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“What will it take to bring you to me?”
“Marriage.” My answer is firm. It is the ultimate protection for me and my son. It can be no other way if not my death and Daein taking in our child.
“You kiss me,” I tell him. “You love me. I am carrying your child. We both know all of this—and you won’t give me this one thing to prove it all.”
“Why would you want this?” His voice is gentle. “Our emotions for each other are opposing, April. You believe I do not know the depths of your loathing for me. It is I who loves you, I make no fool of myself to think you feel something more for me than a need for a protector.”
“Yes.” My face twists uncomfortably and my hand presses hard to my stomach. I rub in circles, noticing his eyes cut to the gesture. “I want protection. You won’t let me go, you won’t give me up, but you’ll keep me as a slave—a whore—and leave me completely unprotected. If you truly loved me, you would marry me, Daein.”
“You are my evate—”
“I’m a glorified whore,” I spit from the safety of the light.
Slowly, he rises to stand, and I’m reminded all over again how tall and built he is. I shrink back, still safe in the light.
“What more do you want from me?” I whisper.
He is quick to answer, “Everything you have, April. Every last drop of what you have to offer me, and everything beyond that.”
I can hear it in the ice in his voice, see it in the darkness of his deepening eyes—he wants to hurt me right now. If he could get his hands on me, he would strike me down like he did in the carriage. But maybe it’s more than the light protecting me from that wrath—maybe it’s the sudden scream that rips through my body as I fall back onto the grass, arms cradling my belly.
A whimper escapes me, and it sounds awfully like his name.
I rock from side to side, knees hiked up as far as they can go, and hold my belly. The scream fades as the contraction leaves me, but this one felt … different.
I look down my body to check for blood. None.
Yet.
But I have a feeling that not even this sunlight will help me.
I look at Daein. He crouches in front of me, nearly between my spread legs, and his eyes are on me like a predator watches prey.
“Why can’t you come into the light?” I ask, my voice breathless, if only to distract myself from what’s coming—death.
“Females can,” he tells me, kneeling down in front of me, his hands clasped between his spread thighs. “Males burn. But I have other means of drawing you out, April. Shall I start with Hilda?”
I blink, propped up on my elbows. Tears slip down my face.
“Or give the guards some time with Sira?”
My belly churns, and this one isn’t a contraction.
“You’re a monster,” I whisper. An ache is starting to spread around my pelvis, an eternal ache that I don’t feel will leave me any time soon. “Anyway if I’m dead, you can’t hurt me. And I’m dying, Daein. We both know I won’t survive this.”
“Not without a healer,” he tells me softly. “But come to me and I will take you to one. You will live to see your child.Ourchild.”
I shake my head. “Dungeons.”
“I hardly think the punishment matters anymore, evate.” His tone is so soft that it startles me and I look down my body at him. He’s not looking at me—his eyes are fixed between my legs. I trace his gaze to the pool of blood growing there.
He looks up at me, worry creasing his brows. “Come to me, April. I will not harm you. I will seek help for you. And I will forgive your escape.”
I flop down on my back. “I feel dizzy,” I whisper. “I don’t think I can stand.”
“Then crawl,” he growls. “Crawl to me. Just come close enough that I can reach you.”
I whimper, “I can’t, Daein. I …”
