Sweat stings my eyes as I kneel in the ritual circle, each breath a struggle. My hands press against the curve of my belly where our son fights with a strength that terrifies me. He should not have to fight this hard.
Not yet.
Rowena grips my left hand, her fingers steady even as her face betrays her fear. Kali stands opposite me, calm in a way that sends ice down my spine. She has already drawn the sacred lines in her own blood across the stone floor.
“Kali, don’t,” I whisper, meeting her eyes. “There has to be another way.”
She smiles at me, soft and heartbreakingly final. “There isn’t, little Luna. Not if you and the child are going to live.”
The contingency device’s poison still crawls through my veins, trying to unravel everything the Bridge inside me holds together. Every few se
