Three weeks later, Alex couldn't remember what it felt like to move without weight.
The small lives inside him had become unmistakably, undeniably present.
Four of them. They'd confirmed it last week, when the stones had pulsed brightly enough to cast shadows and the image of four tiny heartbeats had shimmered in the air above Alex's belly. Four cubs—not snakelings this time, but something else. Something furrier. The vision was too blurry to pinpoint what exactly they were but the shapes had been distinctly mammalian. Rounded ears. Tiny tails. Paws that curled and stretched against the inside of his womb.
The word four changed everything and nothing at the same time.
Four.
