*Briella*

I paced the length of my chamber, each step echoing loudly off the walls. I could barely hear it over the thundering of my heart. Outside, the sky rumbled with discontent.

“Believe me, I feel it too,” I mumbled to myself.

Thunder cracked sharply, a whip in the heavens that made me flinch. I was a week overdue, my belly swollen and heavy, and every peal of thunder seemed to mock my growing unease.

"Please, just sit down," Kai pleaded from ...