Page 180 of The Other Omega

“My voice?”

“Messages you sent us.”

My eyes filled as I remembered those silly messages: me telling them to come home, describing something the babies had done or asking if anyone was going to eat the cake I’d made.

“You played those?”

“Yes.”

I reached for him, and he came close enough for me to cup his cheek and brush my thumb beneath his eye.

“Thank you for staying with them.”

He turned his face into my palm and kissed it. “They are our daughters.”

A whimper escaped me. “Can I hold one?”

“Yes, you can, my darling.” Lucien placed a cushion on my lap.

I held out my arms, then stopped when I saw how badly my hands were shaking. “No. It’s not safe.”

“You don’t have to support her alone,” Lucien said. “We’ll make sure she’s safe.”

He moved the blanket aside and lifted our elder daughter from the cot. I opened my arms, and he gently settled her into them. Alaric slipped his forearm under mine while Lucien kept a hand beneath her head.

“The blanket,” I said, looking back at the cot, but Leon was already pulling it over her sister.

Then I looked down at the baby in my arms and forgot whatever I’d meant to say. She had fine, dark eyebrows and such delicate eyelashes. Her mouth opened, then closed again, and her tiny brow creased as though the journey from the cot had inconvenienced her.

“Hello, baby.” I bent and kissed her head. “It’s me. It’s Mummy.”

Lucien’s fingers tightened beneath my elbow, and I glanced up at him.

“She’s got your hair.”

“It is a similar colour,” he said quietly.

“She’s so beautiful.”

“Yes, my darling.”

I leaned closer and breathed in her warm, sweet scent. Something familiar beneath it made my chest ache.

“She smells a little like me.”

“Once she was stable enough, the physicians helped us place her against your chest.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t awake, darling,” I whispered. “I’m here now.”

Alaric kissed my temple. “You have nothing to apologise for.”

I couldn’t stop the tears. “I just wish I’d heard her when she was born.”

His arm drew me a little closer. “We can tell you about it when you’re ready.”

I rested against him, letting our daughter lie warm between our arms. I wanted to keep looking at her, to learn every little thing about her face, but my arms were already tiring.

“You can hold her again,” Alaric said. “Let us bring you our younger daughter, then give your arms some rest.”