Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

T he demon's seed was certainly potent. Less than one week later, Malissa was already beginning to show.

It was her handmaiden, Droanna, who first noticed it one day when Malissa was undressing for her bath, and indeed when the young queen examined herself in the looking glass, she could see the faint bump forming at her midsection, as well the somewhat greater fullness in already ample breasts. Droanna was so happy, she broke down sobbing, which Malissa thought was a funny reaction. Malissa had already announced her pregnancy over a week before that, but Droanna had not cried then. Perhaps, like Dr. Jaeger, the handmaiden had not fully believed she was pregnant.

Well, there was no denying it now. Malissa's body was changing. She had a baby growing inside of her, and as far as anyone else knew, it was King Wulfgang's child.

Dr. Jaeger's reaction was somewhat less enthusiastic than Droanna's. When he arrived at the queen's chamber to examine her belly, she saw the briefest flicker of surprise pass across the man's features. Then his eyes returned to their usual, suspicious state. Perhaps he thought she had acquired the baby by sleeping with a servant or a member of the royal court?

No matter. Let him believe whatever he wanted. When the child finally came, and it looked like Wulfgang, that would put the matter to rest once and for all.

Malissa was actually looking forward to it.

When she had gone to the darkstone ring that first night, she had been motivated primarily by survival. Now her instincts were gradually shifting from selfish to maternal. She was a mother now, and she loved the tiny life that was growing inside her with a love she had never felt before. She had concerns of course, as all expectant mothers do, though hers were somewhat darker than the norm. She worried, for instance, about the nature of the child she was incubating within her, for she knew it was not wholly human, but she never once regretted what she had done.

Human or demon, the child was hers , and she loved him unconditionally.

The days passed in a kind of blur. For the most part, Malissa kept to her chambers and allowed herself to be pampered by the servants. She no longer had to pretend to be hungry. The hunger inside was real, and she even took to ordering extra meals throughout the day to sate her growing appetite.

By the end of that first week, she started experiencing a touch of nausea in the mornings when she awoke. Then more than a touch. Dr. Jaeger informed her that this was normal for a woman in her state. He provided her a special herbal tonic to be drunk each night before she went to bed, as well as in the morning when she awoke, but it did little to quell her morning sickness.

It didn't matter. Malissa pushed through it. All things considered, a bit of queasiness was a small price to pay for her newfound lease on life. No, the mornings were not too hard, and neither were the days.

It was the nights that were difficult.

Night was when she thought about Beliath.

After the lights were snuffed, Malissa would lie awake for hours, reliving everything she and the demon had done during their one night together in the darkstone ring. He had bred her so many times, she had lost count. Sometimes he had taken her from behind, the way animals do it. Other times, they had done it face to face, though Malissa hadn't actually seen his face, aside from the occasional flicker of his orange eyes whenever he spilled his seed inside her. When the time had finally come to return to the castle, her legs had almost been too weak to carry her.

Now, Malissa could not fall asleep until she had dispelled those memories, and she did so using every means at her disposal. Sometimes she would use her fingers for the task, other times her pillows. On a few occasions she even used the end of a tapered candle, though it was a paltry substitute for the demon's enormous member.

Often, it would take her several hours before she was satisfied.

Malissa began feeling tired during the daytime. This was partly due to her pregnancy, but mostly it was the result of her long, sleepless nights spent thinking of Beliath. She requested a sleeping draught from Dr. Jaeger, but it didn't help. Even in her dreams, the memory of the demon tormented her, and she would jolt awake in the middle of the night, shuddering and dripping with sweat. The dreams felt so real, Malissa half expected to discover Beliath's semen leaking out of her, but when she touched herself down there, the only wetness she felt was her own.

"Creator help me," she whispered.

He cannot help you now , Beliath's voice seemed to whisper back from the darkest recesses of her mind.

The demon hadn't just impregnated her with his child. He had infected her with his sin. It burned within her like a fever, and with each sleepless night that passed, it became increasingly clear that there was only one cure.

One night, around the end of the second week, it finally became too much to bear.

After the servants had left the queen's bedchamber, Malissa got up and stripped out of her sleeping gown. A single candle had been left burning by the bed. She took it and crossed to the large wardrobe at the side of the room. From within, she took her gown of black velvet and laid it out on the bed. She looked at the gown for a good long while before she finally set her candle back on the bedside table and started to get dressed.