When we finished dinner, we put the dishes in the dishwasher and trooped out to the living room, giving Yanna the first choice of seats. Being seven and a half months pregnant, we’d discovered my couch was too low and soft for her to get back out of. It was great for napping but not great for a woman in the midst of growing a new human who was struggling with a lower center of gravity. Since her last visit, I’d put my recliner up on lifts, which, with the help of a stepstool, made it much easier for her to get somewhat comfortable and still have the ability to get up and use the bathroom whenever she needed to. Plus it was a chair-and-a-half, so Ava could snuggle in next to her, which made both of them more peaceful.

  As Yanna had stood up from her chair in the dining area, Imanja had risen quickly from her own chair and, with her eyes fixed on Yanna’s growing belly, had asked permission to touch her. This had been a pleasant surprise for all of us, considering most humans didn’t bother to ask before touching her stomach and Imanja was a goddess, a being who I know I had thought would be above asking for consent. Yanna aquiesced and Imanja knelt on the ground before her, her face on the same level as the baby. With one hand on either side of the baby bump, she whispered something that not even Yanna was able to hear, listened for an answer, and nodded after a moment.

  “You do not want to know the gender of this baby, do you?” she asked, smiling up at the mother to be. Ava wrapped her arms around her wife and looked over her shoulder, both mothers meeting the eyes of the goddess.

  “We love this baby no matter what,” Yanna said, placing her own hands over Imanja’s, “but I don’t think we’re ready to know how our child will be judged by the world.” Imanja nodded, her face almost glowing with love. She looked back at the belly in front of her, gave it a nod, and rose back to her feet.

  “Then I will tell you the one thing every parent wants to know. The child is healthy and growing strong, and they feel all of your love surrounding them.” Both women relaxed visibly as soon as they heard the word ‘healthy.’ Imanja kissed each woman on her cheek and then followed them into the living room.

  Cassie moved her Giant Paper List into the living room so we could pick up where we left off. She brought a chair from the dining area over to use as an easel and sat on the stepstool Yanna had used to boost herself into the easy chair.

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  “I can see the binding that was placed on Althea,” Imanja said after being given a recap of the conversation Mac had had with my mother in the morning. “From what I can see, the Fae who placed it probably isn’t dead but isn’t able to give the binding enough strength to balance out your emotional responses, which is why your feet are shifting when you get upset.” She looked more closely at my feet and nodded.

  “It looks like they looped it through your own personal power source so if something happened to them, the binding wouldn’t fail immediately, if at all. I’m not sure they were able to accurately account for the strength of your power and that’s contributing to the failure. I can loosen it for you, if you’d like, so you can shift at will and to whatever degree you desire, at least until you’ve mastered shifting on your own, like training wheels.”

  “So this is something she should be able to control?” Genna asked.

  “I believe so,” Imanja said, “though it’s been centuries since I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with the Fae. I think I was in Ireland…. But that’s neither here nor there. Althea, I’m going to need you to lay in the middle of the floor.” She began to move furniture around like she owned the place.

  “Not to be rude or imply that you aren’t able to keep her safe, “Mac said, “but before you do any magic, I think it would be a good idea to cast a protection circle. I know I would feel safer, especially since we still have some random wildcards out there that we can’t account for.” My friends all nodded in agreement. The goddess simply smiled and agreed.

  “This doesn’t involve me so I’m going to get some ice cream,” Yanna said, dropping out of her seat. Ava gave her a kiss before she waddled into the kitchen to give us privacy.

  “I wouldn’t mind if she stayed,” I said quietly to Ava as everyone went to the chest where I kept our ritual tools.

  “I know, but she gets weirded out by magic stuff,” Ava confided. “She doesn’t mind me doing it, and she really likes the idea of having a naming and blessing ceremony for the baby, but being involved makes her nervous.”

  “With the power I feel in her,” Imanja interjected quietly, “I am not surprised. She must be an excellent lawyer.”

  “She’s one of the best,” Ava confirmed, her pride for her wife’s ability practically glowing from her eyes.