It began with pain.

Not the kind of pain I had learned to live with: the slow ache of wombfire, the pulse of corruption in my veins. No, this was sharper. Final. A tearing.

I fell forward onto the cracked stone floor of the ruined hall, claws scraping grooves in the ground as my body convulsed. Heat flooded my belly. My thighs trembled. My womb clenched like a fist around something that was not ready to be born.

Kael was beside me in a breath, scar burning, fire sword dropping from his hand ...