Carley’s entire body ached.
As she lay in the snow, at the bottom of the stone steps leading up the side of the steep cliff, she reflected upon her life and concluded that it was sadly lacking. She knew her way around a kitchen, could concoct a delicious meal from the most meager of ingredients…That was about it. She could not think of a single other aspect of her life of which she could feel proud or accomplished.
Except the babe in her belly.
She tried to lift her arm to flatten her palm on her abdomen, as she’d done a hundred times already that day, but her arm would not move. Broken. Everything in her body was broken. Was the babe broken as well? Tears welled in her eyes and spilled over, sliding down her cheeks to pool in her ears, blocking out the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore a few hundred feet away.
She’d fallen from the top of the stone steps leading from the village at the lake’s edge to the beach house at the top of the cliff, where the king of the lightbearers lived.
No, she corrected herself. Not fallen. Pushed. She had been pushed down the stairs and left for dead. Her intention had been to warn the king and his family of impending danger, and instead she had become a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs, and she was pretty certain she was dying.
As ever, she had failed.
The only thing she had ever been good at was cooking, and the fact that she was good enough to cook for kings was what inevitably put her into her current situation. If she had not worked at the beach house, no one would ever have wondered if she overheard things she was not supposed to hear. There would not have been a need to push her down a flight of stairs.
Would he have done it if he had known about the babe in her belly? She had not told anyone yet, except for Alexa, the healer who had confirmed her pregnancy just the day before. Carley had even been afraid to tell Alexa, but the healer was as wise and good as her reputation, and she guessed on her own. Carley had blown out a breath of relief and admitted that yes, it was true.
The healer’s quick magical exam confirmed her suspicions, and even as she’d assured Carley that everything was perfectly fine, she promised not to breathe a word to anyone, until Carley was ready. Such a nice healer. If only she was here now.
“Oh, my lights—who is that?”
Carley could not even turn her head to look at the source of the exclamation. Nothing on her body would work the way it should. Nothing wanted to work at all, save her lungs and her heart, and even those organs hurt so badly that she suspected her end was drawing near. She vaguely wondered if the babe was still alive, and would they die together?
“It’s one of the chefs from the king’s home,” a male voice commented, from the same vicinity as the female exclamation.
“Carley? Oh, my lights—Carley!”
Carley recognized the voice. Alexa. Had her prayers truly been answered? She opened her mouth and croaked—it was the best she could do.
“I think she fell down the stairs,” the male voice said.
Carley felt movement near her head, and comprehended that someone was crouching next to her. Alexa, no doubt. Warm hands cupped her head, and Carley would have sighed in bliss if she’d been able to, as soothing magic pushed into her head.
But it left as quickly as it started, and Carley made a noise of protest as the hands pulled away from her head.
“She’s grievously injured,” Alexa said. “Dangerously so. I’m not sure I can heal her alone, not at this time of night.”
“What do you want me to do?” the man asked.
“Pick her up. Let’s take her back to my home. Then go find another healer. Maybe even two. I—I think she might have fallen from the top.” Carley heard a sharp intake of breath at that statement.
Pushed, she wanted to say. I’m not that much of a klutz. But no words would come out.
A noise of distress managed to escape when the man lifted her into his arms. “I’m so sorry, Carley,” Alexa said as she walked beside the man who carried her. “We need to get you to someplace warm. And I’m afraid to touch you until we are there. Your injuries are going to sap all of my magic. But we’ll get you fixed up. I promise.”
Babe. She tried to say the word, but only a croak came out. Babe.
She blacked out as they walked, and was jolted awake again as she was being placed on a soft mattress. “Go,” she heard Alexa command. “Find another healer. Quickly. I’m going to get started, but I won’t last long. But I’m afraid to wait any longer.”
“I’ll find someone,” the man promised, and then he left, and Alexa knelt on the bed next to Carley’s hip.
“Who would do such a thing?” Alexa whispered as she took a deep breath and cupped Carley’s face with her palms again.
Carley’s last coherent thought was, She knows it wasn’t an accident…