hadn’t expected to be, she walked back outside with her folder of notes. Fred walked out behind her.

“You shouldn’t be nervous.”