Page 60 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

Still, the doctor spoke calmly as she insisted Katerina lie down and get comfortable while she checked her out. She murmured some things to a nurse who hurried out.

“Are the babies okay?” Katerina asked, worry clogging her throat and making the words hard to push out.

“We’re going to get some instruments that will allow us to monitor them, but right now they’re fine. It looks like you might be going into labor. Early labor is quite common with multiples,” she said matter-of-factly.

“It’s too early.”

“It is early, but not necessarily too early. We will do what we can to stop the labor and go from there.” The doctor patted her hand reassuringly. “You have the best team to help you, Your Highness. Your job right now is to rest and try to relax. I believe the princess has gone to find your husband.”

Diamandis. She wanted him here. To hold her hand. To holdheras he had after her breakdown over her mother. But...

She knew what this would do. Any hint of loss would push him farther into his shell. He would see it as his own failure, no matter how idiotically stupid that was. “No. Please, I don’t think... I don’t want him in here.”

The doctor was clearly perplexed by this, but she nodded. “Very well. I’ll go and tell your assistant. You just lie here. Just breathe, all right?”

Katerina nodded and tried to do what the doctor said. Breathe in. Breathe out. Put the pain somewhere else. Put the worryanywhereelse. There was pain and it was scary. All of this was scary.

She wanted someone, and if she let Diamandis in on any of it, what would be left? A tear slid down her cheek, though she would have thought herself stronger than that.

The doctor returned. “If you do not want your husband in here with you, is there someone else? Someone you can talk to in order to keep your mind off things?”

A bubble of panic welled up inside of her.Alone. Always alone.But that wasn’t true because Zandra had said she’d go to Anavolí with her. “Princess Zandra, if she can. If she isn’t busy. I...”

The doctor nodded and made a motion to a maid who quickly disappeared.

Another wave of pain swamped Katerina, and she felt something was wrong. Just wrong. Like something was leaking out of her. Like the pain was stealing her ability to breathe.

“Something’s wrong,” she managed to rasp. It was all wrong.

The doctor’s expression got very grim. “Katerina, I need you to stay with me. I need you to fight.”

There was a grayness swimming around her vision. Fight. She knew how to fight. She’d always had to fight. But this was too much. Too much pain and too much weakness. A blackness was creeping over her.

She heard her name. She heard instructions, but she stopped feeling any of the pain. She was going somewhere else.

And in the blackness, all she wanted was her husband. He had promised he would take care of things, hadn’t he?

But even the king could not take care of this.

Diamandis ran through the palace, shoving his way into Katerina’s rooms only to be met with Stelios and a maid blocking his way.

“Move.”

Stelios shook his head. “The doctor has said the queen does not wish to see you at the moment.”

It might have hurt, but he didn’t feel it because fear was clawing through him. Zandra was not one to exaggerate and she had said that Katerina was not well.

“You cannot ban me from my wife’s side. I am the king.”

But Stelios did not budge and looked ready to fight him if he pressed. “The doctor was quite clear.”

Diamandis was ready to take on such a fight, but a great commotion arose around them, both from inside the bedroom and outside the sitting room. Doors flew open and medics with a stretcher rushed forward while a nurse came out from Katerina’s bedroom.

It was chaos.

And in the confusion of the chaos, Diamandis ran forward into Katerina’s bedroom. The doctor shouted orders from Katerina’s bedside.

Her hands were bloody, and Katerina was still—too still—and pale.

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