Page 32 of Crown of Chaos

“Lore, go find Greer and tell him we need blood immediately. Aria is losing more than a mortal can withstand. Do it discreetly, and without others overhearing what’s happening.” Knox walked closer to the shield, his hands pushed against it, staring into my terrified eyes. “Breathe, Aria. Just breathe for me, Little Monster. It’s going to be okay.”

“Lay her down, now,” Brander ordered, which snapped the girls into motion. “How long has she been in labor?”

“No more than a handful of minutes, maybe less. Hecate hit her with something as we came through the portal,” Esme announced. “It slammed into her stomach, and then she began losing blood. There was a lot of it at first, but it slowed to a trickle when the contractions started.”

“Hecate?” Brander asked, glancing at me and then turning to face Knox, who was barely keeping his shit together. Sighing, he spotted the enormous pile of blankets I’d been collecting for my nest. “Gods damn,” he whispered, bringing his attention back to me, studying my midsection. “You need to get her laid down, now.” He ordered, but no one moved.

“Aria followed Aurora into an ambush,” Knox explained in a shaky voice, appearing as if he would throw up. His expression almost brought me to my knees, and I shook my head at the truth of what was happening. “You jumped in front of magic meant for me while carrying my children,” he accused softly, but there wasn’t any anger in the statement.

“I didn’t think before I acted,” I admitted, whimpering through clenched teeth as another contraction hit. Soraya and Esme helped lower me onto the crude, makeshift bed that they’d thrown together flush against the barrier. “Aurora wanted to hurt you. I wasn’t going to stand there and allow that to happen. She planned to murder you, and I’ve never wished you dead!”

“Thirty seconds apart,” Brander stated, rolling up his sleeves while he gave me a once-over. “We need to get this fucking barrier down.”

Knox didn’t reply to Brander. Instead, he stared at me as if he didn’t know whether to strangle me or hold me. He didn’t look away from where I lay, and his hair was standing up where he’d tugged on it, as if trying to force the information through his mind.

A soul-deep scream tore from me as the emotional and physical pain warred with one another. Knox stepped toward the blankets where I was placed. Something was yanked over my head, and then, once the wave of agony passed, Esme helped me sit up so she could lower the soft, clean nightgown over my chest, leaving my belly exposed.

“How do you know it was Hecate?” Knox asked, dropping to his knees so he was closer to me.

“It was her,” Siobhan answered, nodding her dark head. “Aria told her the place didn’t feel right, but Aurora wouldn’t listen. Hecate and the other dark witches appeared, and then Aurora opened a portal and left us to die. Reign bought us time, but she didn’t survive, and neither did her twin, Rhaghana.” Sighing, Siobhan reached down and removed my blood-soaked panties.

A sob tried to choke me when I thought of what happened to my sisters. Knox exhaled, his expression turning guarded. My head shook as pain sliced through me again and my back arched from the floor.

“I can’t do this,” I pleaded, incapable of putting words to the anguish of losing the babies.

“Yes, you can,” Knox uttered softly.

“Blood!” Lore shouted, sliding to a stop by the barrier. “Holy shit, you’re really pregnant! Wow.” His expression filled with wonder as he examined the nest I’d been building. One whole side of the library was covered with blankets and whatever else Ember had wanted us to collect in the last couple of months. “I knew there was something cool behind there.”

“You look like shit, Peasant,” Greer declared as he entered the room while removing his jacket. He saw the blood around me and flinched. “As much as I enjoy watching you bleed out, we should probably address that, don’t you think?”

I screamed, unable to answer him as fire tore across my abdomen.

“Oh, Aria,” he whispered as pink tears rolled down his cheeks. He was choked up and wiped at his eyes, trying to keep anyone from seeing, but we all had.

“Are you fucking crying, Meat Suit?” I asked, fighting a spasm. I bared my teeth, clenched down, and my back twitched as a burst of pain shot down my legs and curled my toes.

“Grab some towels to clean the blood away so I can get a clear picture.” Brander kneeled beside Knox, staring at my junction with clinical eyes.

“Where the fuck do you suggest we get those? It’s not like they’re just going to pop out of—” Soraya paused as several towels dropped from thin air. She lifted her shocked gaze toward the ceiling. “What the fuck?”

“Warm water is needed as well, preferably in a basin.” Brander watched as Soraya caught it in mid-air before it could spill everywhere.

Esme held me against her chest while Soraya and Siobhan settled between my legs. Someone new moved into the library, and then something hit the ground and shattered. We all looked up to see Killian, who stood with his mouth open in horror.

“What the hell?” He grunted, not needing crayons to figure out what he was seeing. Slowly, he exhaled before dragging his hand over his mouth, staring at the substance pooling beneath me. “Bloody hell.”

Shaking my head, I cried, twisting my hands into the blankets and closing my legs. I fought, aware that if I allowed this to continue, I’d lose the babes we’d made and Knox would be here to witness it all. He’d be forced to see more taken from him by Hecate, and I didn’t want that to happen. He’d lost enough already.

“She’s fighting to keep them. It will only make this a lot harder on her,” Brander whispered, but even through my scream, I heard him. “She will die, too, if she doesn’t stop struggling against what her body was made to do.”

Knox exhaled and took a deep breath. “It’s okay, Aria. You can do this,” he said firmly. “You have to let your body take control. You’re losing way too much blood, and the babes are coming no matter what we want, Little Monster. You need to stop trying to prevent what nature has demanded. Just let it happen.”

“It’s not okay! I want them even if you don’t!” I screamed at him, and he flinched. “I can save them,” I said softer, shaking from the adrenaline and pain that was telling me I was lying to myself.

“You can’t, but it’s okay.” He lowered his eyes to where my hands rested on my stomach, protectively guarding our unborn children. “You can’t be a mother if you die here today. Do you understand me? You’ll die with them, and that isn’t what either of us wants. I know you’re tough enough to survive this, but you can’t keep it from happening any more than I can.”

Killian moved toward Greer and Brander as the scene unfolded. He pushed his fingers through his dark hair, and his startling bluish-green eyes dropped to my swollen abdomen.

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