The delivery room looked like something between a hospital and a laboratory. Dr. Morrison had cleared out half the medical equipment to make room for Helena's mysterious preparations, while Eleanor supervised from a chair that had been hastily wheeled in from the executive wing.
"This isn't standard procedure," Dr. Morrison muttered, checking her instruments for the third time. "None of this is standard procedure."
"Standard procedure doesn't account for supernatural pregnancy," Helena said calmly, arranging a collection of silver bowls and crystalline implements that hummed with their own inner light. "Let alone one involving two royal bloodlines and a child conceived during a lunar eclipse."
Seraphina gripped the bed rails as another contraction built. These weren't the gradual waves she'd experienced earlier—they came in sharp, urgent pulses that made her entire body feel like a lightning rod.
"How long?" she gasped.
