“Of course. I…I need to speak to his father and check in on his mother,” she said.
“Go,” Caden issued quietly. “I’ll await word.”
Faye slipped quietly from the room, Kalen’s eyes on her as he opened his soda.
“I’m sorry.” Luce sat back, hands falling to her lap. “I wish I had more information. Something better than there being a missing link.”
“Like I said, that is more than we knew before,” Caden told her.
“He’s right,” Ren agreed. I think it was Ren. Or maybe it was Fabian. I wasn’t sure.
I felt…weird.
Like not in a weird headspace, but like I had a few years ago when I’d been out to dinner with my mom. It had been a good night. She’d been herself, and we’d gone to one of her favorite seafood places. The shrimp had gone bad or something. Within an hour of eating, I’d quarantined myself in the bathroom. That was how I felt now.
But I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, and I didn’t feel like I needed to use the bathroom. Sweat dotted my forehead.
“Is it just me,” I heard Kalen say, maybe to Fabian, “or does this soda taste weird?”
A sharp cramp sliced through my stomach, forcing me to lean back in my seat. Another knifing pain hit my midsection. It felt like period cramps but on steroids.
“Brighton?” Caden turned to me. “Are you okay?”
“Yep,” I forced out, breathing through the rippling pain. “I just…”
Across from me, Tanner frowned. “You don’t look well, Brighton.”
I didn’t feel well. Mouth strangely dry, I reached for the soda.
Caden started to rise, but it was Kalen who shot to his feet, his bottle in hand. “Don’t touch that!” he yelled. “Don’t take another drink.”
Chapter 14
Startled, I drew my hand back. “W-what?”
“What’s going on?” Caden demanded.
“The soda doesn’t taste right,” Kalen said, placing it on the table. “What does it taste like to you, Brighton?”
Heart jumping, I placed my damp hands against my stomach. There had to be a fist in there, clenching my insides. “I don’t know. I thought it kind of tasted like diet.”
“Like artificial sweetener?” Luce pushed from her seat, her pale eyes wide. “Maybe a little minty?”
“Yeah.” I nodded as Caden knelt beside me. “I mean, I didn’t taste mint, but…” But now that I thought about it, that could’ve been what I was tasting but couldn’t place.
“Shit.” Kalen gasped as Fabian picked up his bottle, sniffing it.
“What the hell is going on?” Ren asked as Luce hurried around the table.
“I second that question,” Caden said. “And I want to know what the fuck is happening.”
Luce slipped into the space between Ren’s and my chairs. “Are you feeling sick?” She placed her hand against my forehead. “Nauseous? Cramps?”
“I…” I found it hard to swallow. “Yes.”
Her features tightened and then smoothed out as she looked over at Caden. “I need you to get her to the infirmary.”
“What…what is happening?” I whispered as Ren rose, giving us space.
Luce didn’t answer. “Let me examine you—”
“I swear,” Caden growled, “If I have to ask one more time what is going on, no one in this room is going to like it.”
“I know you have questions, but right now, what’s important is that we get her to a place where I can monitor her.” Luce straightened, calm and collected as her gaze met mine. When she spoke next, there was a world of meaning in what she didn’t say. “I need to examine you, Brighton. Privately.”
Privately.
I looked at Caden, whose features had become stark. Privately. Understanding surfaced, and my heart kicked into overdrive.
The baby.
Panic sank its icy claws into me. I gripped the arms of the chair, and then it hit me—the strange sensation of wet warmth.
Standing abruptly, I pushed the chair back. Someone was speaking. It was Caden. His hand was on my arm, worry filling his golden eyes.
My stomach seized. There was no other warning. No stopping what came next. All I was able to do was turn away before my upper digestive system revolted. I doubled over, eyes and throat stinging as everything I’d consumed in the last day made a painful reappearance.
Caden was there, his hand on my shoulder. I tried to wave him away, but the clenching motion swept through me once more. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“I’m sorry—” I gagged.
“It’s okay, sunshine.” His voice sounded all wrong—panicked. “Luce.”
I opened my eyes and then tore my gaze away from the vomit. Staring at that wasn’t going to help. But suddenly, I was in Caden’s arms, and I was staring up at the ceiling. There were voices—shouts, and then I heard Caden.
“She’s bleeding,” he said, running his hand down my stomach and then around my back. “I don’t know from where, but she’s bleeding.”
In a daze, I saw it. It was small, just a few smudges of red, right where I’d been sitting. I knew what it was even as my legs and arms seemed to no longer be attached to my body.
Blood.
There was blood on the chair.
How much blood did it take for it to soak through clothing? I knew where that sensation of wet warmth had come from—where the blood had come from.
The baby.
Another series of cramps seized me, and I twisted in Caden’s arms, gagging. He lifted me off the floor. I must’ve checked out because the next thing I knew, I was being laid down on a thin mattress. Luce was at my side, my arm in her hand as another fae wrapped a blood pressure cuff around my biceps.
Caden’s face was above mine, his hand warm against my cheek as he smoothed the hair back from my face. “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s going to be okay. I promise you. Everything is going to be just fine.”
But it wasn’t.
You didn’t bleed like that when you were pregnant. You didn’t have pain like this. You didn’t vomit like that.
Something was wrong—very wrong as the fae called out numbers that didn’t sound right. There was a pinch in my arm. My head lolled to the side. Luce was inserting a needle. Dark red blood filled a collection tube.
“I need activated charcoal,” Luce called out, rattling off milligrams and then fluids as hands lifted up my shirt. I jerked at the cool touch of ECG leads. There was beeping, and I thought it sounded too fast.
“Has she been poisoned?” Caden demanded, and it felt like the temperature of the room had increased. “Has someone poisoned her?”
“I’m not sure.” Luce hooked up an IV as she looked over her shoulder. “But you should pull all the drinks you got from the cafeteria, Tanner.”
“On it,” came the quick reply from somewhere in the room.
Poisoned? Oh God. Panic overshadowed the deep contractions, giving way to terror as my gaze found Luce’s. There was only one thought occupying my mind as I tried to drag in air, but the corners of my vision darkened. “Is the baby okay?”