Read Online Claimed by the Elven King: Part Four by Cristina Rayne - Free Book Online Page A

Sethian was
half embracing my body and half reaching between my legs in preparation for the
baby’s appearance. A couple of pushes later, the baby was partially out and I
was certain that I would be unable to push no more.
    Then at Sethian’s coaxing, I managed one last big push, and I felt the
baby’s body slide out completely amidst a cloud of red and a huge surge of
adrenaline. I collapsed back against Sethian’s chest, exhausted to the point of
passing out, but I struggled to keep my consciousness with everything I had in
me. I had to see the baby. I had to—
    As Sethian had warned, there was no cry as he lifted the baby from the
water, just a small gasp followed by a larger, startled gasp behind me as I
looked at my child—no, my son —for the first time. Only then did I
understand Sethian’s reaction.
    Tiny, pointed ears poked out cutely from within a mass of wet, black hair.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER NINE
     
     
    A son. I have a son, I thought, still a little shell-shocked about
the idea as I stared at the tiny bundle in my arms who silently stared back at
me with the most brilliant green eyes I had ever seen. He was beautiful, so beautiful,
and I couldn’t get enough of just looking at him.
    Sethian sat beside me on our bed where he had propped me up with a
multitude of pillows so I could hold the baby properly, perhaps equally as
shell-shocked as I was, but for an entirely different reason. He was looking
down at our son as if he couldn’t quite believe that he was real.
    “You’re sure that this has only happened once before?” I asked
for the umpteenth time, still kind of freaked out about the whole thing.
    He shook his head. “As I said, I have only heard of one other
instance. Whether or not it is actually true is anyone’s guess as there is no
physical documentation to support any of it.”
    “Sethian, will you please just tell me what you think this means?” I
pleaded.
    He reached out a hand and ran the pads of his fingers caressingly down
my cheek. “It’s not something bad no matter what the reason, so you can ease
your mind,” he said. “Either his black hair is the result of him exhibiting a
human trait as I explained before, or—”
    “—he’s just like the elf from that myth you mentioned,” I finished for
him, “the one you still won’t properly explain to me.”
    He sighed. “I should have never brought it up at all. Most today do not
believe that such a being as Hirion ever existed, that the circumstances that
led to his extraordinary abilities and unconventional appearance are just too
unbelievable to be anything but fiction. I have read some of your human
literature over the centuries, and the works that are the most comparable are
the stories of Merlin or the demigods of Greek and Roman myth, at least in
regards to the extraordinary abilities they were born with.”
    He paused and suddenly grinned, probably because I likely had a stupid
look on my face as I stared back at him in mute disbelief. I looked down at our
son, looking small and cute and innocent and nothing like the mythical people
he had just mentioned.
    “You’re joking. The last thing anyone would ever accuse me of being is
something like a demigod, and unless there’s something really important you
forgot to mention about yourself to me, you aren’t one either.”
    He nodded. “As I said, it is only a comparison of myths with similar
themes. Just as a demigod was a child of two worlds, Hirion was said to have
been born with the perfect balance of elven and human traits rather than just
inheriting the few human genes like every other half-blood. As a result, he was
able to wield the power of both races, giving him access to a power that had
never been seen before nor since in all our long history.
    “The realm we now live within is not the first. The origins of my
people lie within a realm that no longer exists. It was said that Hirion carved
from the very fabric of a chaotic dimension