The Illyians' Baby

2

I woke up shivering in the damp coldness of my rundown apartment. I was kicked out at the ripe young age of thirteen and worked my ass off to be able to rent this place. This apartment wasn't much, but it was all I had. There was enough space for me to have a small cot under the window, a tiny kitchen holding the bare minimum, and a small shared bathing room down the hall.

I glanced out the window to the clock tower in the middle of the city. I had thirty minutes before needing to be at the bakery.

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I stretched my limbs and rolled out of bed. As I aimed for the door, I scooped up my bag of toiletries and silently hoped for an empty bathing room.

After years of working odd-jobs, including a cleaner in the Rainbow, a street sweeper, and even washing dishes at Rita's, I finally had a solid job working as a waitress at the bakery around the corner.

I was just clearing off my last table when Rhysand's warm voice drifted through my mind. 'Are you available for an early dinner tonight?'

I smiled as I started to swipe any crumbs into the dish bucket. Not quite sure how this form of conversing worked, I pushed my answer through my mind as if I were sending it into the clouds. 'An early dinner sounds great.'

I heard a smile in Rhysand's thoughts as he replied 'Meet by the main bridge at four.'

'Who all should I expect to be at this dinner?' I was hoping it would be all three males. But I would be happy with having just one of them.

There was a brief pause before the High Lord replied 'Azriel and Cassian would be terribly upset if we didn't extend an invitation to them. But it will be whoever you want to be there.'

A soft giggle erupted from my lips and I blushed at the attention my coworker gave me. 'I would be delighted to see all three of you tonight.' With that, my mind was only filled with my own thoughts.

Brynna, my coworker and the boss's only daughter, came up to me. "Out with it" she demand.

Over my days working at the bakery, Brynna has become a true friend to me. She was slightly taller than me and had long, dark brown hair. Her beauty radiated and I joked that it was what brought in many of our customers.

"I have a date tonight" I told her sheepishly.

Her mouth fell open, "WHAT! With who? And how? You never linger around people long enough to let them even know your name."

I looked around at the slowly emptying dining room. "Let's get some lunch when our shift is over. Then we can talk about it." I wasn't ashamed of the idea that the High Lord and his two friends found me interesting. However, I didn't want to go around blabbing my mouth and ruin things before they even begin. Brynna reluctantly agreed, and all but rushed our last patrons out.

—

"Now out with it!" Brynna was done waiting. She was a hopeless romantic that did everything she could to try and get me to show any interest in a male. But with my past, I always turned away from any sort of affection. It even took an entire year working at the bakery to have any social conversation with her.

We were sitting on a large blanket on the edge of the Sidra. A basket of food left untouched between us.

"I was at Rita's last night, per usual. I ordered a wine and a male and two of his friends came up behind me and offered to buy my drink. They then led me to their table and introduced me to their friends. At the end of the night, they asked if I wanted to go out again. I didn't know it would be tonight, but the male asked me while we were at work." I rambled through the condensed version of what happened the night prior. Knowing that the second I stopped, Brynna would bombard me with so many questions.