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I’m feeling so weak.
So weak.
The blood seeping out of me is my energy, and I’m being drained, fast.
I hardly cry out when the next contraction hits me, despite that it’s the worst. I can only manage a gravelly groan. My arms slide away from my belly and land on the grass with a thud.
Distantly, I’m aware of a savage shout before roasting hot hands snatch onto my ankles. I’m hoisted out of the light, then shoved down on my back, Daein draping himself over me. His face is raw with fresh burns, his breaths ragged.
Then his fist comes down on the grass next to my head.
I don’t even flinch. I just stare up at him, teary-eyed.
But he doesn’t touch me. Except when he rests his forehead on mine and loosens a tight breath for a moment—a moment that feels like a blissful eternity in which we can just exist together.
Then my eyes shut on the world and on Daein.
I stir to the violent bouncing beneath me.
Strangely enough, one of the first things I notice is that I’m without my bag. It’s gone, and the light columns are nowhere around me—so I know it’s been left behind.
Blinking my eyes in the dark, I strain to see where I am in this part of the realm. Then I recognise the familiar lights of the Valley of the Royals far, far ahead, and I look down at the pressure on my belly. I’m on a steed, my back slumped against Daein’s chest, and he races us through the lands, the guards close behind us.
Blood coats my skirt. It still spills out of me. I loosen a weak breath, on the brink it feels. His arm around my belly tightens, as if to hold it all in place, hold me in one piece until we get to the healer.
But then he takes a sharp left down a road I haven’t been down before.
My voice is weak. “You’re going the wrong way.”
“There is no time.” He sounds panicked, afraid almost. “We need a healer now, and there is none at the castle, but plenty at the palace.”
I don’t get the chance to respond. It all goes dark again.
I drift in and out as I’m hoisted off the steed and pulled into Daein’s arms.
I must be heavy, I fleetingly think—a stupid thought to have right now.
But somehow, the gravity of it all doesn’t quite sink in. I’m merely floating between worlds, life and death, and I’m all right with that.
I just want to see my son first—that’s why I hold on.
Vaguely, I notice the guards circle us as Daein carries me up to the palace. It looks hazy to me, as though water is in my eyes. I blink, but the blur only worsens.
“Daein!”
That, I understand clearly. Elden’s voice.
I fight to keep my eyes open.
Daein spins around, taking me with him and I get a hazy glimpse of Elden marching up towards us in the fuzzy courtyard.
It is Elden, that I’m sure of. And with so many black-cloaked figures around him, I suspect he’s with the iilra. All of them.
11
It’s fading in and out, blackness to a courtyard illuminated by gleaming marble. I’m locked firm in Daein’s arms, but I feel everything shift around me.
It’s all so hard to make sense of, to know what’s happening.
