The morning after the decision was made Kyndall decided to power up one last time to say goodbye. It had been a good decision at the time but the first night Tony went out to patrol and she didn’t she got this sick feeling in her stomach. This was a time to get back to herself, she swore, and there was nothing to feel guilty about. People grow and change and so had she. The emotions she felt were an ever-changing torrent and at moments she felt relief, then guilt, fear, and joy. Whatever would become of her would take time to master.

But the longer she went on the sick feeling didn’t go away. It grew. For a few days she passed it off as the mixture of being stressed out by work and giving up her destiny. There were bound to be physical consequences of this kind of choice to give up a part of herself that had been so vital for so long. She’d wanted it so much once upon a time.

No, that wasn’t it.

Within a week as she felt the symptoms the more Kyn seemed to remember feeling it before. She knew the cause, or thought she knew, and that was why she was locked in her bathroom with a little white strip of plastic perched on the back of her toilet and her pacing away furiously. Two minutes being drug out in breathless anticipation seemed like torture. These stupid little tests were masters of torture making people wait on pins and needles to find out one important thing.

Once her cell phone beeped to tell her two minutes had passed she braced herself for the outcome, whatever it would be. Plus or minus she was still herself and her life would still go on. She told herself that but still her hand shook reaching for the test. She closed her eyes and brought it up closer, counted to three and then opened them again. Plus sign.

She was pregnant.

Pregnant.

The word echoed in her head as a choked sound died in her throat somewhere halfway between pleased and dismayed. She was turning thirty-six in less than a month and Tony was on his way to turning forty-one. Were they crazy to be having children? Of course she had to talk to him about it and decide where they stood. She hadn’t even gotten to talk to him about buying a new house to accommodate their growing family and now it was getting bigger. Is this what they wanted? No matter what their choice this was the last child Kyn was likely to have and she’d see to that when the pregnancy was done.

It was a good thing she’d just retired from being a knight. Tony would never let her power up in her condition and she wouldn’t want to. The risks would be too great. Pregnant. She repeated it to herself, aloud, trying to believe it. How was she going to explain this to her husband? Her mind began turning to possible ideas, wondering if he’d be pleased. She doubted herself, of course, and imagined a hundred times his rejection. Stupid, of course, because he loved her and would love their children. This was his chance to raise a child properly.

She could do this. When one chapter closed another began.