Another cramp robs me of air. I bend over, grunting.
Adrian holds my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s in labor. That’s why I brought you here.”
“You brought us here?” I grit out. “It wasn’t the Magna Vis?”
“No. I’ve been keeping tabs on you, Vryenn.”
“Why?”
“I never told Ruel exactly how to perform the ritual using the Magna Vis. Your presence is needed, naturally, but for it to work, your own powers need to be at their highest. For females, it occurs when they’re giving birth.”
Everything becomes crystal clear to me. “That’s why you kidnapped us.”
“‘Kidnapped’ is a strong word. I facilitated your trip.”
“How did you know Vivienne would be pregnant?” Adrian asks.
“I have the sight like my brother.” She turns to me. “You know that your mother needs to be stopped at all costs. After what she’s done to you, Rikkon, and your friends, I expected you to be more eager to end her reign of terror.”
“Perhaps I would have been if you’d shared all that information with us from the start. What aren’t you telling me?”
Her lips become nothing but a thin flat line. Whatever it is, she doesn’t want to disclose it.
“Has this ritual ever been performed successfully before?” Adrian asks.
“I don’t know.”
Another contraction comes, and it hurts more than the one before. There’s a tug in my womb, and then warm liquid drops down my legs. I want to cry. My water just broke. Adrian keeps his hold on my arm steady, and I appreciate him, but I need Lucca. I can’t do this without him.
“Your Majesty, look.” One of the knights points at the puddle on the floor.
Queen Merissa’s eyes widen. “We must depart to Aquila at once.”
“I can’t walk the wind like this,” I grit out.
Her brows arch. “Says who? If you fear walking the wind is harmful for the child, that isn’t so. Did you not walk the wind before you knew of your condition?”
Another contraction comes, and I can’t think straight. I did walk the wind when I was already pregnant, but there was no one to ask if it was safe. I’ve never met any other Nightingale female who was expecting. My mother usually banished courtiers who were. She finds the sight of a pregnant belly repulsive. I don’t know how she coped when she was knocked up herself.
Queen Merissa lifts her hand, giving a signal to her knights. Two of them approach us, but Adrian doesn’t let go.
“You need to come with me,” the knight closest to him says.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
She shakes her head. “Humans. Why must you lot be so difficult?” She hits the back of his head with the heel of her hand, and he collapses into her arms.
“What the hell have you done to him?”
“He’ll be fine. Alayna didn’t hurt him… too much,” Queen Merissa replies.
The second knight reaches for my arm, and I’m too slow to get away from her. “I can walk the wind on my own.”
“You don’t know where we’re going, my dear.” Queen Merissa smiles, and it’s getting on my nerves. “I don’t want you to get lost.”
Sixty-Three
