From Sterre’s direction there came only a wordless snarl – a snarl that told him he’d either hit the nail on the head or had made a grave mistake. Then her weight was against him, nearly knocking him off-balance as she set her teeth on him, pinching the delicate skin along his neck and jawline so hard that Het Vuur cried out and stumbled sideways. When he had regained his balance, he turned to face her with his head low and ears pinned, but made no move to retaliate.

Sterre may have been much smaller than him, but she had always been a ferocious fighter – and with pregnancy hormones coursing through her veins, the stallion had no intention of returning her blows, even if he had wanted to. Not to mention that a physical fight was low, even for them: the couple whose relationship had always been, at best, unpredictable. Even if she had been unfaithful, Het Vuur could not bring himself to hurt her.

Words had always been their weapon of choice anyway. And Sterre’s words cut deep.

He stood silently for some time after she had finished her tirade, his breathing deep and fast and his sightless eyes narrowed. Waves of fury rolled off his back like storm clouds over a mountain, until all that was left was a deep, unsettling dread. His head swam. Stars flashed in his cloudy vision. Am I hallucinating? Is this whole thing some terrible nightmare?

The stallion stood processing what she had said for too long, waiting until his breathing had slowed to a normal rate until he even began to consider speaking. He dropped his gaze to stare at the grass he could not see, and slackened his face until all that was left on his expression was empty horror. He thought of Rook, who had become a lowlife he never wanted to see again, and of Merete – who had been smart enough to desert the islands as soon as she could. No doubt she was off terrorizing the world in her own way. Sterre and I were not meant to have children. Never, ever, ever.

Het Vuur lifted his head to point his nose in Sterre’s direction, his eyes aflame with cold fury, as if everything that had gone wrong in their lives was her fault.

“Get rid of it,” he growled, and started to turn away again. “Throw yourself down the mountain if that’s what it takes. Just do it.”