* * *
“Push,”the midwife demanded brutally. She stood between my soul mate’s spread legs nine months later, watching as my child was about to be born into this world. “Come on, Minnie. One more good push for me.”
“That’s what you said twenty pushes ago,” my sweating and snarling soul mate growled at the woman. “I think you’re very bad at this!”
“Minnie, love,” I whispered, capturing her attention—lest she attack the midwifewhile in labor. I squeezed her hand, pressed the cool, wet cloth to her forehead, and gazed into her eyes. There was a little spittle on her chin, and her cheeks were red and puffing out with each hard breath. Her seafoam green hair was plastered to her head with sweat. She’d never looked more bewitching and utterly suitable for me. I leaned forward in her face and held her stare, demanding, “Push.”
Her breaths came in even harder pants, and then she bared down, clenching her jaws and screaming through her teeth. My soul mate squeezed the shit out of my hand as she pushed with all her might.
“One more, one more,” the midwife called, a new urgency in her tone. “Almost there.”
“Push,” I commanded again, using the tone of voice she more than liked me to use in the bedroom. “Now.”
Never looking away from me, her mouth dropped open as shebellowedbloody murder, pushing as hard as she could.
The resulting silence rang in my ears.
Until the sweetness erupted inside the room.
A newborn’s first-ever cry, shouting they were alive to one and all and wouldn’t be ignored, filled the air.
“It’s a girl,” the midwife exclaimed.
My vision swam before I blinked wetness from my eyes. Then, licking my lower, trembling lip, I gazed into golden eyes and breathed so fucking happily, “You did it, love.You did it.”
Minnie’s eyes welled, and her tears fell over as she nodded in pure joy. As I turned around, we watched the midwife lay the most perfect newborn elf ever created on my soul mate’s bare chest.
My child, her child, our child.
The heir to the Elf Kingdom.
Brushing my fingers against my daughter’s tiny, chubby cheek, I could barely breathe. “Hello, Trixie. I’m your dad.” I repeatedly blinked, my eyes burning with the unshed salty wetness. I tilted my head to rest it on top of my soul mate’s as she sobbed the most joyful tears of her life. “And this is your mom.” I swallowed hard and hoarsely whispered, “We’ve loved you for a very long time.”
Weariness of a father:
The fact my daughter is in this dying land is unnerving.
She is bright, vibrant, and bold.
Everything Fairy is not.
The striking light faded until near darkness overtook my senses, creeping down my spine with a sense ofwrongness. A fat and heavy moon hung overhead, but its light barely spilled down onto the land I stood on.
Wait. I peered down at my booted feet.
I had feet again!
Like whiplash, I sucked in a large breath, turned to my left and to my right, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. My soul mate stood mere paces away while my other companions were even closer.
“This is bizarre,” I stated slowly, scanning the terrain. Barren, green trees, with dying blue apples littering the dirt ground, encircled us. There was no hardy grass underfoot. This appeared to be a desperate attempt at an orchard—a failed orchard. “It doesn’t look like the Blood Forest.”
King Ula grunted, also busy studying the death and decay surrounding us. “The Blood Forest is merely a crossover bridge. We entered it to get to Fairy.” He waved a large, hesitant hand before us. “We are here.”
“This is Fairy?” King Elon hissed slowly and narrowed his eyes at the destruction. “We’d heard it was dying, but this is particularly disheartening.”
“It’s even worse than when I was last here,” the dragon king said quietly…looking at his homeland with blank, golden eyes. “The closer to the bridge, the poorer the land is. As we move farther away, itshouldget better.”
I grunted softly. “Are we where we need to be?”
