Pregnant — Rachel Steele

It was Elias who finally explained. He invited her to his back room, filled with ticking clocks that all showed different times—and yet, somehow, all struck midnight together. “Leo wasn’t a cartographer of land,” Elias said softly. “He was a cartographer of thresholds. The spaces between here and there, now and then. And you, Rachel Steele—you are a compass. You find lost things. You found him. And he left a piece of himself behind. A child who can exist in two worlds at once.”

The pregnancy progressed, and strange things happened. Shadows would lean toward her, curious. Lost keys would roll across the floor to her feet. And once, when she tripped on the stairs, she didn’t fall—she floated, just for a second, the baby’s heartbeat syncing with the compass’s gentle spin. rachel steele pregnant

Then, a cry. Small, furious, alive.