I look down.
Blood.
“Stop.”
Maksim is beside me before I finish the word.
He looks once at the blood, then up at Sienna’s face, and whatever he sees there makes his own change. Not panic. Never that. Just urgency becoming something heavier.
“Get her into the car,” he says. “Now.”
I don’t waste another second. I move the rest of the way down the steps and lower her into the back seat as carefully as I can. She’s breathing too fast, one hand locked around my sleeve, the other pressed low over her stomach as if she can hold everything in by force.
“I’m here,” I tell her.
She nods, but I don’t know if she’s hearing me.
Maksim climbs in beside her and immediately starts giving instructions. “Lie back a little. No, not flat. Good. Sienna, look at me.” Her eyes flick to him. “How much blood?”
She swallows. “I don’t know.”
“All right. Don’t try to figure it out.” He takes a towel from his bag and presses it into her hands. “Hold this there. Firmly. Not hard enough to hurt yourself.”
I get into the car on her other side without thinking. Yuri slams the door behind me, and the driver pulls away so fast the gravel spits from under the tires.
The house disappears behind us. For a moment all I can hear is the engine, Sienna’s breathing, and the sound of Maksim opening and closing pieces of his bag.
“Talk to me,” he says to her.
“I’m trying.”
“I know. Keep trying.” He checks her pulse again, then her color, then looks at me. “Keep her awake.”
As if I need to be told.
I take her hand. It’s cold. Damp. She’s still trying to hold itself together with sheer stubbornness.
“Sienna.”
Her eyes move to mine.
“When was your last appointment?”
She blinks, confused by the question. “A week and a half ago.”
“And everything was fine?”
“Yes.”
Maksim says, “Any bleeding before today?”
“No.”
“Any strong cramps before the lawn?”
She shakes her head, then stops and winces as another pain takes her.
This one is bad. She folds toward me, fingers crushing mine, face twisting with effort as she tries not to cry out.
