“That came out of you,” he said, sounding both horrified and impressed. “And now ababyis coming out of you. A wholebaby.Ourbaby.”
Despite the pain radiating through my lower body, I laughed.
“That’s generally how it works, Zoodle.” Another wave crashed through me, more intense than any that had come before. “And I think it’s happening right now!”
“No.” Casimir shook his head. “No, it can’t be. First labors take hours, sometimes days. It’s not right now.”
“Tell that to your child,” I gritted out.
“So, uh, how much blood is normal, exactly?” Zane’s voice went up two octaves. “Because those documentaries made it look kinda mass murdery.”
I gave up trying to talk to either of them.
The day I’d discovered I was pregnant, Brummy had excitedly circled my legs as if he somehow already knew. After I told my husbands, Casimir researchedeverything, Koa put together the crib with a patience none of the rest of us had, and Zane painted a ceiling mural of the night sky in the nursery, complete with a moon that glowed in the dark.
And now, after months of waiting, of watching my body change and feeling our little one grow, I was finally going to meet our baby!
On the floor of my bathroom surrounded by three panicking husbands.
Well, whatever happened next was going to happen, with or without any plans. And if I was looking forward to regaining control of my bladder? Well, that would just be my little secret.
#
Casimir
Finding your beloved in labor on the bathroom floor does things to a man. I stood frozen for precisely three seconds, registering every detail of the scene—Seri’s face twisted in pain, a puddle of amniotic fluid, the faint pink tinge to the liquid that indicated some blood, but not enough to be immediately concerning—before primitive, protective instincts crashed through me like a tsunami, drowning rational thought in their wake.
“Securing the perimeter,” I snapped, already turning toward the bedroom.
“What?” Koa’s voice followed me. “Cas, she needs—”
“I know what she needs!” I snarled, striding to the far wall of our bedroom where I’d installed the security panel disguised as a thermostat. “She needs to besafe.”
My fingers flew over the hidden keypad that controlled the protection wards I’d been meticulously laying throughout our wing of Evermere for the past seven months. They were etched onto small discs of the purest gold and hidden in strategic locations beneath floorboards, inside lighting fixtures, behind wall panels. I’d designed the system for useafterthe baby arrived, knowing I’d never sleep at night otherwise, and now my foresight was going to serve us well.
“What are you doing, Cas?” Ko called from the bathroom.
“Protecting them.”
I activated the wards with a drop of my blood, feeling the surge of power as they flared to life and rippled outward like concentric circles in water. Three layers of supernatural protection descended around our wing of the house: The first to detect any approach, the second to incapacitate, and the third to destroy if necessary. Nothing short of the Devil himself could breach these defenses, and evenhewould find it a challenge.
“Cas!” Ko squalled. “You’ve locked everything down so tight, not even Brummy can get in! Or a paramedic, for that matter!”
“Hostiles exploit vulnerability windows during—”
“The only hostile here is your paranoia!” His roar shook the glass shower doors.
I ignored him. The hospital was nearly an hour away. Too far for an ambulance to arrive in time, judging by Seri’s rapid progression.We were on our own, and that meant I needed to be prepared for anything. Every threat. Every possibility.
No one and nothing gets near her until this is over,I thought. Not even Brumous.
Returning to the bathroom, I found Zane gone and Koa kneeling next to Seri, her golden curls splayed on the floor around her like a halo, her gray eyes wide with a mixture of pain and determination.
“Simmy,” she said between pants, “it’s happening too fast.”
“Negative. Babies come as fast as they come.” Every battlefield loss flashed behind my eyes, and my voice emerged steel-clad. “Breathe two-four rhythm.”
“Casimir.” Koa’s voice cut through my threat assessment, steady as a sniper’s heartbeat. “Youneed to breathe. You know what to do. You’ve prepared for this.”
