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Come on, Lark. The wolves weren’t supposed to be in the castle.
Her eyes pulsed red as her animal gaze took in the scene.
I glanced around, seeing it anew. Aric had no armor, and his sword was across the room. I was in labor. Aside from a few of my vines, we were utterly vulnerable.
Bloodlust shimmered in her gaze, like a predator who’d just sniffed out injured prey. Sensing her aggression, the wolves crouched with fangs bared, and all of Aric’s warnings replayed in my mind.
With me in his arms, he eased us closer to his sword, but even he wouldn’t be able to reach it before the wolves attacked.
Lark’s gaze narrowed on my hand, my icons. I knew that temptation.
Wolves crouching . . . Aric slipping closer to his weapon . . .
I whimpered when the next contraction hit.
Lark shook her head and inhaled a shaky breath. “I-I wish I could help you. Can’t. Gotta go!” She and the wolves whirled around and sprinted away, claws clattering down the hallway.
Aric’s brows drew together. “She did it,” he murmured in surprise, even admiration. Attention back on me, he said, “It’s you and me now.”
“But Jack . . .” Could I manage labor on my own if Aric left on a rescue mission? Women had done it in the past, yet I might be endangering Tee.
Aric was our only hope. Which meant he couldn’t be Jack’s.
“I’m sorry, Evie. But that is not our priority tonight.”
I couldn’t believe we were abandoning Jack to his fate—but I didn’t see a choice.
Aric must have read my surrender. “Can I carry you to our room? I need our supplies.”
I could only nod.
He whisked me out of the study, speeding through the castle to gently lay me on our bed. “I’m going to make it very warm in here for the babe.” He cranked up the room’s thermostat, then flipped on the space heaters.
I was already sweating. “I need some of these layers off.” He helped me remove everything, then dressed me in a loose robe.
“Comfortable?”
“Not the word I’d use right now.” Another contraction hit, the pain dizzying. The red witch was rising like a leviathan. I gasped out, “The witch is going crazy inside me. She might really hurt you.” Arcana mate or not.
Had she fallen for Aric? Yes. But she was also insane.
“I understand.” His demeanor was calm as he pulled his trunk of supplies to the foot of the bed beside the stool. Retrieving a stack of blankets and towels, he set them on the mattress. A tray of medical instruments joined it. All sitting at the ready.
For the first time, this pregnancy felt very, very real. I caught his gaze. “I’m scared.”
“You’ve felled scores of villains, and your might has toppled empires. This will seem as nothing.”
I remained unconvinced, especially when my next contraction hit. Tee seemed to be thrashing in my belly. “My God, it hurts! Amputating my bicep was easier to take than this.”
Aric flinched at the reminder of that night and Ogen’s attack. “We can do this together.” He donned medical gloves. Frowning down at his hands, he pulled on another pair over the first. Then he positioned himself between my legs, readying to catch our son. “Let me see.”
Biting my lip, I opened my legs.
“No need to time contractions. He is coming fast.”
The words were like a lash to my anxiety. We’d passed the point of no return. Aric would have to deliver Tee. “We should have searched for a doctor, should have found someone.” All at once, I was more afraid for Tee than I was even for Jack. My Cajun would pull through this scrape. He always did. But Tee . . . “You need to get Kentarch to teleport a doctor here!” I was being ridiculous, but I couldn’t stop the words coming from my lips. “We don’t have any experience with childbirth. Like you said, this is out of your wheelhouse.”
“I can deliver this child.” A total change had come over him, his bearing all nobleman knight. “I’ve studied, and I’ve prepared. I’m ready to do what I need to in order to keep my family safe.”
“Why are you so confident now?”
“Because I recalled that I excel at everything I endeavor to do. And I’ve never been more motivated to excellence than I am now.”
I gasped. “My God, could you be any more arrogant?”
“No.”
He was decisive and convincing and everything I needed him to be. “Okay, okay.” I exhaled a breath. “That ends the panic portion of this labor. Guess it’s time to meet our kid.”
His lips curved. “With pleasure.”
But another threat loomed. With each grueling contraction, the witch roused even more. When I yelled from pain, plants and trees erupted from the ground all around the countryside. The castle shook. Snow plummeted from the roof, as if the structure were an animal shaking out its fur. Soon the snow outside the windows was displaced by creepy briar shoots coating the glass.
