Her eyes slid shut, blood tears seeping from the corners. “We never deviated like they did. We build. We govern. We protect.”
“Okay.” I glanced over my shoulder at the door. I’d try one last question. “What else do you know about them?”
She stopped breathing. The end? Yet then she sucked in a wheezing gulp of air. “Too much to tell. And you can’t take my hand.” She frowned at her dirty, misshapen hand. “All my knowledge . . . would have funneled to you. Powers would spark. Too late, isn’t it?”
Yep, round the bend. “Just tell me what you can, Kos—”
Her back arched like a U, her arms contorting. A death spasm. When it finally eased, she lay gasping. “The pain . . . is unimaginable. But you need to know about the game. About what needs to be done.”
The game? Was this woman a Minor? “I’m all ears.”
She got a cagey look about her. “Tell you what I can—two conditions. You follow the numbers.” She pointed a crooked finger above her head where she’d drawn numbers in blood on the wall.
“Latitude and longitude.” Despite my misgivings, I memorized the coordinates.
A hint of a grin. “Very good.”
For all I knew that location was in Alaska, which might as well be the moon. But my curiosity told me to do anything to get her to spill. “Your second condition?”
“Put one of your arrows in my heart . . . before my next spasm.”
Kill a woman? Though I could take her out clean, memories of ma mère—and Evie’s mom—bombarded me, and I hesitated.
“Mercy for a soldier . . . at the end of the world.” Soldier? Kos looked anything but. “Swear to my conditions . . . on your beloved mother’s soul.”
Was that a good guess, or did she know more about me than she was letting on? Pretty much every survivor alive today had a dead mother.
I wasn’t convinced that those coordinates were reachable, but I had to know more. “I swear it on ma pauvre défunte maman that I’ll follow the numbers,” then added, “if it’s possible.”
“I’ll take it.” She exhaled a long breath. “First thing I’ll tell you is what . . . you . . . are. . . .”
Chills skittered down my back. “What I am?”
Her muscles began tightening once more.
20
The Empress
“Kentarch!” I cried into the mic. “Come get me; I’ll go to Jack.”
“Negative. I’m sorry, Empress. Signing off.”
Aric shut down his own computer, disconnecting the feed and the comms. “SievÄ, you need to sit down and relax. If not for yourself, then for the baby.”
My claws sharpened. “Turn that back on.”
“You can’t without my password. Which I’ve changed since your last foray into my phone.”
My rose scent had thickened until even I could barely breathe. “Jack will die if we don’t do something. Why won’t you let Kentarch get him?”
“You know why. We can’t risk the Chariot to plague.”
“Risk him! Get him to retrieve Jack.” I’d just said the words when something gave way inside me. I gasped, clutching my belly. “Oh, God. My water just broke!”
Aric froze. “Pardon?”
Cramps hit me hard and fast. No, these weren’t cramps. A contraction?! “It’s happening—” My legs buckled.
Aric lunged across the room to catch me. As we gazed at each other, time felt suspended. Were we both remembering him catching his pregnant mother? Her accidental death at his hands?
Seeming to give himself an inner shake, he said, “We can do this, Evie. Deep breaths.”
“It can’t be happening now! Get Lark to take over with me, then call Kentarch to come get you. Aric, fix this. Please, don’t let Jack die.”
The battle was clear on his face. “I can’t leave you. It’s just not possible.”
Casting him a betrayed look, I yelled, “Lark, come help me!” A much stronger contraction ripped through me. I’d withstood falling from a helicopter and multiple amputations, but this pain was a different level!
Lark lurched into the room moments later. “What’s happening?” Her hair was tangled, her face bearing creases from her sheets. “You in labor, Eves?” Scarface and Maneater accompanied her.
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.”