Page 10 of Returned to the Vissigroth (The Vissigroths of Leander #6)

"If we were mated, as you said, then as your vissy, I would have given birth to a son. That's how it's always been." I said, having not the slightest idea how I knew this. But he nodded.

"Zyn."

If he was telling the truth, and I had no reason to believe otherwise, by all accounts, I would have been carrying a son.

That's how it has always been on Leander.

The union between a vissigroth and his vissy produced male heirs.

Males, so that the dragon could choose which one would be the next vissigroth.

Only vissigroths and their concubines, if they had any, produced girls.

And only girls. It was a well-known fact.

So why would I have been convinced I carried a girl?

"Because at the time, you were the only human vissy there ever had been," Mallack said as if he could read my mind.

"You believed it was your destiny to call in a new era by giving birth to a girl.

" A faraway smile passed over his lips. "You kept saying you would give birth to the first female vissigroth in all of the Fourteen Planets. "

"What happened?" I asked, breathlessly caught up in the story now as if he was talking about someone else, not me.

"You gave birth… to a son." He stated.

"A son." Why didn't I feel anything at his words? Only… a deep melancholia? If I had a son, he would have to be over twenty rotations old now. Shouldn't I feel some kind of longing?

"A son," he nodded. I didn't understand the ghost of regret moving over his features; it was deeply edged and clawed at my heart. "I should have believed you."

He closed his eyes and took my hand that was still lying on top of his and wrapped it into his much larger hand, bringing my knuckles up to his lips, kissing them.

Shudders of pleasure raged through me. Absolutely inappropriate, and yet undeniably blissful.

They vibrated through my body, humming, like fragile wings beating against a giant bell, trying to bring it to life.

An impossible task. And like a giant bell would remain unmoved by the wings, so did whatever they tried to bring back to life inside me.

It was a futile effort at best. Yet, I felt something under the onslaught.

Something that, just like the dream, hovered right at the edges of my mind, teasing, tantalizing, but elusive.

"Believed me?"

He nodded grimly, "You were the mother, you were my mate, I should have believed you when you accused the midwives of switching our daughter."

Suddenly, my heart began to speed up as if I were running.

Which was exactly what I felt like doing.

Getting up on my feet and running. Running away from this male, from what he was telling me.

But I sat frozen, listened to the words coming from his lips, each more devastating than the one before, listening as they brought the story to a point I didn't… I wasn't sure I could bear hearing.

Breathlessly, I stared at him, willing him not to continue, but he did anyway.

"Our son, he grew, and you loved him with all your heart.

But every day, a part of you died." He took a deep, shuddering inhale.

"I didn't know what to do. The midwives and doctors said it was common after giving birth, that your hormones were going crazy in your body, making you feel things… " he closed his eyes.

I felt a heaviness in and around my chest. It was pressing against me, closing around me like a vise, making it hard to breathe. I might not remember the story Mallack was telling me, but my body sure as hell remembered the emotions. Brought them back up until I felt like weeping.

"What… happened?" I swallowed, my mouth was dry, and every part of me dreaded hearing the answer. My soul deep inside me shuddered, clawed at me like it wanted to break out of this body, get away from words that hurt too much.

"You died," he said brutally and honestly. His eyes held mine.

I died .

That shrine I woke up in. It wasn't just a shrine. It was a casket.

Dizziness overcame me. The edges of my vision darkened, and I felt myself swaying on the bed. Mallack's strong hands steadied me.

"Daphne?"

I tried to breathe, but I managed only to gulp in hollow breaths that weren't filling my lungs at all. Not even close. Not when they were screaming to inhale. Not when my entire body was starved for oxygen.

I began to hyperventilate.

"Daphne?" Alarmed, Mallack grabbed me, held me against him, but that made breathing even harder. I fought against his hold. Clawed, hit, pushed. It was as impossible as trying to move a mountain.

Words formed in my mind, let go, get your hands off me, don't touch me , but the only sounds I made were whimpers. I felt myself fading. Fading harder. My already darkening vision began to swim. He was talking to me; I heard the sound of his voice but couldn’t make out what he said. It was so far away. So, so far away.

Daphne, Daphne. Don't leave me, don't leave me… again!

I didn't hear those words with my ears. They were in my head.

They reverberated through my mind, echoed in my heart, threatened to break it with an intensity that surprised me.

They came from the same voice that was talking to me now.

Only then, they had been broken. Anguished.

Filled with so much torment that they, more than any of the other emotions running havoc inside me, threatened to choke me.