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Inez’s brow creased.
Rylec noticed immediately.
“What’s wrong?”
“Can you help me to the bathroom?” Inez tried to stand but it wasn’t the easiest position to get into anymore.
Rylec immediately moved, sliding out of bed. His magic wrapped around Inez’s limbs and carried her with him. The warm embrace tickled across her skin as he deposited her onto her feet at his side. Her husband wrapped her in his embrace, a touch Inez instinctually craved—
A warm gush of fluid trickled down her legs.
Inez straightened.
“Was that—?”
“It was,” Inez said, hand going to her pregnant belly. She glanced up into her husband’s intense eyes. “She’s coming.”
Rylec
Thirteen hours later, Inez’s screams ended and their baby’scries filled the palace infirmary. Rylec clutched his wife’s hand, brushing the sweat from her face and kissing her brow.
Her eyes shined with tears. “I want to see her.”
Rylec didn’t let her go, but he turned toward the doctors and nurses running throughout the room. A nurse finished swaddling the crying bundle and gently passed her to Rylec. He looked down into dark eyes in a red-stained, peach face. A mop of white curls stuck to her head. Two little crystalized nubs poked out of her forehead. She was perfect and beautiful, a blend of Earthling and Sollirian.
Alesia.
As Rylec turned, Inez reached out. He placed their daughter in his wife’s arms. Her tears became real, streaking down her face. “She’s beautiful.”
Rylec gazed at the two of them. “She is.”
“She’s ours.”
Rylec met and held her gaze. “She always will be. No one will take her from us.”
Inez pressed a kiss to their daughter’s forehead. The baby cooed, reaching out with tiny hands to touch her mother’s face.
Rylec looked toward the door. The servant stationed there nodded and popped outside. When the doctor had announced Inez was near delivery, Rylec had summoned Soriya and her nursemaid. Things had been rough with their daughter at the start. They had done their best to shield her from Calanthe’s death but had eventually told her the truth once she warmed up to her ‘uncle’ and ‘aunt’. She didn’t yet know Inez had killed her ‘mother’. She was too young for that. Once she was older and realized what Calanthe had done to her, they would tell her the whole story. With the help of a qualified therapist, of course. Inez swore by the treatment.
A few moments later, his daughter entered the room. The four-year-old rushed to the bed. “I want to see.”
Inez chuckled as Rylec swept Soriya up into his arms. His daughter wrapped his legs around his torso and leaned over, trying to look at her new sister. Rylec had to grab her to stop her from falling. The girl loved to climb.
Inez reached up and ruffled her hair. “Soriya, this is Alesia. She’s named after my mother, just like you’re named after Rylec’s mother.”
“Aaah-leee-seee-a,” the girl drawled out, the name fumbled thanks to her missing front tooth. The doctors had said four was early for an Earthling to lose a tooth, but perfectly acceptable for a Sollirian of Rylec’s genetic composition.
Inez grinned up at her, pure happiness in her gaze. “Do you want to hold her?”
“Yes, yes, yes.” Soriya went feral in his arms, trying to grab for the baby. Wrangling a four-year-old was like trying to contain a small wildcat.
“Patience, Sor,” Rylec said, lowering the girl to the side of his wife’s bed.
“Baby, baby, baby,” she shouted.
Alesia started crying, a loud wail.
Soriya jerked back in shock before her lip quivered. She opened her mouth to let out a cry to rival the newborn.
