The Summer King Bundle 3 Stories - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,199

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 highlighted my cheeks. “I can’t believe someone tried that. I mean, I can, but what in the hell did they think they’d gain from killing me? That Caden would somehow revert back to his evil self and open the doorway? That’s not how that works.”

A huge part of me couldn’t believe how easy I’d made it for them. I almost always drank soda when I was here. Any number of fae could’ve paid attention to that. I really needed to change up my routine.

“Perhaps they thought that by killing you, it would simply distract and weaken him. Which it would,” Luce advised. “It could have nothing to do with their attempts to free their Queen, but more so to level a blow that our King would find difficult to recover from. Choosing a poison that affects pregnancy so adversely was extremely lucky for them—and most unfortunate for you.”

I tried not to be offended by her word choice. “Do we have any idea who could’ve done it? Were the other bottles contaminated? Any other drinks?”

“So far, only about a dozen tested positive,” she said.

“Are any of the fae here at risk?”

“We’ve notified those who are pregnant, and it doesn’t appear that any have been put at risk,” she answered.

“That’s good news,” I whispered, hands curling into the thin blanket.

“Caden has been holding an inquisition, questioning all the fae who had access to the drinks that were in the cooler,” Tink said. “Which is pretty much every fae here.”

It almost seemed like an impossible task, but Caden could compel the truth. Something that I doubted he wanted to do to every member of his Court without due cause. He was smart enough to know that he’d create more enemies using glamour to find the one who was responsible, but now he had a reason.

I just hoped it didn’t hurt his relationship with his Court.

But I