Sneak peak

Kingdom of Blood and Spirit

Copyrighted 2021

Prologue

Queen Maeve- High Queen of Faerie

Underhill Palace

Twenty-Five years ago

Sweat saturated my clothing, and my hair clung to my face as the gripping pain through my abdomen threatened to rip me apart, waking me instantly from my slumber. I reached for my love, but he was gone. Off to deal with a petty squabble in his house before our child’s birth neared.

I bellowed a loud, painful scream. The ache in my back so intense I didn’t know which area to clutch amid the hurting. The throbbing in my back gave way to the clutching pain of my lower stomach. The baby was coming and quick—too quick.

It’s too soon. The pain fully subsided, but the ache remained like an echo of the agony.

"It’s too soon," I repeated out loud to myself through heaving breaths. Cormac wasn’t here. The babe wasn’t due for another three weeks.

"Deirdre!" I screamed, hoping she would hear me. She had arrived yesterday to help me prepare for the baby, my sister taking her soon-to-be aunt duties seriously as she ordered the staff around and helped me prepare to bring the royal heir into the world as my love, Cormac, left early this morning.

Pain ripped me apart once again as I gritted my teeth and muffled the scream threatening to break from my lips. It felt as if someone had plunged a knife into my gut, trying to rip the baby from me. It was thoroughly excruciating. Worse than any wound I’d ever sustained fighting in my many years keeping my kingdom safe.

"My Queen." A servant rushed in, eyes wild, her face ashen. My own pale, sweat-drenched face mirrored in her large eyes.

"Get my sister and call the midwife!" I managed to groan before another knife pain seared through me, my gift failing me in those painful moments. I was helpless. I couldn’t even use it to ease the pain. As the pain subsided again, I fell backward into my pillow, breathing heavily. I turned my head sideways to peer at the clear glass window. Streaks of rain trailed down the pane as if our world was weeping for me rather than rejoicing at the life that was about to enter into it. A bad omen.

Before I could think further on it, the searing agony grabbed me in its torturous embrace once again. My insides twisted, ripping themselves apart as if someone had stabbed me through and gouged out my insides. I panted through the pain, remembering the midwife’s instructions. She had said there was no greater pain than childbirth.

I had scoffed, thinking of the various wounds inflicted upon me through my long life. Nothing could be worse than the pain of the knife wound to my side in the Icelanders’ rebellion. I had been wrong, and she had been right. This was as if someone was ripping me apart, putting me back together, then doing it all over again. It was torture. One with a wondrous gift at the end.

"Sister." Deirdre stood in the doorway of my room, a question on her fair face, her amber eyes dancing with the flame that raged inside her.

I reached out my hand toward her, beckoning her forward. Then another knife stabbing pain tore through me, and a scream escaped my lips. Deirdre walked forward slowly, not in a rush to reach my side. She wore an odd expression on her face. I reached for my abilities, but then the wretched pain hit me again, leaving me unable to focus, unable to draw from the well of my power, feeling defenseless. A chill ran down my back even through the agony, and every fiber of my body screamed that something was terribly wrong.

"The baby comes too soon." A grin painted her crimson lips —as cold as her eyes despite the fire that burned within them. She delighted in my suffering. Everything felt... wrong. The labor pains brought on so suddenly, Cormac being called away in the night, my powers muted. I should have been able to use some of it. She had planned this.

My thoughts cut off when a contraction hit again. I huffed my breath, trying to push through the pain until the midwife arrived. Fear for my child rose, too great to do anything but pray to Danu and endure. But I couldn’t look away from Deirdre and that odd grin remaining on her face.

She fluffed my pillow and began to rub my back while her pale blond hair spilled over her shoulders and curtained her face.

"Get away from me," I hissed through breathless gasps, trying to pull away from her touch. Everything inside me screamed wrong. This was all wrong.

"Now, now, that’s no way to talk to your sister. I’m just here to help," she purred, leaning closer as she again began to rub my back in mock tenderness.

I flinched. I tried to move, to run, but only searing pain answered me.

The guard on duty began to move up the hallway. I could hear his big form lumbering through the too-narrow-for-him entryway, cursing as he had a tendency to do. My friend and protector barely made it outside the door when a wall of flames barred his passage. I knew he would soon jump through the doorway, and I knew he would burn for it.

My gaze, now even sharper, swung to meet Deidre’s. A cocky, satisfied grin pulled the corners of her lips up, and her chin jutted out as she continued to rub my back. I froze and blinked at her rapidly. My hand clutched my stomach as I met the amber eyes of my sister. Her head tilted sideways, and a sneer transformed her beautiful face. Why hadn’t I seen it before?

Shock ricocheted through me as my already churning stomach turned sour. My labored breathing sped up as my heart pounded harder, threatening to leave me altogether, breaking at the realization of what was happening. She was betraying me. And I was defenseless to stop it.

Before I could speak, I felt the dagger slide between my ribs, nicking the most vital of organs, my heart. Not enough to kill me, but I would die if I didn’t seek help quickly. She leaned forward to whisper, "You think I’d let you birth another obstacle in my way to the throne. No, Sister, it’s my time to rule as it always should have been."

I met her gaze, seeing past that bitter sneer to the cold edge in her gaze and the baring of her teeth, her lips twisting into a pleased grin as she let out a deep, gratifying sigh.

I felt blood bubble up from my throat as I coughed. My healing would keep me alive longer than a mortal, but I would die nonetheless. So, I reached deep inside of me with love and prayers to Danu. The last of everything I had, and my only escape to save the life inside me. The baby I already loved more than anything.

I willed every last bit of strength I had as I reached out to Danu, keeper of the stone, goddess, and fate to us all. And she answered. My powers would suffice enough through the pain, past whatever was taking them from me. Through the life leaving my body as I slammed into the veil to the last person I could get to save me. Just long enough to save my child. I let her power cascade through me like a hot knife, sending me away from Deirdre in my desperation to save the life inside me. I knew it was too late to save myself.

Crashing sounds and bellows of my dearest friend roared in the background as I disappeared, our eyes meeting briefly, and I whispered one last goodbye. "I love you, my warrior ogre, my friend."

It was the last thing I thought as the world went dark, and I begged Danu to save my child at any cost before I lunged to snatch up the parchment paper written days ago for a future not my own. Sadness and regret were my final emotions. I would never know or show how much I already loved my unborn child.

I would not even be here to hear the first cry of a baby new to this world, one that was not even truly hers. But it would protect her. And that was all that mattered. My heart slowed as my tears streamed freely while I embraced the ebbing of pain and the coldness that followed as hands I knew and trusted worked to save my child. I was gone in body, unable to speak or move, but I knew she was there. I knew Danu had spoken to her.

Save the child. And it was all the reassurance I had as I passed through, into the land of eternal peace.