She Stole My Curse novel · Chapter 31 of 32
Chapter 31: The Hatching
"Ten," I said.
My voice cracked on it.
Aurek knelt down on the warm stones beside me and put his face in my hair, and didn't say anything at all.
The old nurse set the lamp down by the last nest.
"Well," she said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "We'll need more bowls."
They hatched five weeks later, at the end of summer.
All on the same night, all within an hour of each other, just like the first time.
I'd forgotten how loud it was.
The first egg cracked a little after midnight with a sound.
Then the second, and the third, and then the whole hatchery was crackling.
Then they started screaming.
Ten newborn hatchlings, each the size of my two hands, with tiny tails and wet hair and furious little faces, all screaming at once.
Aurek stood in the middle of it with his arms full of two of them and an expression of pure panic.
"What do I do?"
"Hold them."
"I am holding them!"
"Then hold them and walk around."
"Walk where?"
"Anywhere!"
He walked in a circle around the hatchery.
They screamed louder.
He sang his mother's lullaby to them, badly.
The two in his arms stopped screaming and stared at him.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of She Stole My Curse are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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