Reid passed out with the first cramp, his scream fading rapidly into a weak moan. I held his hand tighter, staring at the doctor who had spoken to me in private. “What happened? Is he…”

“His body will do it for him,” the doctor snapped. “This is almost a blessing for him.”

I decided to shut my mouth and let the doctors work, since it was clear I couldn’t really do anything. I was already in the way, so there was no reason to make an even bigger nuisance of myself. I just held Reid’s hand while the doctors treated him from one end, the EMTs from the other.

God, how awful to have to deal with both of these things at once. Even if one of my beloveds was saved, the other might not be.

But, no. I couldn’t think of things in that way. I had to be strong. I had to believe that things were going to be okay.

Reid’s body shivered and convulsed. Another faint moan rose from his throat, an unconscious expression of the agony he must have been in. Blood drizzled down the corner of his mouth.

I stared at him. His eyelids fluttered. His eyelashes were so long and beautiful. His cheekbones were so perfect, and he had the most handsome nose I had ever seen on a man in my entire life.

I loved everything about him. I couldn’t bear to lose him. How dare anyone make me be afraid of losing him?

You can make it through this, I thought, gripping his hand. I believe in you. I won’t give up on you.

Reid quivered again, his back arching. A shiver passed through his stomach, contorting his body. More shivers came in sweeping waves, rolling through him faster and faster as the minutes passed in a blur. He occasionally cried out and moaned, and sometimes he opened his eyes, only to drop back into unconsciousness a moment later.

“We’re getting close!” someone said. “Get ready!”

Close to what?

In the next moment, I had an answer. Reid seized, his body locking into position. He screamed and his eyes flew open, and something small and weak and blue slithered into the world.

It was a baby, a little boy, and he was so small I almost couldn’t believe I was looking at an actual human being. Everything about him was fully formed and perfect, only on a minuscule scale. His fingers, his toes, so tiny and wrinkled. His hair was matted to his head with fluids.

He wasn’t breathing.

A scream of despair locked in my throat. Reid struggled against me and I went to hold onto him, but I was torn away from him by a surge of emergency workers as they took over for me. It was probably for the best, since I felt so weak from disbelief. This couldn’t happen. We couldn’t have some so far, only to lose everything at the last moment.

A doctor held my son. He reached into the baby’s mouth, then turned and snapped, “Oxygen!”

Someone handed over the smallest, most pathetic little oxygen mask. The doctor held the mask over my lifeless son’s face, removed it and pressed against his chest, then replaced the mask. The process repeated, over and over. I could only watch, staring in horror through a sheen of tears.

Then, as the doctor placed the oxygen mask back over my son’s face, his chest lifted on his own. He gulped air and then let out a weak, sobbing wail. My son sucked in another breath and cried out again, and this time the sound was stronger.

“We’re breathing!” the doctor said, and the others around him let out muted cheers. I realized I was one of them, doing the same, celebrating this moment where life had triumphed over death.

“He’s stabilizing,” someone else said, and I realized they were talking about Reid. It was true. He had stopped vomiting, and he was trying to sit up, straining his head around in an attempt to see his baby.

Someone appeared with two stretchers, one of them much smaller than the other. Lack of fertility had created a need for specialized baby sized equipment, to ensure that the babies born were given every chance they could to survive. I saw the evidence of that now as my son was placed on his stretcher, looking very much like he had just been set into a crib.

Then they took my baby away.

I lurched to my feet. “Wait!” I yelled, grabbing for the clean white coat of the nearest EMT.

My hand was intercepted by a nearby doctor, the same one who seemed to be in charge of everything. “Let them go,” he said.

“My son!” I snarled.

“Your son is premature. He needs specialized care to make sure he keeps breathing. He needs to be at the hospital if you want him to live.”

“I want him to live more than anything in the world. I want him to live.”

“Then let them go.” The doctor nodded to the doorway the stretcher had disappeared through. Others behind us were loading Reid onto a stretcher of his own.

“Don’t worry. We’re aware of the importance of the situation here. Your son will be protected by two armed guards at all times.”

Baby theft was a common crime. Too common. People were desperate. But knowing that my son would be properly protected made me feel a little better. Not much, but enough to drop my hand back down by my side and take a deep breath. “Okay,” I whispered.

“Good. Now, your boyfriend needs you.”

I turned back to Reid and came up beside him as the EMTs finished strapping him in. I held his hand and jogged along at his side as they moved him, clearly heading back to one of the ambulances.

“I want my baby,” Reid gasped. He looked pale and wretched. I could hardly believe he was talking. It had to be taking a massive effort. My heart went out to him. My strong, brave Reid.

“It’s a boy,” I informed him, my voice soft. “He’s going to be at the hospital. You can see him soon. We need to get you treated first. Just relax, okay?”

“Want my baby now,” Reid snapped. He tried to sit up. Paramedics reached over to push him back down, but it wasn’t necessary. He didn’t have the strength and collapsed back down. “Want my daughter. I want Lesandra to pay.”

That last addition to the list surprised me, in a way. Reid wasn’t the kind of man to seek out revenge. Then again, I would have wanted the exact same things in his situation. “She poisoned you,” I said.

“She gave me tea and cakes. I…”

Our conversation was cut off as the stretcher was taken down the palace steps, resulting in what must have been a lot of pain for Reid. He clutched the sides of his stretcher, letting out strangled little sounds.

As we reached the bottom of the steps again, I held out my hand to stop the EMTs. They slowed, instinctively responding to my authority. Bending over Reid, I kissed his lips and touched my forehead to his, letting him know I was about to make a vow that could not be backed away from.

“I promise you that I will see Lesandra brought to justice.”

Reid looked up at me. He nodded, just once. His voice rasped. “Good enough.”

Hating to do it, but knowing it must be done, I stepped away from the stretcher and watched my dear, beloved Reid taken away to the hospital. Fear made my spine crawl, as if I was being tapped again and again on my back by a gun. Or poked with a knife.

I felt betrayed. I was afraid for Reid, afraid for my son, afraid for all of us, even though the worst had passed and I knew we could survive.

At the same time, I was so fucking mad. My rage boiled in my blood, surged through my veins. I gritted my teeth, clenched my jaw. I would do more than bring Lesandra to justice. I was going to kill that bitch myself.

I was all the way to the main entrance when a little voice in the back of my mind reminded me of Haley.

I stopped in my tracks, my heart pounding. Haley. She had no idea what was going on, just that she was being held hostage in a living room. She was smart enough to know something terrible had happened.

She would be so afraid.

I had sworn to protect her. She was my daughter, related by blood or not.

Some of the anger inside me died. I turned away from the door, my purpose redirected. Killing Lesandra would come later. Right now, I had to get to Haley and bring her to her daddy and little brother.

My plans were changed yet again as the front door of the palace burst open. Spinning around, my heart jamming in my throat, I saw a mixture of palace guards and police officers. Standing in their midst, sobbing, her eyes blackened, handcuffs around her wrists, was Lesandra.

I grabbed a nearby table to keep myself standing. “Lesandra!”

Lesandra stared at me. I noticed now that her lip bled and her arms were covered in scratches. “You!” she hissed.

“No,” a regal voice said.

All of us turned to see Queen Delia come down the stairs. Her eyes blazed, and she looked so vibrantly alive that it was difficult to imagine how old and frail she was. Color bloomed on her cheeks, born of fury.

I stepped back as she passed, astonished at how hotly her anger burned. My grandmother felt more strongly about this than I did! That should have been impossible, but here was the evidence.

Queen Delia stood in front of Lesandra. She lifted her hand and then she smacked my cousin across the face, hard enough to send her reeling back against the police, who caught her and thrust her to her feet again.

“Don’t you dare blame him,” Queen Delia said. “Don’t you dare blame anyone for this but yourself. You are a demoness. A harlot. A horrid, horrid woman.

“It brings me disgrace to be related to you and so, as one of my final acts as Queen, I have decided to put that to an end. You are not my granddaughter. You do not have the name of Cobb. You are a nothing and a nobody.”

“You can’t disown me!” Lesandra cried out. Tears ran down her face, mingling with her blood. “I was going to be the first feminist queen! I was going to change the world for women everywhere. You can’t do this to me.”

“I can,” my grandmother said. “I just did, and I have at least ten witnesses here to back me up on that.” She shook her head.

“You had a grand purpose. Too grand. You let it blind you, corrupt you, to the point where you would have killed a man whose only crime was to love your competitor. You would have killed an infant.”

“If it meant winning,” Lesandra whispered, “I would have sacrificed all of you. For the greater good.”

“You’re delusional,” I said. I couldn’t even be angry anymore. This cousin of mine was so sick in the head that I couldn’t believe I had never seen it before. “You need psychiatric help.”

“And she will get it — in prison, where she will be for a long time. This was an assassination attempt.” Queen Delia stared at Lesandra, then turned her back. “Take her away. Do with her what you would with a common criminal. That’s all she is.”

Lesandra wailed as she was dragged away.

I thought my grandmother might stop and speak to me, but she brushed right past without so much as a glance in my direction. Seeing the tears on her face, I understood why. She needed to grieve, alone, for the granddaughter she had just lost.

I left her to it and went to fetch Haley. She came to me and wrapped her arms around my neck and wouldn’t let go. Burying my face in her hair, I held her as tightly as I could.

“You’re crushing me,” she whispered.

“Deal with it,” I grunted. She giggled a little against my neck.

As I drove her to the hospital, I explained what had happened. I left nothing out. She was part of his family, and she deserved to know.

By the time I was done with the story, we had arrived at the hospital. I searched for a parking spot while Haley studied her hands, apparently thinking hard.

“Daddy’s alive?”

“Your daddy is alive,” I said.

“My brother is alive?”

“Your brother is alive.”

She nodded.

I pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine. Before I could get out, Haley patted my arm. I looked at her shining eyes, the determination on her youthful face. “Everything will be okay,” she said.

Something inside me broke. All the wild emotions I had felt today, fury and fear and anxiety, came pouring out of me in an unrestrained deluge. Resting my forehead on the steering wheel, I cried.

Haley came over and laid her cheek against mine, patting my back until the storm passed. When it was over, I hugged her and whispered thanks into her ear. There would be no distance between us now. There was nothing to hold us back, when what we had conquered today would cause all our other problems to pale in comparison.

We went inside to see Reid. I kissed him over and over, unable to get enough of him, until Haley pulled me away and took my place, cuddling up with him. The doctor came in while I stood off to the side, gesturing for me to follow him into the hallway.

“Good news,” the doctor said.

I will never take those words for granted. Never again.

“Yes?”

“We ran some tests on the poisonous substances in the tea and cakes. Kava, pennyroyal, and common rat poison.”

“Oh, my god!” I exclaimed. Horror flowed through me. Lesandra hadn’t been playing around.

“Kava has long-term side effects. However, the amount given to Reid would surely have caused rapid liver failure. The pennyroyal would almost certainly have induced an abortion.”

The doctor glanced down at his charts. “However, strange as it sounds, it was the rat poison that saved Reid. It caused him to vomit, which made most of the other poisons come back out before they could be absorbed.”

I raked my hands through my hair. “If Lesandra hadn’t gone that extra step…”

“Then things might have gone very differently. As it is, he’ll be weak and will need monitoring, but he’s strong and young. We expect a full recovery.”

Later on, police investigations would reveal that Lesandra had been holding onto her poisonous herbs for quite some time. She kept missing chances to use them, or backing out for fear of uncertainty. However, Dickon’s disappearance — he was almost certainly an accomplice — had caused her to become progressively more frantic, until she eventually took what she saw as her last chance.

She had seen me leave the palace, then rushed to make poisoned tea and rat poison cakes. After that, well, we all knew how things had progressed.

But it would be some time before all that information could be gathered. Before that, Haley and I spent our days in the hospital with Reid as he recovered. He would have no lasting damage from the poisons, as the doctor had said, though he was weak and spent a lot of time sleeping at first.

My son grew stronger each day. He wasn’t that premature, and he was soon as stable and healthy as any other baby, even if he did have some catching up to do.

Reid and I debated names endlessly, until Haley suggested we call him Kevan. She eventually revealed to us that Kevan was the name of a purple space alien from her favorite cartoon, but by that point it was too late. Kevan was Kevan, and we couldn’t think of him any other way.

I just hoped he was able to live up to such a legacy as his namesake.