The pain in Asteria’s abdomen was intensifying. The fact that her home base was about to be infiltrated weighed heavily on her mind, but she felt like this might be it, that her baby might come bursting into the world at any second, and while she had no reason to doubt Hines’s medical skills, the fact that the doctor with the crazy hair might be the one to deliver her child terrified her. She’d almost just as soon do it herself.

As if she’d somehow summoned him just by thinking ...