Page 3 of Coerced Queen

A face comes into my vision, hovering over me—blond hair, brown eyes.

Dante, Saverio’s second-in-command.

I surge upright again, gulping for air.

“Easy now,” he says, holding fast.

“No!”

“Listen to me.”He shakes me softly.“Your baby is fine.”

My mouth is parched.My throat feels like sandpaper inside.It hurts to speak, but I force the words from my lips.“The explosion.”

He tightens his fingers on my shoulders.“Your friends are fine.Livy, Tersia, and Richard made it out.Unharmed.”

I grab the lapel of his jacket.“Saverio.”

A veil drops in front of his eyes.He lets me down slowly.Gently.

“Saverio,” I croak.

Dante’s tone is strained.“He’s alive.”

Alive.

I curl my fingers into a tight ball, fisting the fabric, unwilling to let go.“I want to see him.Take me to him.Take me to him and my baby.”

He pries my fingers open, frees his jacket, and lowers my hand to the white covers that are tucked around me.Watching me with a wary expression, he straightens behind the barrier of a metal rail on the side of the bed.

I take in my surroundings.I’m in a white bed in a white room with a monitor beeping next to me.

A hospital.

“Where am I?”I ask.

“Mount Sinai.”

There’s no crib beside the bed.

“Where’s my baby?”

Dante studies me from the safe distance he’s taken, his gaze guarded.“She’s premature.They’re keeping her in an incubator, but the nurse will explain everything.All you need to know for now is that she’s healthy.”

“I want to see her.Is it a girl?”

“Yes.”His smile is stilted.“They had to do an emergency cesarean.That’s why you have to keep still.You mustn’t tear your stitches.”

“At what time was she born?”

“Ten past five this afternoon.”

I look at the drawn curtains.“What time is it now?”

It’s a mundane question, but at the same time, it feels important.

“Close to seven,” he says.

Three hours since we got married.“Saverio?”

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