The Prince's Gift

Chapter 89.

Ana's POV

Zane and I spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon lazily enjoying our time together. Something completely brand new to both of us. Most of our story up to this point had been so tumultuous and held together by brief moments of immense love and passion before being forced apart.

Now...we could just be.

Zane explained the process to change a human, and promised to walk me through each part later this evening with Braelyn. He got dressed and headed out for a meeting with Fallon and Casimir to prepare for our future. The birth of our daughter was growing closer and he wanted everything prepared and ready for her. I was to meet him there once I'd showered and dressed.

I left our suite and opened the door to the adjoining suite next door where he'd already begun construction, transforming the nearby guest quarters to become the nursery. As I looked around the room, my heart swelled with joy seeing each detail he'd thought through. Her cradle was covered with a delicate ivory canopy, with pale pink accents in her bedding and pillows. The wall was being widened between the rooms and a large glider and rug were nestled in the corner beside the window overlooking the other side of the forest.

As I took it all in, I started to feel a tingling sensation coursing through my body, and then suddenly everything went pitch dark.

I felt a stabbing sensation, slicing through my abdomen causing me to gasp loudly. I forced my eyes open and two beady dark eyes were staring down at me as she snarled and bared her fangs.

"Wh-why?" I asked as I forced air in and out of my lungs to calm myself.

She just sneered and looked down at me with a look of pure disgust. "You took what's mine. Now I'll take what's yours in return."

The frail female before me was not someone I recognized, and she looked as if the were possessed, looking down at me with a crazed expression. She removed the knife from my stomach before stabbing it into the other side, twisting the singing silver blade painfully. I screamed out in agony as I felt it slice into my womb, injuring my baby. I could feel her pain running through me just as strongly as my own. She was dying. I felt myself beginning to fade and suddenly realized, we both were.

"Lil...ith?" I asked on a breath as my body sank down limply to the stone ground.

The female laughed darkly and nodded as she leaned down to hover over me, removing the knife and bringing it to point down at my chest. I felt the prick of the tip and a wet sensation as the blade dripped with my blood. "This is for the true Queen."

With those last words, she pushed her full weight into the dagger and forced the silver blade to puncture my chest, piercing into my heart and I screamed out in pain, clutching to her arms weakly. In only a moment, I could feel it. She'd dealt a deadly blow. The female stepped back to look down at her handy work as she smiled wickedly at me. I was slowly fading and I could feel my body growing numb.

"Zane..." I whispered, but it was too quiet. He'd be too late. I tried to focus my powers on healing myself but I couldn't pull enough energy to do any real work to my wounds.

Nothing could save us now.

She pulled the dagger from my chest and looked up the hallway with an expectant look before slinking into the shadows to wait for Zane. She knew he'd have felt my pain and would be coming for me, and she'd be ready to catch him unaware.