The fall knocked the breath from her lungs.
Jasmine hit the ground hard, the impact tearing a raw cry from her throat as pain exploded through her body.
The portal snapped shut behind her with a sound like the world sealing a wound, leaving only silence and the smell of scorched air.
She lay there for a moment, stunned, the earth cold and unforgiving beneath her palms.
Then the pain surged.
It wasn't distant anymore. It wasn't something she could breathe through or reason away. It was here.
Now. Ripping through her hips, her spine, her belly like her body was being split open from the inside.
She screamed.
Her hands clawed at the ground as another contraction tore through her, sharp enough to steal her vision.
She gasped, choking on the sound of her own voice, sweat breaking out across her skin.
"No," she sobbed. "Please… not like this."
Her son.
All she had wanted.
