ERIS
No, I replied to myself instantly. Rejected.
I had been meticulous. I had taken the potions Kristina provided every single day. I had doubled the dosage on the many, very many, occasions when Soren had been particularly persuasive about the merits of not sleeping. I was a queen of strategy; I didn't make mistakes with logistics.
Besides, I wouldn't have lived long enough to carry anything. The seal was eating my core. The dragon was burning me from the inside out.
My body was a failing fortress; it couldn't possibly be a cradle. And three? Three was beyond absurd. Three was the universe making a deliberate joke at my expense because it found my tragedy too dull.
I looked at the one in my arms, then at the one asleep on my chest. Its tiny heartbeat was visible in the pulse of its silver throat. A feeling rose in my chest, something heavy and warm that I refused to name. I ignored it, focusing instead on the temperature.
