Selene shook her head.
"That child would have been a curse on our bloodline." She spat out the blood. "I was cutting out the rot before it spread."
Slap.
The second slap was harder than the first. Selene's head snapped to the side.
"That child is my grandchild," Maravelle said bending down until her face was close to Selene's. "If anything happens to that baby because of you, you're going to beg for death, and I won't give it to you. I'll keep you alive. I'll feed you just enough to stay alive so you can feel every single second of what's coming."
Maravelle straightened.
"When Thornak leaves that room," she said coldly, "if he walks out as a father who has lost his firstborn, he won't come to you as a King. He will come to you as a monster. He will strip the skin from your body, and I will be the one holding the lamp so he doesn't miss a single inch of your body."
