Chapter 47

Alex

The first thing I felt wasn’t fear—it was him.

Before the blast thundered through the condo, before the protective wards shrieked to life around us, before the windows rattled in their frames, my body already knew. My soul recognized him long before my mind could catch up. And my unborn child reacted first.

A jagged pulse of Primordial energy surged through my veins so violently that I doubled over, one hand slamming against my stomach. “No…”

Lavinia was beside me in an instant. Silver-and-violet flames crackled through the air as she wove a barrier of magic between me and the door. Julian moved with her—not as a perfectly polite host shielding a guest, but as a father shielding his child.

That realization hit harder than the tremors rattling the walls. For months I’d watched their faces darken whenever the Primordial bloodline came up, wondered why their joy always seemed edged with grief. Now I understood: they weren’t hiding a secret so m