The Reborn Sovereign of Ruin, Bound by His Star

Arik looked down at him with an expression that suggested he wanted to dismiss everyone, carry Liam back into the bedroom, and provide a far more convincing demonstration of why the word "barely" should never be applied to him.

Liam pointed at him from beneath the blanket.

"Not that."

"I said nothing."

"You did not need to. The bond is practically shouting."

Severin turned away, though not quickly enough to conceal the twitch of his mouth.

Liam continued before Arik could defend himself. "I was talking about the pregnancy. Even if it happened, we will not know within minutes or hours, so I would like some peace before everyone begins treating my abdomen as an imperial emergency."

"It may become an imperial emergency," Arik said.

"It may also become nothing."

"That does not mean we ignore it."

"I am not suggesting that we ignore it. The physician can examine me, take whatever samples are necessary, and tell us what must be monitored. After that, I want something useful to occupy my mind before boredom drives me mad."

He shrugged beneath the blanket.

Arik released a slow breath and kissed the top of his head.

"Fine."

His gaze shifted to the physician.

"How soon would signs of pregnancy become detectable?"

The physician considered the question carefully, perhaps aware that an insufficiently precise answer might cause the sovereign ether to begin dismantling the room.

"Ordinary hormonal indicators would not become reliable immediately," he said. "Under normal circumstances, bloodwork might show changes after seven to ten days, while a confirmed scan would take longer."

Arik’s expression tightened.

"Normal circumstances," he repeated.

"Lord Ravenwood’s circumstances are not normal."

"No one’s circumstances in this room are normal," Mezos muttered.

Kamal gave him a brief look but did not disagree.

The physician adjusted the diagnostic band around Liam’s wrist. "The bond complicates matters. If conception occurred, His Highness’s sovereign ether might begin interacting with Lord Ravenwood’s core before the usual biological signs appear."

"How much earlier?" Arik asked.

"We do not know."

Gold flickered faintly through the seams of the walls.

The physician noticed and spoke more quickly.

"We may detect an unfamiliar ether pattern within forty-eight to seventy-two hours. That would not confirm pregnancy, but it would justify closer observation."

"So we monitor him continuously."

Liam tilted his head back against Arik’s shoulder. "No."

Arik looked down. "That was not a question."

"I am not wearing a diagnostic band every moment of the day because you failed to consider contraception before behaving like a man possessed."

"I was possessed."

"By yourself."

"By you."

Severin coughed into his hand.

Mezos stared at the ceiling.

Kamal, who appeared to have decided that nothing said within the suite could surprise him anymore, began arranging the physician’s instruments on the low table.

"The monitoring band does not need to remain attached continuously," the physician said. "Two readings each day should be sufficient unless his symptoms change."

"What symptoms?" Arik asked immediately.

"An increase in scent production, unusual fatigue, nausea, heat outside his expected cycle, changes in ether, appetite, or a sudden response from the palace core."

Arik’s arm tightened around Liam.

Liam sighed. "I am already tired."

"That is because you barely had sex," Severin said.

The room went silent.

Severin’s watery jade eyes remained perfectly calm.

Arik turned his head toward him.

"You may leave."

"I was summoned because the palace registered a sovereign-level emergency."

"The emergency is contained."

Severin glanced at Liam, who remained wrapped in a blanket in Arik’s lap while the physician attempted to work around both of them.

"It does not appear contained."

Mezos made a sound suspiciously close to a laugh and immediately disguised it as discomfort from his injured shoulder.

Arik ignored them and returned his attention to the physician. "Could the palace core harm him if it recognized a pregnancy?"

"We have no evidence that it would," the physician said. "A sovereign core traditionally supports the continuation of its bloodline."

"That was not my question."

The physician hesitated.

Kamal answered instead. "The core would protect the child according to its original laws. Whether those laws distinguish between protecting the child and protecting the person carrying it is less certain."

Arik went very still.

Liam felt the shift through the bond before the gold in the room darkened, the ether pressing into the walls with enough force to make the physician’s instruments hum.

"Can we deal with that when I am actually pregnant?" Liam asked, rolling his eyes. "All of you are becoming agitated over something that may not have happened, while two considerably more immediate matters remain unresolved."

"Your safety is immediate," Arik said.

"My safety is currently wrapped in a blanket and sitting in your lap."

"That does not make you safe."

"It makes me extremely difficult to misplace."

Severin’s mouth twitched.

Liam ignored him and raised two fingers from beneath the blanket.

"First, you need to decide whether you are taking the oath. Second, we need to establish whether we can actually leave Nuria, because the Gate disappeared and no one has found another one." He paused, then added, "Also, I want my phone back."

The physician looked from Liam to Arik, then toward the faint gold spreading through the seams of the walls, and appeared to reach the entirely reasonable conclusion that medical authority would accomplish what diplomacy had not.

"Lord Ravenwood will be seen again in two days."

Arik’s gaze sharpened. "You said the pattern may appear within forty-eight hours."

"Yes, Your Highness. Which is why I will perform a complete examination then, including bloodwork, core imaging, and a controlled reading of the bond." The physician removed the diagnostic band from Liam’s wrist before Arik could reinterpret the device as something that belonged there permanently. "Until then, two brief readings each day. No invasive procedures, no repeated examinations, and no attempts to force a response from either Lord Ravenwood’s core or the palace."

Arik’s expression suggested that the final prohibition had eliminated at least three plans he had already formed.

The physician gathered the remaining instruments and straightened.

"Prepare for the examination in two days," he told Liam. "Until then, leave the matter alone."

Liam lifted his eyebrows. "You are telling him that, correct?"

"I am telling everyone."

His gaze moved deliberately across Arik, Kamal, Mezos, and Severin.

Severin looked offended to have been included.

Mezos looked as though he deserved to be included.

Kamal merely inclined his head.

The physician took one final look at the sovereign ether pressed against the walls. "Rest, eat normally, and report any significant change. Otherwise, there is nothing useful to be done before the next examination."

"Excellent," Liam said. "Someone sensible."

Arik did not release him. "You will send the readings directly to me."

"I will send them to Lord Ravenwood’s medical file."

"And to me."

The physician hesitated.

Liam pointed toward the door. "Run while you still possess professional autonomy."

The physician did.

The suite doors closed behind him with enough speed to suggest he had accepted the advice literally.

For several seconds, no one spoke.

Then Liam looked toward the low table where his clothes, tools, and personal effects had been deposited after their arrival.

"My phone."