Page 38 of King of the Dawn

“What’s on your mind, child?” I asked, wondering if all was alright with the babes.

She pursed her lips and looked away. “I don’t know what to say… I just…”

She let out a long sigh, before turning to look at me.

“Would you mind being the one in the delivery room?” Her brows knit together, as she frowned. “Alastair will be there, but he’ll be a wreck. I just know it. And I don’t want Dad anywhere near me when I launch something out of my vagina…”

I let out a little laugh. She was so crude, it was endearing.

“If you’re in there with me, then I could probably keep him out of the labor and delivery room, and… and I think…” Her voice faded out as her eyes bored a hole into the cup. “You’re a lot more soothing than my dad, and you don’t treat my husband poorly. I think you’d be the best choice to have in the delivery room.”

I placed a hand on her cheek, feeling the warmth of her skin. She was much warmer than normal nowadays, because of the work her body did to bring her children into the world.

“What of Yuliya?” I asked, not because I didn’t want to accept right away. But I wanted her to make the right choice for such a monumental event in her young life.

“She hates kids,” Rose laughed. “At least she pretends she does. I know when the kids come out, she’ll take care of them. But in the delivery room? She might threaten the medical staff, and they’ll be terrified. I don’t need that.”

She shook her head, her long black hair coming out of the cascading braid that fell over her shoulder.

“No, I’d like it to be you… if you don’t mind.”

“Of course, I don’t mind!” I took her hands in mine, pulling the cup from them so that I could put it on the end table. “I would be honored. I simply want to do what’s best for you, and… you haven’t known me long.”

“I know, but… considering the options…” My heart didn’t drop even as she basically told me I was the only choice. I was just pleased to be asked. “I think you’re going to be the person in charge of the kids, in case something happens to me.”

“Nothing will happen to you,” I promised her.

“Evie…” Rose shook her head. “It’s been a very, very hard pregnancy. I’m… I’m worried that…”

“Nothing will happen to you.” I swiped my fingertips over her forehead, trying to wipe away the dark clouds forming in her mind. “Your darkness is because you’re tired. Let’s get rested up.”

I helped her to her feet and didn’t miss the slight wobble in her steps.

I imagine pregnancy was hard with one child. Doubly so with two growing inside her. Two spirits… and I’d be in the room when they took their first breath.

My heart was so full, I could barely breathe. I linked our arms together as I escorted her to the hall.

Rose held my hand, and I felt the great protectiveness of a mother, clutching her young one as they crossed the street.

There was a sense of danger that came. It prickled at the backs of my arms, my spine coming straight.

“What’s wrong?” Rose said, her hand tightening on mine.

I looked to the front door, where another flower delivery came. The man in the gray overall’s face was covered by a large pot full of blue and purple passionflower, the spiked petals looking odd, like they were shivering in a warning.

Jericho, Alastair and Yuliya were gone. They were hunting for Brock. Hunting for the last of my tormentors. I was alone. Jericho had some distant guards at the gate, but no one in the house for the sake of our privacy. I stopped us in our tracks, clutching Rose to pull her behind me, placing myself bodily between her and this man.

Things slowed to a crawl as the delivery man dropped the potted plant, letting it crash into the ground. A memory flashed through my head. Rose, going pale, dropping her glass. The glass shattering on the ground was the same as the porcelain of the pot as it split beneath the weight of the dirt it contained, crashing beneath our feet.

Shards struck into my bare ankles, as a knife came out of the man’s pocket. Not a knife… no… gardening shears.

The guards at the gate would have frisked him.

I stared into the menacing eyes of the cruel and angry man. I knew them well. I had seen them stare at my face as he rutted like a fiend on top of my paralyzed body as I took him inside me again and again. Over and over, as my mind faded into blackness, and peeled away. As my husband gave me to him again and again as a reward for his cruelty against his enemies.

This wretched man had found me.

“Keep your eyes off of her!” I said, my palm out towards him in a stopping gesture.

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