But her focus returned to her mate.
The world around River had collapsed into a blur of terror and disbelief as she knelt beside Heiko’s unmoving body, her fingers trembling violently while she cupped his cold face, her breaths coming in sharp, broken shivers that scraped her lungs raw. The forest was impossibly quiet—too quiet—after the battle that had nearly torn the air apart, the smoke of spent magic still lingering like a ghostly veil above the ground. River shook him again, harder this time, her voice cracking as a strangled sob pushed past her throat.
“Heiko… please… wake up. Heiko, please—” her words dissolved into desperate tears. “Our baby needs you… I need you… just open your eyes…”
But he didn’t move.
He didn’t stir.
He didn’t even flinch.
The usual golden glow of their m
