Chapter 6

Elena's POV

Light was already slipping through the gap in the curtains when I woke.

The baby had been restless all night—as if she too sensed something was coming—shifting and pressing in small, insistent movements.

I pressed my hand to my stomach.

"Just wait a little longer.," I said softly.

My father had said he would arrive before noon.

Vampires moved poorly in the height of the sun. The human convoy would come at precisely that hour.

It was the safest time.

I sat at the window, waiting. Without the moonstone, I felt the absence at my throat like a space that had been cleared.

But it wasn't loss. It felt like relief.

Without it, he could no longer track me through that invisible bond—no longer sense the connection between us.

Footsteps sounded below. Heels sharp against marble, light and quick, with that suffocating perfume drifting up like smoke.

The door was pushed open without a knock.

Lilian stood in the doorway.

The moonstone at her neck caught the morning light and glimmered cold and silver.

She reached up and touched it lightly—a small, wordless show.

"Sleep well?"

Her smile was soft.

I said nothing.

She came in slowly and stopped in front of me.

"Ryan stayed up late last night," she said quietly. "He was worried I wasn't stable, so he stayed with me all night."

She said it with her gaze on my stomach.

"You know," she tilted her head, "when I put on this necklace, something occurred to me."

"What?" I asked, evenly.

"Ryan never thought of you as his wife."

The words were light, but they cut like something honed sharp.

"I'm the one he's really protecting now. Even after I was engaged to someone else—Ryan is still mine."

She lifted her chin, triumph undisguised.

"Without that necklace, you're nothing in this house."

I looked at her and felt no anger. No urge to argue.

That stillness seemed to unsettle her. Her expression shifted slightly.

"Nothing to say?"

She moved a step closer.

"Don't tell me you're still waiting for something."

Something tightened in my chest.

"Waiting for Ryan to save you?" She suddenly laughed. "Don't be ridiculous."

I released my grip on my sleeve.

"He was exhausted last night. I slipped something into his drink—he's asleep." She said it flatly. "Don't worry. Ryan and I won't lose any sleep over your child's death."

She raised a hand and clapped once, lightly.

At the far end of the corridor, two shapes appeared.

Not the household staff. Not Ryan's vampire guards.

Ghouls.

Lilian's pupils glinted with something cold. And then, for a moment, I noticed it—the vacancy in her expression, the hollow flatness that mirrored the creatures behind her. She had lost every last trace of her humanity.

Lilian frowned, a little confused by my long stare. She looked mildly thirsty and told one of them to fetch the blood Ryan had stored for her.

I rose to my feet and stepped back.

A sudden, cramping pain seized my abdomen.

"You're insane," I said.

"Insane?" She tilted her head. "We're both human. You think I don't know what you've been planning?"

Her smile turned thin.

"I'm just handling things early."

"The child inside me is Ryan's only heir. His only real heir."

Her gaze went cold.

In that moment, I finally understood.

She had never intended to let me walk out of here alive.

She couldn't accept the possibility that somewhere in the world, there might be another child with any claim to what was hers.

"Ryan won't allow this," I said, stalling for whatever time I could.

Her expression flickered. Then she laughed.

"By the time it happens, he'll only think it was an accident."

"An unstable pregnant woman falling down a flight of stairs. These things happen."

Before she finished speaking, one of them was already moving toward me.

I turned and ran for the stairs.

My body was heavy and slow. I gripped the railing and made my way down step by step, heart slamming, lungs burning.

"Get her."

Lilian's voice came from above.

Footsteps rushed down behind me.

I could see the front door.

Sunlight poured in from outside.

It was blinding. I could barely see.

Just a few more steps.

Just hold on a little longer.

Then a cold hand shoved me hard from behind.

The world lurched.

A tearing, explosive pain ripped through my abdomen.

I watched the edge of the stairs spiral.

My body folded and fell.

The screaming in my ears—I realized too late it was my own.

The impacts came one after another, hammering into bone.

When the last step hit my back, I was nearly gone.

Heat spread rapidly from between my legs.

The red spread across the floor.

Through blurring vision, the front door burst open.

Against the blazing light, a familiar figure came running in.

"Elena!"

My father's voice broke open from somewhere far away.

He had almost leaped from the car before it stopped, the driver too stunned to react.

His footsteps had never sounded like that before.

I saw the terror on his face.

He ran to me.

I tried to lift my hand, but I could barely raise it.

Consciousness fell away in pieces.

The last thing I saw was my father kneeling beside me, hands trembling as he cupped my face.

And above us, on the landing—

The moonstone caught the light for one cold, glittering instant.