Flashback ( PDFDrive )

THIRTY-EIGHT
TWINS,” SOPHIE REPEATED, STARING AT Silveny’s huge baby bulge
and wondering how long the stubborn alicorn had been keeping that
secret from her.
Then again, maybe she’d also been giving Sophie hints.
Silveny always told her, BABY OKAY! BABY OKAY! And since
Silveny usually repeated everything in threes, that had probably been
deliberate.
But . . . why not just come out and say it?
And why refuse exams when she had double the lives at stake?
Sophie voiced the questions out loud as Vika ran her hands slowly
across Silveny’s abdomen again.
“Instincts are powerful things,” she said quietly. “Silveny likely
knew carrying both babies to term was a foolish decision.”
“If this is about that stupid, judgy attitude elves have toward
multiple births—” Sophie started, but Vika held up her hand.
“It isn’t. It’s a simple fact of nature. Equines rarely survive multiple
births.”
“Rarely,” Sophie noted. “So sometimes it works out?”
“There are always exceptions,” Vika agreed. “But I don’t think you
realize how slim the odds are. In all the generations that my family’s
spent breeding unicorns, we’ve only had two multiple births survive—
and in one of those cases the mother didn’t make it. And before you go