She sensed it and opened one eye. "Are you using power again?"
Cyrus paused.
Isabella stared at him.
He looked away slightly.
She was too tired to scold him properly, so she only whispered, "You are lucky I cannot move."
His eyes softened again. "I know."
The babies cried again.
All three of them.
The sound filled the room.
Isabella turned her head weakly toward them. The two women had wrapped the babies in soft warm cloths and placed them close enough that she could see all of them. Two boys and one girl. Three tiny snake babies with soft little horns, tiny moving bodies, and loud voices that seemed far too powerful for creatures so small.
The truth was that the three babies were fresh from birth, so they did not look like the carved little divine treasures people might imagine when speaking of a goddess's children.
They were wrinkled.
Very wrinkled.
