The pain grew worse by the second, and Elowen began screaming. Not the delicate kind she’d heard in birth stories whispered by village midwives, but ananimalscream, ripped from her chest as her body heaved and cracked and stretched in ways it was never meant to, to deliver something the world had never seen before.
Her knees slipped on the pelts soaked with sweat, her hands grasping for anything solid—only to find the ridgedcurve of Midas’ human forearm. She dug her fingers in until his skin split and blood streaked his scales. He didn’t flinch. He would let her rip his bones from his hide if she needed to.
He wiped her brow. He murmured nonsense words in the dragon tongue. He growled at the shadows as if they dared come closer.
But as her labor intensified, and her distress filled his chest, Midas found it nearly impossible to hold himself in his human form for her. He changed back to his natural shape almost against his will, barely managing to move to a safe distance away from her.
Useless, Midas scolded himself.Worthless!
His claws scored gouges deep into the floor where he gripped it to keep still so that she could grip and claw at him herself. Elowen screamed again, tearful words escaping her throat.
“I can’t do this!” she shouted.
Midas let out a low, guttural sound.Helplessness.His tail coiled and uncoiled beside her, snapping like a struck whip. He wanted to shift, to hold her with the hands she trusted, but her agony burned through the bond between them like lightning. He couldn’t steady himself long enough to change.
“I’mdying,Midas,” she gasped, collapsing into herself once more. Her body shook uncontrollably. “I swear to the old gods,I’m dying!”
He flinched from the grief in her voice. Another contraction hit. Her whole body seized. She clawed at his scales again, her broken fingernails scraping until there were no scales left and she gripped at his sensitive hide.
If pain was all he could give her now—he would offer it. He bowed his head so close that her blood smeared along his snout, her screams echoing inside the cage of his skull.
“Why would you do this to me?” she wept, but the words trembled. “It hurts…I can’t do it! I’m not strong enough.”
Her voice cracked on the last word, swallowed by another surge of pressure deep inside her. She curled forward again, howling like a wounded creature, and Midas bellowed with her, unable to doanythingexcept stay.
The labor went on. Time lost meaning.
He did not know how to help, but he understood she was in pain.
And he could do nothing but watch.
Blood slicked her thighs. Her hair clung to her face. Her lips were dry and cracked from panting. Every time she tried to rest, another wave of pain crashed through her, leaving her shivering and soaked in fear.
Midas didn’t move an inch away from her.
“You’re going to break me,” she whispered once between contractions, voice hollow. “This child is going to split me in two. I won’t survive, Midas.”
Her courage was faltering, and he could feel it. When her body was ready to push, she braced before trying with everything she had.
The scream she let out tore somethinginsidehim.
Blood and heat and fluid spilled onto the stone. Her thighs shook violently, and Midas rose slightly, panic blazing through him.
But then?—
A sound. A shrill, wetwailfilled the cave.
Elowen slumped back, shaking, pale, barely conscious—butalive.
Beneath her, between her legs, lay a child.Theirchild.
Midas froze. The air around him stilled. Elowen’s head lolled weakly, eyes fluttering open just enough to find the child. She sobbed and reached for her new son with hands that shook so badly she couldn’t lift him.
Midas moved, finally.
He nosed the child forward gently with his snout, guiding him to Elowen’s chest. She curled around the boy with the last strength she had left.
“I did it,” she whispered, dazed.
