Maeve
I can’t breathe through the pain anymore. It grips me, tearing through my back, splitting my spine.
I grip Misty’s arms as I howl, tears streaming down my face. Misty’s trembling, holding me upright, her healing powers hard at work mending the bruises and scratches I’ve left on her skin.
It’s been four hours of this. Six hours ago, Soren, Blake, and Patton left.
Soren told me he'd be back within an hour. Maybe two, at the most.
I’ve been counting the seconds.
“Maeve, you should try to lie down,” Misty says gently, coaxing me toward the bed, but I furiously shake my head and writhe through another contraction that begins to build at the base of my spine.
“No, no, no, no,” I mumble then gasp as the pain curls around me in an iron embrace.
“Ginny, how much longer?” Grandma Ella says sternly from my other side as I stand between the two women, my legs shaking, but I’m unable to find the strength to move.
I feel Ginny’s hand glide between my legs. The pain is unbearable. I lean my forehead on Misty’s shoulder and cry out against the feeling begging me to push, to let her into the world, but I can’t.
“Maeve, you need to push now–” Ginny begins to say with a hint of panic in her voice.
“NO,” I shout into Misty’s shoulder. “No! He promised–he promised he’d be here. He swore!”
“You cannot hold her in,” Grandma says firmly, her hand pressed against my lower back to try to alleviate the pain, but it does nothing to soothe me.
“S-something’s wrong,” I bite out. “He–he should have been back by now. Where is he? Something happened!” I feel it in my gut. It’s a raw, aching sensation that tells me nothing is okay, and everything went wrong. Dread curls through me, yanking at the strings binding me to Soren, calling out to him, begging for him to find me again.
“Maeve,” Misty growls, losing her patience, “you have to do this. She is coming now. She’s ready.”
“I’m not ready,” I groan. “Please–” The worst pain yet rips through me, rendering my voice useless. I cry out Soren’s name as an empty feeling spreads across my chest and settles like an icy, uneven weight. My powers surge, my skin prickles, and then I know, without a shadow of a doubt, something went terribly wrong. “No,” I rush out, letting go of Misty’s arms. “No–no–”
“Maeve? Maeve, listen to me–” Misty tugs me close, shushing me as I begin to unravel.
The door to my bedroom flies open, revealing Grandpa Ryatt and my father. Two women rush past, however, beelining for me. Mom immediately grabs Ginny for a synopsis of the last four hours of a very painful, very fast and intense labor while Brie replaces Misty, her dark amber eyes holding mine.
“Oh, Maeve,” she breathes. “You’re going to be okay. I’m here now. We’re going to do this together–”
“Where is Soren!” I scream.
“Ella,” Grandpa Ryatt says, but his voice is drowned out by a burst of magic that fills the room, followed by a gurgling sob and two more familiar voices.
“Goddess above, everyone out!” Grandma shouts, her sea-green eyes blown wide with frustration, but I turn my head to see Sydney with an arm around Sarah’s waist, her face shattered and smothered in tears. Her eyes are glowing, however, with her magic. She looks lost as she trembles, unseeing.
She’s scrying.
“No,” I choke, gripping Brie, who just arrived from the Deadlands and is weak from the herbs in her system, but she stands tall and immovable. “No–”
“Where is Blake?” Sydney asks with heartbreaking quiet. “Ryatt? Where is he? We felt–we felt something. I can’t explain it–”
“I can’t–I can’t find him,” Sarah sobs. “He’s gone. I can’t see him–”
Dad steps forward, his eyes dead and hollow as he urges Sydney and Sarah out of the room, but I shout, “What happened?! Dad!”
“EVERYONE OUT!” Grandma roars, her Firestone magic flaring behind her eyes, so similar to mine.
I shove away Brie, limping and cradling my aching stomach as I round the bed to stare at the family members gathered in the doorway. “Where the fuck–” I demand, shaking as another contraction burns to life along my spine, “is my mate?”
Mom and Brie reach my side, but I rip out of their grasps, my eyes on Dad, who pales. Sweat drips down my temples and along my jaw as I wait for what feels like a century for him to say to the room at large, “We have reports coming out of Twin Rivers. The Ghosts went to meet Soren, Blake, and Patton at the… abandoned hotel where the Viper keeps her den.”
My mouth runs dry. I barely feel the contraction this time. My powers simmer, ready to explode if someone would just light the match. He continues, “They went into the building and couldn’t find the men. But there was obviously a battle. They confirmed it was the Viper’s den–”
“Where are they?” I whisper as my heart shatters. “She has them–”
“We’re actively tracing any leads as to their location,” Dad says gravely.
I clutch my dresser to keep myself upright. Mom’s hands steady my waist as I lean, crying out through the deep ache spreading through my lower belly. Blood drips between my legs, but the only thing I feel is… rage. Fury I can’t contain.
Grandma Ella sees it before anyone else does. Tall and graceful, she turns to the crowd of unwanted guests in my bedroom, and snarls, “Go away. Do not come back in here unless you have found him–found them. Do not set foot in this room until this baby has been born!” She turns to Sarah and her cruel, icy expression fades in an instant. “We will find Blake. I promise. Sydney,” she says, her voice shaking just a touch. “Put Sarah to bed and go fetch Maddy and Isaac from Maatua, all right? Go now–”
My scream of pain blurs her words. Tears fog my vision, and then hands are backing me toward the bed. Brie’s touch is the only one I truly feel. Her voice is soft and calming as she shushes me, running her fingers through my hair. Mom and Ginny take up my vision. I blink the tears away, and in the edges of my line of sight, Misty talks in low tones to a stressed looking Grandma whose fingers are pressed over her lips as she nods, then shakes her head.
“She’s fine standing. We can deliver the baby in this position,” Mom says to Ginny.
“I’m worried about the shoulders,” Ginny replies with effort. “The baby has been in this position for an hour now, at least.” She lowers her voice while my gaze and focus remains locked on my grandma, wishing I could read her mind. She’s torn between this room and following after the rest of the family, isn’t she?
“Maeve is refusing to push. Her body is doing it anyway,” Ginny continues in a whisper that I ignore.
“Where is he? He promised!” I scream as contractions bleed through me, bending bone and muscle. “SOREN!”
“Maeve, please,” Brie whispers, coming from behind to stand in front of me. “Look at me.”
“I won’t do it. I want him here. He should be here.” My voice cracks over the words. The fury wanes, replaced by a searing desperation almost strong enough to bring me to my knees. “I just got him back, Brie.”
“She needs you right now. She’s ready to meet us. You have to let her come.”
“I won’t–” I suck in a breath, biting back a scream as my body pushes against my will. I don’t even register Ginny kneeling behind me, her hand between my legs.
“She’s crowning. Good job, Maeve. Keep going.”
“I won’t,” I repeat, looking Brie in the eyes. “Don’t make me.”
“You have to,” Brie whispers, her eyes full of tears. “Let her come.”
“He promised me–”
“He will come back to you.” Brie grips my sides, leaning her forehead against mine. “Let her come.”
I shake my head but scream as white-hot pain erupts through me.
“Her head is out. Keep going, Maeve! Kenna, I need you,” Ginny says frantically, and my mom kneels.
Misty begins to hover. I can taste her magic in the air as she waits, holding her breath in the event we need her healing gifts.
But as I scream through the feeling of Ginny turning my daughter’s shoulders into position, my eyes are on my grandmother.
Her eyes are exactly like mine. Bright and the purest sea-green. We’re the only people in our family, maybe the world, with that specific shade of blue–polished sea glass, they call it. She tilts her chin, looking down her nose at me as I pant, choke, and scream my daughter into existence.
She almost died having my mother. Ryatt held her as she bled out, and my mom came months too early and was born quiet. But we’re Firestone. This is what we’re meant for. Our ancestors came from a matriarchal society where motherhood was considered the greatest, most powerful source of magic of all.
She gave her life to bring my mom into the world, not knowing if she’d ever see her child’s face, or her mate, again. She risked it all then became the most powerful woman Eastonia had seen in three thousand years.
All because of love.
She went through that to see her own daughter have three children.
She went through that for me to be standing here in this room, in this palace, ruling over the kingdom she united with her mate by her side.
All for me.
All for… this baby. My daughter. My heir.
Soren’s daughter.
“One more push, Maeve, come on!” Ginny says with effort.
Brie clutches me, whispering praise, her mouth pressed to my cheek as I sob through the agony, but then…
“You swore,” I send down the bond as… a sweeping, ethereal sensation shimmers through my body like a wave of light.
I gasp as the pain dies in an instant. I sway, my eyes fluttering as I lose my grip on reality, and the room blurs.
Ginny’s voice is lifted in triumph over the hushed prayers of thanks and squeals of excitement all around me, but I feel… weightless.
The soft cry of an infant reaches me. Hands touch me, guide me onto my back. The sunrise filters through the windows in soft shades of butter yellow and the softest baby pink.
And she’s placed in my arms.
A thousand voices ring out in my mind–voices raised in thanks and praise. Voices of the Firestone mothers who came before me, all of them, a chorus singing for me, welcoming me into my full… power.
It surges in my veins, thrumming and twisting, knitting everything broken and weakened by the birth. My powers soar to their full maturity in an instant, rendering me… whole. Untouched.
I blink and turn to the women gathered on the side of the bed, chattering and crying together, but my eyes slide to Misty, who’s staring at me in awe, her powers shuddering out in a puff of mist that snakes between her fingers.
She takes a step away from the bed to stand beside my grandma while Brie, Ginny, and my mother fawn over me, oblivious to the change my body just went through.
Only when my powers fade into an echo of feeling do I look down at my child. Our child.
She’s… beautiful. A soft, healthy pink and… rather big, I believe, for a newborn. Ginny gently dries her off while she rests in my arms, her perfect lower lip trembling as she opens eyes the color of onyx.
“Sweet girl,” I whisper, realizing I’m quite out of breath and utterly overwhelmed.
Mom reaches out to touch her, smoothing her hand over the baby’s head where soft golden curls spring free.
“She’s blonde,” Brie giggles through a torrent of happy tears. “I didn’t expect that.”
“She’s perfect, Maeve,” Mom gushes, her face wet from crying as she presses a kiss to my forehead. “You did so well.”
The baby opens her eyes to slits and looks right at me. I look back at her, and a rush of emotion sweeps me off my feet and carries me away on a current I can’t fight.
She looks like him.
She looks like Soren.
“Take her,” I say, my voice like gravel as despair clouds my mind, tearing my heart right out of my chest. “Someone–someone take her!”
Brie grabs the baby the moment I sit up and swing my legs out of bed. Everyone except my grandma rushes me, their voices overlapping as they try to convince me to lie down, but I’m fine. Healed completely. Like I didn’t just give birth. Like I haven’t been in back-breaking pain for… weeks now.
Fury replaces every emotion as I turn to my sister, now clutching her newborn niece in her trembling arms.
The door opens behind me, and Grandpa Ryatt steps inside, likely called here by Grandma through the mind-link because she knows exactly what’s about to happen, doesn’t she?
I ignore him for a moment and bend, pressing a kiss to my daughter’s forehead, and say a soft, silent prayer to the Goddess to thank Her for giving me a family that will care for this child if I don’t come back.
Because I will burn our world to ash if there’s even a scratch on Soren’s skin.
That’s a fucking promise.
“Name her before we go,” Grandpa says gravely.
I slowly straighten, ignoring the gasps of protest, and turn to him. His powers flare behind his eyes, and he nods, tilting his head toward the baby.
“Name her. Give her a name, at least, in the event we don’t return.”
“Dad?” Mom’s gutted tone rips through me like a heated blade.
Tears sting my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. I won’t live in a world where my daughter doesn’t know her father. Once, I’d accepted that fate, and it tore me apart.
Never again.
I look at Brie as my powers embrace me, turning my sweaty, bloody clothes to armor of silver and crimson made of fire that cools to something as hard as diamond but weightless. Ginny faints. Misty lowers her head, closing her eyes as if praying. Mom looks murderous with rage.
But Brie gives me the softest, most knowing smile, and says, “I’ll take care of her until you come back.”
I look at my daughter, my heart ripping to pieces, and I say her name. A name she gave me the moment she was born, and my powers came into their maturity. A name her ancestors painted in the stars for us.
Fallon.
“I’ll be right back,” I whisper, and the room ignites with my magic, turning the pockets of sunshine to starlight, but I’m not alone in the ether that follows.