Page 78 of Princess Redeemed

* * *

I jerk upward in bed.

Something…

I don’t know what, but something awakened me.

I sit very still, trying to calm my racing heart.The moon shines in through the cracks of the closed blinds.I listen, willing my acute sense of hearing to expand beyond the confines of my room, to penetrate the darkened hallway of my apartment building.

A rustle.

Then silence again.

I rise, still wearing the clothes I wore while training with Alara.I was too exhausted to disrobe and shower before I lay down.I force myself to take a deep breath, to steady my racing heartbeat.The child inside me picks up on my tension and stirs.

I gasp.

My child.His first movement.More than the emotional flutter I felt before.I shouldn’t be far enough along to feel it yet, but I do.I place a protective hand over my unborn baby.

The sound comes again, louder this time.A faint whispering noise followed by a soft thud.My heart leaps into my throat as I step out of my bedroom, making sure not to let my feet sound against the hard wooden floor.

“Alara?”I eke out.

But she’s nowhere to be found.

A third sound now—a small metallic clink that echoes eerily through the quiet apartment.

I edge toward the door and open it a crack, peering out into the hallway veiled in shadows.The echoing silence holds a sense of foreboding that convinces me to step back.

I freeze at another sound.It’s not a thud or a clink, but a murmur of voices—low and indistinct.They’re coming from the stairwell.I strain to recognize them, but I can’t.

The child moves inside me once more, matching the nervous quivering in my own stomach.I take one last glance into the hallway before retreating into my apartment, locking the deadbolt, and walking to my bedroom.The baby moves again, the tiny sensation more pronounced this time.As if he’s reassuring me, comforting me in his own little way.

The voices grow louder, and I can hear footsteps.The anticipation and unknown danger make my skin prickle.My heart pounds an uneven rhythm against my ribs as I swallow back fear.

I am ready.

I am prepared.

But this time it’s no phantom conjured by Alara who’s coming for me.

This is real.

48

A shiverof icy dread slips down my spine, as if the Chicago wind has entered my bedroom.

What is next for me?For my child?

Will I have to face Eris?Or Rogan?Or worse yet, both?

Rogan would never harm me.I may not be his fated mate as he once thought, but he loves me.

And I carry his child.

Eris, on the other hand, is an unknown.I don’t know what she’s capable of?—

Except that Ido.