A Court of Heritance and Destiny

Chapter 11 Etera

Your child has no heartbeat, I have given you the tonics so your body can pass it. It will be like your bleeding... Madjas words had destroyed her. They had almost caused more pain than the cramps had. But only almost. The words cut into her soul, the cramps was her body. And her mate's face...

Feelings are a strange thing, she had seen his pain, his fear, his sorrow, and she wanted to take it all away from him. It was her body who failed them, not his, it was something wrong with her. She wanted to be loved, held and still... She almost wanted him to be mad, to not be this understanding and supporting. She wanted to scream and cry, argue until her voice broke. Something to get all of her feelings out in the air. But above all, she wanted things to be different. She wanted to go down stairs in the morning, smile and laugh, she wanted to tell them that Vega would not grow up alone. She wanted to see Ikarad stress over a move, set up a new home...

She wanted a future she had started to dream of, and that loss hurt more than Madjas words and the cramps combined. For years in that cage she had wished for death, to end her future, then she had lived in a moment, day by day, mission by mission. This was the first time she had started to look forward to a future.

Etera looked up in the painted ceiling, seeing the familiar constellations that travelled over Velaris during the year. She knew that Ikarad was barely sleeping next to her, so she stayed still. Not wanting to wake him up by moving.

Could she go down there later? See Vega, fake a smile and act normal? She was a good spy and actor, but was she that good? Good enough to fool Azriel and the shadows? She didn't know... Maybe the flaws in her acting would be covered with everyone being focused on the baby.

She let out a sigh and closed her eyes, hoping that she would get some rest before the morning came. Pretending to rest was better than not doing it at all. Her thoughts did not stop spinning in her head. The cramps were still lingering, not as bad, but not good.

The sounds changed in the room. The wook cracked, like a hard storm passed over them. Cracking and moving in the corners. Etera sat up and looked around, the sunlight started to grow outside of the closed curtains.

"Love?" Ikarad asked and sat up, his hand came to rest on her back. The cracking turned to shaking.

"What is happening?" She asked, she got a hard cramp as she moved the blankets of her body. The cracking stopped.

"Just normal-"

A scream only heard a few times in history filled the air. A cry from a hurt mother and a devastated father. Etera left the bed, swallowing as the pain flared up inside of her. Ikarad followed close behind her, he had taped the stones on his hands, and his armour covered his body. She cursed over her lack of good clothing.

"Are you alright?" Ikarad asked, his hand found hers.

"Run, I will come behind you." She told him, "I just need to change..." And make sure that no one could smell her bleeding.

"Sure?"

"Run." The scareams didn't stop and Ikarad started to run. Etera was fast to find new clothes, and some linen strips for the normal bleedings, it was not the best, but it would be due for now. She ran after her mate, ready to help.

Ikarad was not down stairs when she came there, so she headed to Azriel's side, ready for instructions.

"What can I do?" she asked, not even caring why the commotion was happening. A new cry came, and she turned to see Feyre sitting on the floor, Rhys holding her as they cried. Eterad heart broke as the worst cases flew through her head.

"I need the wolf, we need to find a scent trail." Azriel just said, and Etera nodded. She took a deep breath and her magic woke up, her body shifted to the wolf, and she looked for more instructions. "Vega hads been kidnapped." She wasn't even sure how that could be worse than what she had imagined.