Chapter 29 · The Mother Clause

I'm standing but I'm not the one standing.

My legs moved without me. My spine straightened like someone yanked a string through my vertebrae. My mouth opened and words came out that weren't mine.

"Little prince." The voice using my throat was male. Old. Amused in a way that made my skin crawl. "Still playing house with the halfbreed?"

Dorian went white. Actually white. Whiter than his usual vampire pale.

"Grandfather," he said.

Oh god. Oh god no.

The thing inside me—the King, the actual Vampire King—laughed with my lungs. It felt like swallowing broken glass.

"The child is clever," the King said through me. "Opening the bloodline channel before it's even born. Resourceful. But then, it would have to be, carrying that mongrel hunter filth in its veins."

Edwin was pressed against the bathroom wall, his face gray. Dorian took a step toward me—toward his grandfather wearing me like a coat.

"Let her go," Dorian said. His voice was flat. Controlled. "The bond is stable. The child is safe. There's no need—"

"Safe?" My hand lifted without my permission. Pressed against my belly where the baby was. "This thing is an abomination. Half-Thorne, half-Wren.