“Yeah.” I nodded as Caden knelt beside me. “I mean, I didn’t taste mint, but…” But now that I thought about it, that could’ve been what I was tasting but couldn’t place.
“Shit.” Kalen gasped as Fabian picked up his bottle, sniffing it.
“What the hell is going on?” Ren asked as Luce hurried around the table.
“I second that question,” Caden said. “And I want to know what the fuck is happening.”
Luce slipped into the space between Ren’s and my chairs. “Are you feeling sick?” She placed her hand against my forehead. “Nauseous? Cramps?”
“I…” I found it hard to swallow. “Yes.”
Her features tightened and then smoothed out as she looked over at Caden. “I need you to get her to the infirmary.”
“What…what is happening?” I whispered as Ren rose, giving us space.
Luce didn’t answer. “Let me examine you—”
“I swear,” Caden growled, “If I have to ask one more time what is going on, no one in this room is going to like it.”
“I know you have questions, but right now, what’s important is that we get her to a place where I can monitor her.” Luce straightened, calm and collected as her gaze met mine. When she spoke next, there was a world of meaning in what shedidn’tsay. “I need to examine you, Brighton. Privately.”
Privately.
I looked at Caden, whose features had become stark.Privately. Understanding surfaced, and my heart kicked into overdrive.
The baby.
Panic sank its icy claws into me. I gripped the arms of the chair, and then it hit me—the strange sensation of wet warmth.
Standing abruptly, I pushed the chair back. Someone was speaking. It was Caden. His hand was on my arm, worry filling his golden eyes.
My stomach seized. There was no other warning. No stopping what came next. All I was able to do was turn away before my upper digestive system revolted. I doubled over, eyes and throat stinging as everything I’d consumed in the last day made a painful reappearance.
Caden was there, his hand on my shoulder. I tried to wave him away, but the clenching motion swept through me once more. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“I’m sorry—” I gagged.
“It’s okay, sunshine.” His voice sounded all wrong—panicked. “Luce.”
I opened my eyes and then tore my gaze away from the vomit. Staring at that wasn’t going to help. But suddenly, I wasin Caden’s arms, and I was staring up at the ceiling. There were voices—shouts, and then I heard Caden.
“She’s bleeding,” he said, running his hand down my stomach and then around my back. “I don’t know from where, but she’s bleeding.”
In a daze, I saw it. It was small, just a few smudges of red, right where I’d been sitting. I knew what it was even as my legs and arms seemed to no longer be attached to my body.
Blood.
There was blood on the chair.
How much blood did it take for it to soak through clothing? I knew where that sensation of wet warmth had come from—where the blood had come from.
The baby.
Another series of cramps seized me, and I twisted in Caden’s arms, gagging. He lifted me off the floor. I must’ve checked out because the next thing I knew, I was being laid down on a thin mattress. Luce was at my side, my arm in her hand as another fae wrapped a blood pressure cuff around my biceps.
Caden’s face was above mine, his hand warm against my cheek as he smoothed the hair back from my face. “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s going to be okay. I promise you. Everything is going to be just fine.”
But it wasn’t.
