Chapter 435 Rowan
Chapter 435 Rowan
Rowan - The Birth Part 3
There are moments when power means absolutely nothing.
I have spent more than a century with a weapon strapped over my mouth because the world decided my voice was too powerful to be allowed freedom. I can command fire. I can tell flesh to heal and watch wounds close. I once told Avery's dead heart to beat again, and somehow the universe listened.
Right now, I would trade every bit of it for the ability to take her pain into my own body.
Avery lies unconscious while healers surround her, and I stand three feet away with my muzzle on the floor and absolutely no idea how to save my wife.
My hands won't stop shaking.
I curl them into fists.
It doesn't help.
One of the healers says something.
Another answers.
I don't hear either of them.
All I hear is Avery breathing.
Too shallow.
Too slow.
"Her pressure is falling."
Damien turns so quickly that the healer actually recoils.
"What?"
"We're controlling it."
"You just said it's fucking falling."
"Damien."
Ezra's voice is quiet.
Damien turns on him.
"What?"
Ezra doesn't answer.
He doesn't need to.
He's terrified too.
His shadows have swallowed half the floor.
I've never seen Ezra's hands shake before.
They're shaking now.
A healer moves between us.
"We need room."
I take another step back.
It is the hardest thing I've ever done.
Everything in me is demanding that I go to her.
Touch her.
Hold her.
Fix her.
But I can't interfere.
So I stand there with fire flickering uncontrollably between my fingers and watch strangers fight to keep the center of my entire fucking existence alive.
Kuro is pressed against the side of the bed.
The enormous fox has gone completely silent.
That's worse than the howling.
His ears are flattened. His silver eyes never leave Avery.
Then one of the healers says, "First one."
My heart stops.
Everything moves faster.
I can't see much from where we're standing, and I'm grateful for that because there is already too much blood.
Far too much.
"Come on," someone murmurs.
A healer reaches down.
Another moves forward with a blanket.
Then—
Something impossibly small is lifted into the world.
I forget how to breathe.
A baby.
Our baby.
So tiny.
Gods.
She's so fucking tiny.
For one horrible second, she doesn't make a sound.
Nobody does.
The entire room seems to wait with us.
I stare at that little body in the healer's hands and every thought inside my head becomes a plea.
Please.
Please.
Please.
The healer rubs her back.
Nothing.
Damien makes a broken sound beside me.
Ezra whispers, "Come on."
I don't realize I've stepped forward until someone puts an arm out to stop me.
Then—
A cry.
Small.
Thin.
Furious.
Perfect.
The sound tears straight through me.
My knees nearly give.
"Oh, gods."
Ezra covers his mouth.
Damien turns away for half a second, dragging both hands over his face, but I see it anyway.
Tears.
Damien is crying.
Then I realize I am too.
The healer smiles.
"A girl."
A daughter.
I stare at her.
My daughter.
She's wrapped quickly in a soft blanket, only her tiny pink face visible, her mouth open as she protests whatever terrible injustice has been committed by bringing her into the world.
"Is she alright?" Ezra demands.
"She's small."
"Is she alright?"
The healer checks her again.
"She's breathing well. Heart is strong."
I close my eyes.
Thank fuck.
When I open them, I look immediately at Avery.
She's still unconscious.
Still pale.
Blood stains the sheets beneath her.
"She's bleeding."
"We know."
"Fix it."
The command nearly slips into my voice.
The healer freezes.
So does everyone else.
Fuck.
I close my mouth immediately.
I cannot lose control now.
Not now.
Ezra grips my shoulder.
I force myself to breathe.
"Sorry."
The word is barely audible.
The healer nods.
"We're working on it."
Avery doesn't move.
My first daughter is carried only a few feet away, where another healer begins tending to her.
Then someone says, "Second."
Everything inside me tightens again.
Another blur of hands.
Another tiny body.
This one is even quieter.
No.
My heart slams against my ribs.
"Why isn't she crying?"
Nobody answers me.
"Why isn't she—"
"Give them a second," Ezra says.
I don't want to give them a fucking second.
I have a voice capable of commanding the world and every instinct inside me is demanding I use it.
Breathe.
I could tell her.
I could command those tiny lungs to open.
My mouth parts.
The baby's face scrunches.
Then she screams.
Louder than her sister.
I laugh.
It comes out half sob.
Half laugh.
Entirely broken.
"A girl," the healer announces.
Another daughter.
Two.
We have two daughters.
Damien grabs the back of my neck and presses his forehead briefly against my temple.
Neither of us says anything.
We can't.
Across from us, Ezra is openly crying now.
He isn't even attempting to hide it.
Two little cries overlap from the other side of the room.
I have never heard anything more beautiful.
Except—
"Avery?"
Nothing.
I move toward her head.
Her skin feels cold when I touch her face.
Too cold.
"Avery."
No response.
My heart sinks.
"Her heart?"
Damien asks it because I can't.
The healer checks.
"Still beating."
Still.
I fucking hate that word.
Still implies there is a possibility that it won't be soon.
"Third baby."
I can't look away from Avery.
Not this time.
I keep one hand against her cheek.
Ezra moves closer to watch.
Damien stands between both places as though he can't decide where he's needed more.
Then the healers begin moving faster.
"What's wrong?"
No answer.
"What's wrong?"
One of them finally looks up.
"The third is positioned badly."
My stomach drops.
"What does that mean?"
"We need to move quickly."
"Then move fucking quickly."
Damien's voice shakes the room.
Nobody chastises him.
Avery's face pinches despite her unconsciousness.
Her body knows.
Even if she isn't awake, she knows.
I stroke my thumb over her cheek.
"Almost done, baby."
I don't know whether she can hear me.
"You're almost there."
The healers work.
Seconds stretch until they feel like hours.
Then—
"Got him."
Him.
My head snaps up.
A small body appears.
A little bigger than the girls.
And silent.
Completely silent.
The healer immediately carries him to another table.
Something inside me breaks.
"Why isn't he crying?"
No answer.
"Why isn't my son crying?"
Son.
The word nearly destroys me.
Ezra reaches for me.
I shake him off.
The healer rubs the baby's chest.
Another checks him.
Still nothing.
I can't wait.
Not this time.
I step forward.
"Rowan—"
I don't care.
I stare at that impossibly tiny little boy.
My son.
And I speak.
"Breathe."
The word leaves my mouth carrying power.
The lamps flicker.
Fire surges in the hearth.
The windows tremble.
Then my son sucks in his first breath.
And screams.
I collapse.
Actually collapse.
My knees hit the stone.
A laugh tears out of me while tears blur everything in front of my eyes.
Damien catches my shoulder.
Ezra crouches beside me.
"He's alright."
I look up.
The healer is smiling.
"He's alright."
Three cries fill the room now.
Three.
All three.
Two daughters.
One son.
Our babies.
Our fucking babies are alive.
Then someone behind me says,
"We're losing her."
Every bit of happiness disappears.
I turn.
Avery.
The healers are moving around her frantically.
One presses glowing hands against her abdomen.
Another shouts for something.
Ezra is beside her instantly.
"What do you mean?"
"She's lost too much blood."
No.
Damien goes completely still.
No.
We did this already.
I watched Avery die once.
I am not doing it again.
I walk toward her.
I take her face between my hands.
"Avery."
Her skin is so pale.
Her lips nearly colorless.
My beautiful girl.
My wife.
I press my forehead against hers.
"You don't get to do this."
Ezra is crying beside me.
Damien has one hand wrapped around Avery's wrist as if he can physically keep her pulse inside her body.
"You wanted this."
I can barely see her through my tears.
"You were so happy."
My throat closes.
"You told us you wanted our babies."
My power begins crawling through the room.
The air heats.
The stone beneath my feet trembles.
"Avery."
I don't care about consent right now.
I don't care about the rules.
I don't care what my voice destroys.
"Stay."
The command shakes the windows.
Her body jerks.
Every healer freezes.
I stare at her.
"Stay with us."
Power pours from me.
"Your babies need you."
My voice cracks.
"I need you."
Then Avery's eyelashes flutter.
I stop breathing.
"Avery?"
They move again.
Ezra is instantly beside me.
Damien's head snaps up.
Her brows pull together.
She makes the tiniest sound.
Then those green eyes open.
Barely.
Just a sliver.
But they're there.
I laugh.
I don't mean to.
It simply tears out of me.
Her eyes move sluggishly until they find us.
She looks confused.
Exhausted.
Then she whispers,
"The babies?"
Of course.
Of fucking course that's the first thing she asks.
Ezra laughs through a sob.
"They're fine."
Her eyes fill immediately.
"All of them?"
"All three."
Damien kisses her hand over and over.
"Healthy."
I smooth her hair away from her damp forehead.
"Small."
Her lip trembles.
"But healthy."
A cry sounds from across the room.
Avery's eyes widen.
Another joins it.
Then the third.
Three tiny voices.
She starts crying.
The healer brings the first bundle closer.
Avery looks down.
Her face changes.
I will remember that expression for the rest of my immortal life.
Wonder.
Pure fucking wonder.
"Our baby?"
"One of them."
Ezra laughs.
"We have two girls."
Avery lets out a sob.
"And a boy," I tell her.
Her eyes find mine.
"Two girls and a boy?"
I nod.
"Two girls and a boy."
She cries harder.
I kiss her forehead.
Ezra kisses one cheek.
Damien kisses the other.
And for a few minutes, nobody in that room is a council leader, a commander, a weapon, an immortal or anything else the world has ever demanded we be.
We're just four terrified, exhausted people staring at three impossibly tiny babies.
Our daughters.
Our son.
Our family.
Alive.
All of us.
Alive.