“We believed your child called to it,” the silver-braided elder said quietly.
Nick growled.Low.Dangerously low.The sound rolled out of his chest hard enough that every troll warrior on the surrounding bridges visibly stiffened, hands flexing against weapon grips.
Rachel was at Kara’s other shoulder before Kara had even registered the movement.“Absolutely not,” she snapped, her voice carrying with the kind of sharp precision of a dominant female wolf.“You do not get to blame an innocent child for this.”
Gavril’s hand settled instantly against the small of his mate’s back, grounding her even as his own wolf pressed visibly closer to the surface, his eyes glowing with his beast.
Kara pressed a hand flat against Nick’s chest, sending calm through their bond before this turned into an international incident.The thunder of his heart slammed against her palm.“Easy, Cujo.”
His eyes flashed gold, then settled.
The silver-braided elder inclined her head, the gesture deep and unmistakably respectful, first toward Nick, then toward Rachel.
“We no longer believe this.When Gavril mentioned Raja and the Nushtonia, we began to do more research, another reason you all are still here.“
Kara frowned.“Then what exactly do you believe?”
The Troll King turned, slow and deliberate, toward the black veins spreading through the stone.The glow from the minerals caught along the planes of his face and threw the hard lines of his expression into sharp relief.For the first time since she’d met him, uncertainty bled through.
“That your child is the only reason it has not reached us sooner.”
The chamber plunged into silence.
Kara stared at him.
Behind her, Zara inhaled sharply.Wadim muttered something she couldn’t understand.Gavril was growling, and Rachel pressed closer to Kara’s side.She didn’t know where Aphid had gone but figured he could handle himself.
Honestly, everybody breathed dramatically in this realm.It was getting difficult to track.
“I’m sorry,” Kara said after several long seconds.“Could you repeat the part where my unborn daughter is apparently the only thing standing between your realm and magical doom?Because I feel like I hallucinated that.Also, that’s kind of a lot of pressure when she hasn’t even made it onto her first little league team yet.”
The king’s gaze returned to hers.“This darkness is older than Raja.”
That got everyone’s attention.
Even the warriors along the bridges shifted uneasily at the name.One of the elders, a smaller male with skin the color of weathered granite, made a quiet sign in the air with two fingers.
Nick frowned.“That seems a bit unlikely.”
“Nothing is impossible, wolf, you should know this,” the Troll King said quietly.“It’s been buried.”
The blue mineral veins overhead flickered violently, light stuttering across the chamber in a sharp, uneven pulse.Several of the warriors flinched.Kara’s stomach tightened hard enough to make her suck in a breath, one hand pressing instinctively beneath the cloak.
The baby moved again.Not kicking this time.It felt like she was reaching.
The sensation rolled through her body so suddenly and so wrongly placed that her knees nearly buckled.It was as though something inside her had stretched outward toward something deep beneath the floor, and the air between them had answered.
Nick caught her instantly, one arm bracing across her back, the other cupped beneath her elbow.
“Kara—”
Her fingers fisted in the front of his shirt.“Something’s down there.”
The entire chamber went silent.
The Troll King stepped toward her, slowly, the heavy fall of his boots the only sound in the cavern.“What do you sense?”
Fear crawled up Kara’s spine.
