Naomi looked down, pressing her hand against her belly. She didn’t look any different. She didn’t feel any different either.

Well, except for tired.

No, she’d just been working herself too hard, using a lot of magic, sleeping very little. That’s why she was tired. That’s why her magic always felt drained.

“She’s pregnant,” Firestorm said again, her words dripping with disgust.

“Indeed.” A delighted, vicious expression lit up Darksire’s face. He waved his hands, directing the beasts forward once more to attack Sera’s warriors. “Kill Makani,” he told Firestorm. “He has been nothing but trouble for seven hundred years.”

But Firestorm didn’t move. Fire flashed in her dark eyes. She looked angry—angrier than Naomi had ever seen her. She kept that anger contained, however. It glazed her skin like a suit of fire armor. Her eyes were locked on Makani, her calculating expression terribly disconcerting.

Naomi hoped she wasn’t trying to come up with a fate worse than death for them all.

Makani took advantage of her inaction, and her loosening grip on the fire lasso, finally breaking free from it. It snapped with a sharp crack, then sizzled out. He jumped to his feet and planted himself between Firestorm and Naomi. Anger, protectiveness—even desperation—burned in his eyes. Dear god, this wasn’t a ruse.

Naomi looked down at her belly. It wasn’t any bigger than it had been a moment ago, but it suddenly felt fuller, heavier. “How long have you known?” Her voice was a dry rasp.

“For a few days.”

Shit. This wasn’t real. It was too crazy to be real.

“I tried to tell you last night,” Makani said.

So that was the important thing he’d wanted to discuss. She’d deferred that discussion, not even understanding how important it was, and now Firestorm had blindsided her.

“How did you know?” she asked Makani, trying to stay calm, even as her racing heart threatened to burst out of her chest.

“The fairy root was the first sign.”

Fairy root was so sweet, so potent, that potion-makers often used it to cover up the less palatable ingredients in their drinkable mixtures.

Naomi thought back to the Pancake Palace and all the fairy root sugar she’d put on her pancakes—and further back than that, through all the other meals she’d had over the past month. She’d consumed an obscene amount of fairy root, even for a fairy. She’d been putting it in her tea. In her granola. On her pancakes. Even on the whipped cream on her pancakes. Sure, she’d always had a sweet tooth, but not to this extreme.

At the time, she hadn’t thought anything of all the fairy root she was eating. Of course she needed the extra energy boost after all the long hours.

But, no, it wasn’t that at all. Fairies craved certain foods during pregnancy, and fairy root was right at the top of that list. Naomi had just seen her brother’s wife Nerida go through those cravings. She’d even teased her about putting fairy root on everything. And yet she’d been totally blind to her own odd eating habits.

“And I could feel the magic inside of you,” Makani said.

That explained why he’d been even more protective of her lately. He wasn’t just protecting her. He was protecting their child.

Our child. Naomi felt a surge of panic at the words. She wasn’t a mother. She was Naomi. Just Naomi. Just a fairy who dove into hell and fought demons. That wasn’t the life of a mother.

Fire erupted out of Firestorm’s hands, a spell fueled by unmitigated anger. But Firestorm wasn’t just angry; she was murderous. But exactly who was the angry one: Firestorm or the demon inside of her? One of them, or both of them, feared Naomi’s child.

Yes, fear. That was the missing feeling, the expression on Firestorm’s face that Naomi hadn’t been able to place. She’d never expected to find such a feeling inside the Dark Angel, Pestilence, the Fire Monster. This little unborn baby absolutely terrified her. But why?

Makani surged forward, magic bursting out of him. One spell after the other, he bombarded Firestorm without pause or mercy. Fueled by fear and love, Makani drove her back. Firestorm was the most powerful Dragon Born mage who had ever lived, made immortal and more powerful by Damarion, powered up once more by the demon prince of hell inside of her. But all that magic was no match for Makani’s fury.

Firestorm moved to counter him, matching his spells and movements. But Makani didn’t let up. A spell cut through her defenses. Then another. And another. Her body shook. She clenched her teeth, struggling to keep up. Anyone else would have already been spasming on the floor.

Darksire rushed toward Firestorm, but Sera and her warriors cut him off.

Makani drove Firestorm back further. His magic slashed at her again and again. Finally, her hands and knees hit the floor.

“Stop,” she growled, looking up at him.

“No.”

Makani didn’t stop bombarding her with magic. She was convulsing on the floor.

Wind cut through the room. No, not wind. Darksire had sent his entire beast army charging full-speed at Sera’s warriors, sacrificing his monsters so he could swoop in and grab Firestorm. His dark wings spreading like a night tapestry, he flew into the air. He blasted through the ceiling and escaped the castle, carrying his wounded beloved in his arms.

“The sky is falling,” Naomi said, looking up as the broken ceiling tumbled down.

There was no time to run.

She blinked her eyes. When she opened them, the stony waterfall had stopped, frozen midair. Cutler, a mercenary she knew from her years working at Mayhem, and the other telekinetics in the army were using their magic to hold up the ceiling. Sweat trickled down their faces, the enormous weight of the debris straining their magic to the breaking point.

Naomi blinked again. Her vision was going blotchy.

When her eyes opened this time, the telekinetics were tossing the debris aside, batch by batch.

Darkness tugged at her. She was falling.

She opened her eyes to find Makani gazing down on her. He held her in his arms. They were on the floor. Sera and Alex were kneeling beside them.

“Hey, we were worried about you,” Sera said.

“You kept passing out,” Alex added with none of her usual spunk. She looked like she’d just stared death in the eyes.

Naomi’s mouth was as dry as hell’s deserts. “I’m tougher than I look.”

“It’s a good thing too. Because you look like Barbie Fairy,” Sera teased her, finally smiling.

Naomi smiled back. “Only on a good day.”

Alex gave her a solid slap on the shoulder.

“Thanks,” Naomi grunted.

“I think she hit her head too hard,” Sera commented.

“Thanks for hitting you?” Alex asked Naomi.

“Thanks for not hitting me that hard. Usually, you hit like a hammer on a mission.”

“I hit with love.” Alex smirked at her. “But I thought I’d go easy on you, considering your condition.”

“Cute.” Naomi looked at Sera. “Do me a favor and hit your sister ‘with love’ for me.”

Sera snorted.

“Congratulations, mommy,” Alex said brightly.

Naomi’s heart hiccuped a panicked note.

“Don’t worry. You’ll do fine,” Sera assured her.

Alex was grinning like a maniac. “I hear Drachenburg Industries has great maternity benefits.”

Dizziness smothered Naomi. She couldn’t think about maternity benefits. She needed to think about something else. Anything else.

Alex glanced over her shoulder. “Logan is waving me over. Duty calls, lovelies. Be back soon.”

She ran off to the chorus of clashing blades and snarling monsters.

“The battle isn’t over?” Naomi tried to sit up. Her reward was a fresh wave of dizziness.

“A few beasts remain. Kai and Logan are hunting them down,” Sera told her.

“And the demons?”

“We’ll get them,” Makani promised her.

“But let’s get you home first.” Sera set her hand on Naomi’s arm. “You need to rest.”

“I’m fine.”

Makani leveled a hard stare at her. “You have been chasing demons nonstop for two months. And in the last two days, you have fought demons and beasts, transported us several times to hell and back, and repaired the torn veil that separates the realms.”

He left off the last bit, that she was pregnant. But his eyes drifted decidedly to her tummy.

“I’m not going to run after the demons now, but I am going to get up,” Naomi declared.

Sera took one of her hands, Makani the other. They helped her to her feet.

But as soon as she was standing, she regretted it. Her vision was blurry, her ears echoing. She swayed to the side. Makani caught her and lifted her into his arms, carrying her toward the hole in the wall that marked the castle’s exit.

“I can walk.” Her voice was a feeble protest.

“No, you really can’t.”

She sighed. She wasn’t nearly as big of a badass as she should be.

“You have to be patient with yourself, Naomi,” he said, his voice softer this time. “You can’t push yourself to the brink of exhaustion.”

“Isn’t that our life, pushing ourselves to the brink of exhaustion?”

“Not anymore. We have something greater to live for.”

“Back before the battle, you told me that none of us would die.” She swallowed hard. “You meant me and our child.”

“Yes. I was not going to let any harm come to either of you.”

He’d fought valiantly. He shouldn’t have even had any magic left after their battle in the core of hell, but he had fought off Firestorm, who’d had murder burning in her eyes. He’d kept her from killing them. He’d protected them. And she was going to protect him too.

Naomi kissed his cheek. “I won’t let any harm come to you either.”

“Of course you won’t. You’ve got my back. You’ve always had my back.”

Naomi set her head on his chest. “I’m tired.”

“I know.” He clutched her to him. “Rest. I won’t let you fall.”

“Ok,” she yawned. “But you have to promise not to tell Emma that you carried me off the battlefield. She already thinks I’m a wimp.”

His laugh was a pleasant rumble against her ear. “I promise.”

Safe in his arms, Naomi closed her eyes and fell asleep.