saying that I hadn’t loved him enough. That wasn’t true. It was the exact opposite. I loved him enough to not be the source of his downfall, and I loved our child enough to do everything to bring him or her up in a world that was stable.
Well, as stable as it could be.
“Is everything still okay?” I asked as Luce placed the cuff on the counter.
“All of your stats look good.” Luce came back to the bed. “I’ll check the hormone levels in the blood I just took, and then I’ll take some more blood tomorrow. If you were to start to miscarry, we’d see those hormone numbers going down.”
My stomach dipped. “Do you think there’s still a chance that I could lose the baby?”
“The pregnancy is considered threatened, so yes, there is a chance. But you’re different, Brighton. You’re not entirely human.” Her pale eyes narrowed on me. “Which would’ve been something useful to know when I first examined you.”
“Hey.” Tink lifted his hands. “She didn’t even tell me.” He slid me a look. “Hussy.”
I sighed once more. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was something I was supposed to share, and in my defense, a whole lot of shit has been happening. I obviously haven’t been making the best decisions.”
“That’s an understatement,” Tink muttered under his breath as he leaned back in the chair.
I ignored that.
“Learning that you were given the Summer Kiss explains why you’ve been healing so well from your previous injuries,” Luce went on. “Since you were given it before conception, it probably aided with that too. That’s got to have something to do with the child being so resilient, but I can’t be sure. I’ve never met a human who’s been given the Summer Kiss.” Her brow puckered. “But you stopped bleeding last night, so that’s great news. You haven’t been experiencing any more cramping or nausea, right?”
I nodded. “I feel normal-ish. My stomach is a little sore, and I feel like I just got over the flu or something.”
She nodded. “That’s normal. It appears your body is…well, repairing the damage. And to be honest, that is not something that would normally happen. Not even for a female fae who’d been given this poison.”
Unease blossomed, but I tried to shut that down. Luce was giving me good news. Just because this was nothing short of a miracle didn’t mean I’d lose the child.
“Luckily, we were able to get it out of your system as soon as possible. A few more minutes, I don’t think even the Summer Kiss would’ve changed the outcome,” she said, and that was hard to process. “I’m optimistic, but a lot is going to depend on what happens in the next couple of days to weeks.”
“What can I do to make sure the baby is okay?”
Luce took a moment and then softened her voice. “In most of these circumstances, there is nothing you can do to change the outcome. It’s often out of your hands. If you were to lose this child, it would not be your fault.”
“I know, but there’s got to be something I can do, right?”
“There are things that can help. One of them is to remain as stress-free as possible, and I know that is going to be hard, but keeping stress levels low is what you need to do,” she advised, and I almost laughed, because I had no idea how I would do that. “I do suggest bed rest for the next week just to be safe.”
Bed rest? “What about our appointment?”
“I think we can delay it a week since I’ve done a lot of the tests that I would’ve been doing, but I will be checking in on you—tracking your hormone levels.” She folded her arms. “I would refrain from any physical activity until you feel completely one hundred percent—no longer sore or tired. That could be a week or slightly longer. No physical activities also includes sex.”
I didn’t think that would be an issue.
“You’re going to need to keep your hands and body parts to yourself,” Tink advised.
“Thanks for the clarification,” I said. “I can do that. Bed rest and no physical activity. I’ll do whatever I can to keep the baby healthy.”
“That’s good to hear,” she said. “It’s good that you’ll be staying with Caden in a secure location.”
“Because once the fae who tried to kill me realizes they failed, they’ll come at me again?” Anger flashed through me, so potent and hot that Luce frowned at the color that