Teryn groaned, and it wasn’t the pleasurable kind. “Must I?”
She shrugged. “It could be important.”
The knock sounded again, an incessant rumble that told him his caller would not relent.
Cora leaned forward and captured his lips in a too-short kiss. “Don’t worry. I’ll wait until you return before I leave.”
His heart fell. That meant she was leaving after all. He wasn’t ready to say goodnight, but perhaps if he dealt quickly with their interloper, he could go back to convincing her to stay just a little longer.
With another frustrated groan, he dragged himself away from Cora, donned his shirt and trousers with haste, and marched from his bedroom. He closed the door behind him and strode through the sitting room in darkness, the only light coming from the moon’s pale white streaks that shot through the windows. When he reached the door, he flung it open with far more force than necessary.
He opened his mouth, ready to tell his caller to kindly piss off, but held himself back as he saw who was on the other side of his threshold.
Mareleau glowered at him, teeth bared. Without waiting for his permission, she charged inside and closed the door behind her. Crossing her arms, she faced him. “I need to speak with Cora right now.”
His mind stuttered before he conjured a reply. “What makes you think she’s here?”
She gave him a withering look. “It’s five nights before your wedding and you just saw each other for the first time in months. She’s not in her room, which means of course she’s here. Tell her I need—”
The sound of his bedroom door creeping open silenced her. “Mareleau, what’s—”
“Seven devils, Cora,” Mareleau said with equal parts relief and frustration. “There you are. I need you.”
“Why?” Cora was dressed in her chemise and robe again, though her tangled hair and crooked sash made it obvious what they’d been doing before.
Mareleau glanced from Teryn to Cora, a wild look in her eyes. Finally, her gaze settled on Cora. “Either I’ve just wet my skirts for the first time in my adult life, or my waters have broken. Gods above.” Her voice broke, rippling with a frantic tremor. “I’m going into godsdamned labor.”
* * *
Every inchof bravado Mareleau had ever possessed, all her boasting that she could give birth anywhere and it wouldn’t matter, fled the instant she admitted she was going into labor. Here. Now. She’d been brave when she’d thought the grand event was still weeks away, and her midwives had indulged her, assuring her she’d more likely deliver late than early. But this…no, this couldn’t be happening.
Cora took a step closer. “You’re going into labor? Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure the water soaking my skirts says I am.” She couldn’t stop the panicked edge from creeping into her tone, but at least it helped mask her embarrassment. She didn’t want to talk about this in front of her brother-in-law, but it couldn’t be helped. She needed Cora. For what, she wasn’t entirely sure. All she knew was that she couldn’t face her mother or her midwives right now. Her mother would fly into hysteria, which would only heighten Mareleau’s own, while her midwives would confirm her fears. That this was happening. She was giving birth.
Her abdomen tightened, a strange and foreign feeling that was somehow coming from inside her, against her will. She’d experienced lesser contractions for days now, ones deemed normal by her midwives, but the ones she’d begun feeling this evening were anything but mild. They’d begun at dinner and hadn’t stopped.
She closed her eyes, hand to her belly, and waited for the tightening to pass. When it did, there remained a similar constriction in her chest. “I can’t do this.”
“Breathe, Mareleau,” Cora said, her voice soft and calm. She placed her hands on Mareleau’s shoulders. “Tell me slowly. Why are you alone? Where are your ladies?”
“Breah is down the hall.” Despite trying her best to speak slowly like Cora had requested, her words still came out rushed and racked with a tremor. “I asked her to keep watch while I came to find you.”
“Yes, but why did you come find me? Why not your midwives?”
Mareleau opened her mouth to answer that which she hardly understood herself. She’d awoken after a couple fitful hours of sleep and left her room to pace the halls, choosing Breah to accompany her. Waking up to walk in the middle of the night wasn’t unusual for Mareleau, for she often woke due to discomfort and needed to stretch her legs before settling back into her fort of pillows. But tonight, as she’d slowly wandered the corridor outside her suite, waiting for restfulness to settle back in, she’d felt a sudden gush of warm water. She’d frozen in place, her mind whirling. Once she’d been able to form a coherent thought, it had been to find Cora at once.
The reason?
Mareleau shrugged and blurted out the first semi-reasonable thing that came to mind. “I came to you so…so you can stop this.”
Cora pulled her head back. “Stop what? Your labor? How the seven devils do you expect me to do that?”
“I don’t know. Your…magic.”
Cora leveled a look at her that conveyed just how ridiculous Mareleau’s words were. Yet she’d already known that as soon as they’d left her mouth. Mareleau had learned many things about Cora over the last few months of their increasing correspondence, particularly about her past, her abilities, and how they related to what had happened that night in the meadow seven months ago. When she thought rationally, she knew Cora could do nothing about her situation.
So why had she come to Cora?
