But just as Jack came into reach, blinding pain exploded in my ears. My vision fractured. My stomach twisted into knots. I doubled over, nearly retching onto the concrete.
Scarlett rushed to my side, her breath heavy, her face flushed—but her grip was iron. Despite the swell of her belly, she yanked me upright with terrifying force.
“We need to take you home,” she hissed.
I could barely stand. My legs were jelly beneath me, my body drenched in sweat. I stumbled beside her, each step a war, until we reached the safety of my home.
As soon as the door closed behind us, I collapsed to the floor, gasping, defeated, furious, and no closer to Alina than I had ever been.
Scarlett rushed to fetch water and medicine, but the pain didn’t fade. It ate at my insides, a vicious reminder of my failure, of how far Alina still was. My screams echoed through the walls, raw and animalistic, as rage and helplessness consumed me.
That charlatan Jack James—her pathetic excuse for a husband—was about as compelling as soggy toast. And yet he had her.He had her.While I lay here crippled, unable to touch her without agony.
Scarlett returned, huffing through her ninth month of pregnancy, her belly stretching farther than my patience could imagine. She handed me the pills with a sigh heavy enough to crush stone.
I took them without a word and staggered into our bedroom, collapsing onto the mattress like a fallen titan. I yanked a pillow over my head, groaning as Scarlett moved about the room with mechanical care, closing curtains and muttering in her breezy voice. I had no strength to bark at her. I slipped instead into unconsciousness, into a void where I chased Alina through endless darkness, my hands always inches from her throat before she vanished again.
Then it hit.
A scream—high, shrill, inhuman.
I jolted upright, breath ragged, eyes wild. “Good God, what was that?”
Scarlett stood at the dresser, clutching it like it was the last tether to her sanity. Her face was pale, contorted in pain and terror.
“Balthazar!” she shrieked, voice breaking. “The baby—the—baby’scoming!”
“What?” I blinked, still caught between dream and nightmare. “Well then, lie down! March in place—do something! At least let me wake up first!”
I threw off the sheets she’d tucked around me in her endless doting and shot to my feet, panic thundering through my chest.
My child.
It was coming.
With fumbling hands, I grabbed Scarlett’s wrists and pulled her toward the bed. “Take my spot! Lie down now!”
I pounded the silk sheets in frustration. This wasn’t how I’d imagined the arrival of my child—not in chaos and blood, not in this godforsaken century. But it was happening whether I was ready or not.
Scarlett doubled over as another contraction ripped through her, her face contorting in agony. She collapsed onto the bed, clutching her belly as if it were trying to tear itself apart.
I raced through the room, grabbing towels, blankets, anything resembling preparedness. My heart thundered in my chest. I hadn’t been there for Zara’s labors; a midwife had handled everything. I’d considered it beneath me. Now I understood what a fool I’d been.
But this… this I would make different for Scarlett. For the child she was bringing into this world for me.
Another contraction came minutes later. Scarlett cried out, sweat beading on her brow. “I need to go to the hospital,” she gasped, panic lacing her words.
“What? No!” I barked, my voice ricocheting off the walls. “You’ll have the baby here.”
“No one does that anymore!” she sobbed. “People don’t have babies at home!”
“They did for centuries,” I growled, grabbing her hand and yanking her closer. “You will do it here. This ismychild—and it will be born inmyhouse.”
Scarlett stared up at me, wide-eyed, trembling, with fear in her eyes.
“Okay,” she whispered, broken. “Okay… we’ll do it here. But what happens after, Balthazar? When the baby’s born, are you just going to toss me aside like I never mattered? Like I was nothing more than?—”
Her voice broke into a scream as another contraction tore through her. She clutched my wrist, her fingers digging in deep, like she was trying to anchor herself to this world.
