The Edge (Book 5 of The Claiming Series)

Chapter Twenty-Three

"What do you know of the invasion so far?"

She heads to the door. "Come on. I think your mom left him some milk in the kitchen."

As we walk, the pain starts inching its way back to me, and I know I can't ignore what it is anymore. Definitely contractions.

Of course.

This is the perfect time to have a baby.

I freeze.

"Eris."

She stops walking and turns to look back at me.

"Tell me about the invasion. Please."

She nods at me to keep walking with her, but she grants my request. "When the sirens went off, there were four guards who immediately came to report that the Bayfell army was approaching both the East and the West Gates. They were trying to close in on us. Eli was shouting orders right and left without a second thought. I wish you could remember it because I think you would have been proud of him. He didn't let anything hold him back. Eli assigned a set of guards to stay here at the Palace, and he asked me to get you to bed and stay here with you."

The contraction grows stronger, and I grit my teeth when it focuses in my back and stops my legs. "Where's Dr. Reeve?"

"Mave?" Eris stops walking again.

"Where is she?" I snap.

Eris takes a step away, her face flushing in the dim corridor light. "I don't know. She probably had to go fight like everyone else."

I shake my head, fighting back the urge to cry again. "Where is anyone?" My words ring up and down the hallway, splitting the silence like a crack of lightning. "Where are the guards? Where are the maids? Why didn't anyone have Dr. Reeve check on me? Something was obviously wrong with me at dinner, and no one thought to—"

"We're at war, Mave!" Eris says. "I'm sorry no one thought to send a doctor to you in the midst of a kingdom-wide crisis."

I stare at her, shrinking back in surprise. She never shouts, especially not at me.

The quiet settles on us once more, but her anger lingers in her short, staccato breathing, which is all I hear now. The pain sneaks away once more.

"Doesn't this seem odd to you?" I whisper.

She hesitates, then says, "What?"

"The timing of it all. Bayfell goes quiet. We have a nice family dinner. I get sick, or something like that. They attack. All the guards here disappear. I go into labor—"

"Labor?" Eris says with a squeak. "You're in labor?"

"Probably," I say. "But the point is, something isn't right."

"None of this is right, Mave," Eris says. "We need to find someone to call Dr. Reeve in. Or any doctor. Someone who can—Oh, and we need to let Eli know—"

"Wait. That might be it."

"What?" Eris sounds like she might cry now.

"What would happen if we called Eli and a team of doctors back to the palace?"

Eris doesn't respond. She just stares at me with wide, panic-stricken eyes.

"Our kingdom would be without their leader and be down on medical assistance."

"This feels like a bit of a stretch," Eris says, but she doesn't sound very convincing. "You're saying someone made you sick and then go into labor?"

"Having me fall ill could be a way to distract Eli while he's out there leading a battle."

"How could you have gotten sick then?"

"I don't know," I say. "Look, I know I sound crazy, but after being targeted so much by rebels in the kingdom, it always feels like someone's out to get me."

Eris nods, and she gestures for us to continue walking. "I get it, but I feel like if this was part of Bayfell's plan, it'd be more damaging. I honestly don't think they would—"

She stops dead in her tracks when we round the corner to the top of the stairs of the entrance hall.

The bodies of the palace guards lay strewn across the steps and litter the marble floor. 

The room is painted red.