Page 168 of His Darkest Desire

Emily handed her a water bottle. “Drink.”

Kinsley drank several gulps before passing the bottle back to her mother. With Emily’s hand on her lower back for support, Kinsley continued walking laps around the living room. All the furniture had been pushed aside to make space for this. As much as Kinsley wanted to sit down, to rest, to sleep, walking helped.

Despite all their preparations, despite knowing this day was imminent, both Kinsley and Emily had barely been able to quell their panic when Kinsley’s water had broken the prior evening. They’d been just about to head to the car for her daily visit with the wisps when it had happened.

Her mother had become a tornado, rushing to prepare the bed, move the furniture, and gather everything they’d need for the delivery as Kinsley changed into a button-down nightgown. Somehow, between all that, Emily had also informed their family that the time had come.

That had been hours and hours ago. Each minute had trickled by slower than the last.

Kinsley walked until the contractions came too fast for her to recover from them. The light of dawn was streaming through the windows by then. Exhausted, she lay in bed, drifting into brief bouts of sleep before being awoken by another agonizing tightening in her core. Every time she woke, her mother was there with words of encouragement, with water for her to sip, with a cloth to gently mop the sweat from Kinsley’s face.

But as much as she loved her mother, and as thankful as Kinsley was to have her there, there was one person she longed to have by her side more than anyone.

Vex.

Soon. He’ll be here soon.

The hours wore on, and Kinsley bounced between fitful slumber and painful consciousness, finding solace only in the fleeting moments between the two.

It wasn’t until night fell, leaving the cabin dark but for the golden glow of the lamps, that Kinsley was stricken by the irresistible urge to push.

Kinsley gripped the bedding and let out a scream.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Vex paced around the edge of the ritual chamber, eyes downcast and unfocused, as a maelstrom raged inside him.

Every evening since he’d sent her away, Kinsley had visited the fairy ring to talk to the wisps. Every evening apart from the first, Vex had come to this chamber, where he’d listened intently to her voice as she spoke in another world.

Those visits had been his life. His nourishment. His reason. Hearing her voice, even if he could not understand, had been a balm for his tortured soul. He’d spent his days eagerly awaiting her visits, and he’d descended to this chamber earlier and earlier as the weeks passed, unwilling to be anywhere else when her call first sounded through the veil.

Even then, he’d barely endured these long months. Were the time to stretch to years, decades, centuries without her, he would come undone. Never had he been more foolish than when he’d convinced himself he could withstand eternity without Kinsley.

Only the weakest of threads held him together now.

Kinsley had never called for them yesterday evening. The wisps had crossed over to search, but they’d found no sign of her. Worry had gnawed at Vex through the night and the entirety of this day. The wisps had entered her world again and again, and the result had always been the same.

When she’d missed today’s visit, a mountain of dread had plunged into Vex’s gut.

Heat crawled beneath his skin, and his fingers itched with restlessness. He kept his hands behind his back, clamped strongly enough that they tingled with the threat of numbness. Tremors coursed through his wings. Instinct demanded he spread them and take flight, demanded he soar to his mate.

But neither his wings nor his magic could carry him to her.

“She is fine,” he said.

The only response came in his own echo, which followed quickly on the heels of his words and obscured them with rumbling mockery.

If she was fine, she would have come. If she was fine, she would not have deviated from the routine she’d kept for all this time, would not have…vanished.

I would know if she has come to harm. I would feel it.

I would know if she was…

His stride faltered, and his every muscle tensed at once. He clutched at his chest against a rush of pain. Shallow, ragged breaths tore in and out of his throat, burning his lungs.

“She is not gone,” he growled.

Again, his echo layered over his words, twisting them, tainting them.

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