He glanced at the babies again. The thumb sucker plucked his damp digit from his wet, gummy maw and let his arm fall to the side, thumping a baby girl beside him. Whether accident or intention, he woke her, and the little girl screwed up her face and began to wail.
William gazed at her. "I sympathize, little one. I'm about there myself."
He paced the confines of the tree's heart. Other babies began to wake and the chorus of their dissonant cries gave rise to a headache that started just behind his eyes and seemed to run down his spine. He had to get the babies to safety and find a way to help Tamara. No more waiting around simply because she was better at magick. In the back of his mind William had always had a solution, or a potential one. But it frightened him to even consider.
Now, though, it had become his only choice.
"Bugger!" he snapped. Then he sighed and turned to look at the squalling babies, all wailing at him except for the thumb sucker, who still only looked bemused.
