CADEN’S POV

I heard Kaela’s footsteps receding at a run, the sound of my parents entering the room, their worried murmurs. But my focus remained on Elara’s face, willing her eyes to open, searching for any sign of consciousness.

“Come back to me,” I whispered, too low for anyone else to hear, brushing a strand of hair from her forehead. “Please, my love. Not now. Not when we’ve just found our way back to each other.”

My mother knelt on Elara’s other side, her regal composure cracking as she reached for one of Elara’s slender hands. She pressed her fingers against Elara’s wrist, then examined her face with a curious intensity before looking up at me.

“When did she last eat?” she asked, her voice calmer than I expected.

“I don’t—I’m not sure,” I admitted, feeling utterly useless. “We had breakfast together, but she was called away before she ate much. Something about revised trade agreements with the northern provinces.”

My mother nodded, then checked Elara’s eyes, gently lifting one eyelid and then the other. A strange expression crossed her face—something almost like… recognition?

“What is it?” I demanded. “Do you know what’s wrong with her?”

But my mother merely shook her head, a curious little smile playing at the corners of her mouth despite the tense situation. “Let’s wait for the physician.”

The minutes stretched like years as we waited. My father paced the room, barking orders at guards and servants alike, demanding updates on the physician’s whereabouts with increasing irritation. Under other circumstances, I might have found his obvious concern for Elara touching—proof that he cared for her more than he let on. But in this moment, his restless movement only aggravated my own mounting terror.

“What’s taking so long?” I growled, cradling Elara closer as if I could somehow transfer my own strength to her.

“The physician was attending Lady Merriden’s new baby,” one of the guards reported from the doorway. “But he’s on his way now.”

A new baby. The words echoed strangely in my mind as I looked down at Elara’s still face. We had never discussed children, not seriously. Our marriage had fractured before such conversations could take place. And now…

“She’s going to be alright,” my mother said suddenly, squeezing my shoulder. The certainty in her voice made me look up sharply.

“How do you know that?” I asked, searching her face. “What aren’t you telling me?”

A strange expression crossed her features—knowing, almost amused despite the gravity of the situation. She leaned closer, lowering her voice. “Have you been intimate with her recently?”

The question caught me completely off guard, blood rushing to my face. “Mother! That’s hardly—”

The doors burst open as Kaela returned with the physician in tow, a tall, severe-looking man with spectacles perched on his nose and a leather case clutched in his gnarled hands.

“Move aside, Your Highness,” he ordered without ceremony, and for once I didn’t bristle at being commanded in my own home. I gently laid Elara back down but remained kneeling at her side, unwilling to move any farther away than absolutely necessary.

The physician examined her with brisk efficiency, checking her pulse, her breathing, examining her eyes and feeling along her neck and abdomen. He muttered to himself as he worked, indecipherable medical jargon that did nothing to ease my growing anxiety.

“Well?” I demanded when I could stand the silence no longer. “What’s wrong with her? Will she recover?”

“She’s beginning to stir now,” the physician replied, and true enough, Elara’s eyelids were finally fluttering. “Let’s give her space to breathe.”

I ignored him, leaning closer as her eyes slowly opened, confusion clouding their emerald depths.

“Elara,” I breathed, relief making me dizzy. “You’re alright. You’re safe.”

“Caden?” Her voice was weak, barely above a whisper. She blinked several times, trying to focus. “What happened?”

I pulled her into a fierce embrace, beyond caring about propriety or who was watching. “You fainted. You scared me half to death.”

“I… fainted?” She pulled back slightly, glancing around the room in confusion. “I don’t remember…”

I turned to the physician, who was now engaged in a hushed conversation with my mother. To my surprise, both of them were smiling, my mother’s hand pressed to her mouth as if containing some powerful emotion.

“What is it?” I asked, suspicion and hope warring within me. “What aren’t you telling us?”

The physician turned to us, adjusting his spectacles with a smile that transformed his severe face into something almost grandfatherly.

“Congratulations, Your Highness,” he said, bowing slightly. “The princess is pregnant.”

For one breathless moment, time seemed to stop. The world narrowed to Elara’s wide eyes finding mine, the shocked ‘o’ of her mouth, the sudden trembling of her hand in mine.

And then my mother’s joyful scream shattered the silence, echoing off the vaulted ceiling as she clasped her hands together in delight. “A baby! A royal heir!”