Page 63 of The Princesses of Ruin (The Princesses of Ruin #5)

“ D eep breathing, my queen,” the midwife says.

“You breathe!” I shout.

My comebacks are not on point because it feels like my bones are on fire. I could’ve just augmented my body with magic to deliver the baby, but the midwife insisted that if I interfered with the process, I could hurt the child.

Fuck me.

“Push, now!”

I tighten my muscles and crunch forward despite everything in my body telling me that’s bad. My back feels like it’s snapping in half from the biggest shit I’ve ever taken.

Except it’s a baby.

“I can’t do this,” I cry as I fall back to the bed.

Alastair leans in close and whispers in my ear, “Yes, you fucking can.”

“Almost there. I see the head.”

I pant as he wipes the sweat from my brow.

Fine. I can do this .

I gulp in a big lungful of air and bear down on my guts. Movement, finally, and then immense relief. Alastair catches me before I fall all the way back. The baby comes out wailing and bloody.

And perfect.

Her skin is soft bronze, and she already has a full head of deep brown hair. The tip of her little tongue is forked, like Alastair’s is in his demon form. What other things of the demons did she adopt, I wonder?

No matter what they are, she’s beautiful.

The midwife clips the umbilical and hands her to me. “You’ll need to push out the placenta soon, my queen.”

I shoot her a nasty glare and she backs away, leaving me with my gorgeous baby and my loving husband.

I kiss her gooey head and whisper in her ear, “Hello, Thaleia.”