I reached down to touch him when I felt a dark presence behind me. I froze in place, belatedly realizing this was a vision. No one could see me. I glanced over my shoulder to see who had entered, but my vision clouded. I could see the frame of their body enough to tell it was definitely a man, but I couldn’t see his face. My vision was going in and out in a tunnel and everything was blurred.
The man stepped further into the room and reached my bedside.
A little gasp escaped my corporeal form as I tried to sit up in bed, but I struggled to complete the movement. I must have just given birth.
“Don’t move,” the man said. His voice was familiar, yet strange at the same time. It was muffled. “You’re no longer needed.” He pulled a gleaming dagger from a holster at the back of his pants and gripped it tightly in his hand. “I’ve waited for this a long time, Mackenzie Grey. I hope you rot in hell,” he growled.
I watched in slow motion as he took the dagger to my neck. I attempted to scream, but my energy was depleted and I could barely move. In one swift movement, he slid the dagger across my throat. My eyes widened and my hands went to my neck as I tried to gasp for air, but it was no use. I was dying.
The man dropped the dagger on the ground with a clatter and turned to my son lying in the bassinet. He picked him up and cradled him in his arms. I watched from the bed, reaching out one arm as if I could stop him, even as my lifeblood pulsed from the mortal wound at my neck. In seconds, my arm fell limply and I laid there with dead, gray eyes with my arm hanging off the bed.
“Good riddance,” the man muttered as he turned and left the Queen’s chamber with my baby in his arms.
My vision form tried to follow, but my feet were rooted in place and I couldn’t move.
“Stop!” I yelled as if someone could hear me in my vision state. “Help! Get the Queen’s Guard! Someone help!”
My heart hammered in my chest as I concluded I was seeing my future, then broke as I realized Adaline must have seen a similar fate when she had me. I didn’t know how she could have withstood the torture of knowing. I felt like I was dying all over again.
The room around me started to spin and I felt sick to my stomach. My vision blurred and transformed back to white until I was back in Caledonian Forest, surrounded by the concerned faces of Bash, Fenrir, and Raven. I was lying on the ground with Bash holding me steady as I got my bearings.
“Mackenzie?” Bash asked, wiping the tears from my face. His face was a mask of terror. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Hurt? I frowned. He must have seen the confusion on my face because he motioned down to my jeans. That was when I felt it … a warmness between my thighs.
I looked down to see I was bleeding.
I gasped loudly and my hands flew to my stomach. The baby!
Bash held onto me tightly and worry lines creased his forehead. “Let’s get you back to the castle. You need to see Dr. Harris immediately.”
I nodded, too stricken to argue. My breathing came out in labored pants as I realized I could be having a miscarriage. I’d done too much, pushed myself too far, and these were the consequences. I knew the risks and took them anyway. This was all my fault.
I bit my lip to keep from crying.
“I’ll fly her to the castle so we can get there faster,” Raven offered. “Are you okay to fly, Mackenzie?”
I repeated Raven’s question in my head a couple times. Was I really okay? Was I more afraid of losing this baby now, or of being murdered in my bed and having my child stolen away? I’d faced death enough times that I no longer feared it. What I was afraid of was my child being taken, knowing I would no longer be there to do anything about it. I would have failed to protect him.
Who was that man?
I shook my head. “I’m not okay,” I mumbled.
“What is it, little wolf? What did you see?” Fenrir asked.
I looked up at them with desperation shining in my eyes. “My death. I saw my death.”
Bash tensed beside me. “What?” he whispered.
I dug my fingers into the soil and looked down at my blood-stained pants. “History is repeating. Adaline, and now me. I-I can’t let this happen.”
“Who was it?” Bash growled.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I couldn’t see their face.”
“I saw who it was.”
We all turned in the direction of the voice and found Abaddon casually leaning against a tree, his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk across his face.
“You have so many enemies, Mackenzie. I guess I’m not the only one after the baby,” he chuckled. “But unlike the others, I don’t plan on killing you.”
I scoffed, “What a saint.” But the sarcasm didn’t hit its mark. I was trembling, not because of the demon standing before me, but by the fact that I was bleeding.
“I can protect you. I can get rid of all those who are potential threats to you and what I seek,” Abaddon promised with a gleam in his eyes.
I grimaced. There was a bitter taste in my mouth. I didn’t like where this conversation was headed. He knew too much. He was all knowing, and I didn’t
