“She will be,” barked Caden, and I raised my brows. “I don’t want her here for one second longer than necessary.”
“Understood.”
Caden turned to me. “When we leave tomorrow, you’ll be coming home with me.”
“To your apartment?”
“No. To a place very few are aware of,” he said. “And do not argue with me about this and cause yourself unnecessary stress. Your house is not suitable.”
Too much was happening, and strangely, my brain focused on that statement. “Why is it not suitable?”
“Because too many people know where to find you, and I cannot possibly begin to secure the house,” he replied, turning back to Luce. “Notify me the moment you leave here.”
She nodded.
There was no way he was leaving. “Where are you going?”
Caden didn’t answer. He simply turned around and left the room, closing the door behind him without answering my question.
Without so much as looking at me.
Chapter 15
“He hates me.”
“No, he doesn’t.” Tink patted my arm. He’d followed Luce in, advising that he was on the approved visitation list.
In other words, he was allowed to see me.
I had a feeling that Caden had prohibited everyone else from getting close to me, which was understandable. But Tanner and Faye? Kalen? Ren and Ivy? Fabian? They were the only ones I trusted, but apparently, Caden was taking no chances.
While that should give me some relief because it meant that he still cared, I had a sinking feeling that he was more worried about the baby.
After all, according to him, I wasn’t all that easy to kill. Or whatever.
“You don’t understand, Tink.” I sighed as Luce came over to check my blood pressure. “He feels betrayed, and I can’t blame him. Not really.”
“Neither can I,” he agreed. “But I think he just needs time. He knows you were trying to do the right thing.”
I nodded.
“He was dealt one hell of a shock, learning he was a baby daddy while you were vomiting up your guts and seizing,” Tink pointed out as bluntly as possible. “I imagine most expect to learn that kind of news in any other way than how the King learned it.”
“I know. It’s just…” I could still hear him saying that I hadn’t loved him enough. That wasn’t true. It was the exact opposite. I loved him enough to not be the source of his downfall, and I loved our child enough to do everything to bring him or her up in a world that was stable.
Well, as stable as it could be.
“Is everything still okay?” I asked as Luce placed the cuff on the counter.
“All of your stats look good.” Luce came back to the bed. “I’ll check the hormone levels in the blood I just took, and then I’ll take some more blood tomorrow. If you were to start to miscarry, we’d see those hormone numbers going down.”
My stomach dipped. “Do you think there’s still a chance that I could lose the baby?”
“The pregnancy is considered threatened, so yes, there is a chance. But you’re different, Brighton. You’re not entirely human.” Her pale eyes narrowed on me. “Which would’ve been something useful to know when I first examined you.”
“Hey.” Tink lifted his hands. “She didn’t even tell me.” He slid me a look. “Hussy.”
I sighed once more. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was something I was supposed to share, and in my defense, a whole lot of shit has been happening. I obviously haven’t been making the best decisions.”
“That’s an understatement,” Tink muttered under his breath as he leaned back in the chair.
I ignored that.
“Learning that you were given the Summer Kiss explains why you’ve been healing so well from your previous injuries,” Luce went on. “Since you were given it before conception, it probably aided with that too. That’s got to have something to do with the child being so resilient, but I can’t be sure. I’ve never met a human who’s been given the Summer Kiss.” Her brow puckered. “But you stopped bleeding last night, so that’s great news. You haven’t been experiencing any more cramping or nausea, right?”
I nodded. “I feel normal-ish. My stomach is a little sore, and I feel like I just got over the flu or something.”
She nodded. “That’s normal. It appears your body is…well, repairing the damage. And to be honest, that is not something that would normally happen. Not even for a female fae who’d been given this poison.”
Unease blossomed, but I tried to shut that down. Luce was giving me good news. Just because this was nothing short of a miracle didn’t mean I’d lose the child.
“Luckily, we were able to get it out of your system as soon as possible. A few more minutes, I don’t think even the Summer Kiss would’ve changed the outcome,” she said, and that was hard to process. “I’m optimistic, but a lot is going to depend on what happens in the next couple of days to weeks.”
“What can I do to make sure the baby is okay?”
Luce took a moment and then softened her voice. “In most of these circumstances, there is nothing you can do to change the outcome. It’s often out of your hands. If you were to lose this child, it would not be your fault.”
“I know, but there’s got to be something I can do, right?”
“There are things that can help. One of them is to remain as stress-free as possible, and I know that is going to be hard, but keeping stress levels low is what you need to do,” she advised, and I almost laughed, because I had no idea how I would do that. “I do suggest bed rest for the next week just to be safe.”
Bed rest? “What about our appointment?”
“I think we can delay it a week since I’ve done a lot of the tests that I would’ve been doing, but I will be checking in on you—tracking your hormone levels.” She folded her arms. “I would refrain from any physical activity until you feel completely one hundred percent—no longer sore or tired. That could be a week or slightly longer. No physical activities also includes sex.”
I didn’t think that would be an issue.
“You’re going to need to keep your hands and body parts to yourself,” Tink advised.
“Thanks for the clarification,” I said. “I can do that. Bed rest and no physical activity. I’ll do whatever I can to keep the baby healthy.”
“That’s good to hear,” she said. “It’s good that you’ll be staying with Caden in a secure location.”
“Because once the fae who tried to kill me realizes they failed, they’ll come at me again?” Anger flashed through me, so potent and hot that Luce frowned at the color that highlighted my cheeks. “I can’t believe someone tried that. I mean, I can, but what in the hell did they think they’d gain from killing me? That Caden would somehow revert back to his evil self and open the doorway? That’s not how that works.”
A huge part of me couldn’t believe how easy I’d made it for them. I almost always drank soda when I was here. Any number of fae could’ve paid attention to that. I really needed to change up my routine.