Chapter 89: Little Warrior

"She’s pregnant."

Roxanna said it with her hand half-covering her mouth, like the words had slipped out before she was ready for them.

Victoria and Sana just stared. Neither of them moved. For a second it looked like their brains had stopped halfway through understanding what they had heard.

Then Roxanna turned toward the house.

"Daemon!"

He and Evelyn came out almost immediately. One look at their faces was enough to tell them something serious had shifted in the garden.

"What happened?" Evelyn asked.

"Kassia is pregnant."

The garden went quiet again.

Even the servants near the path seemed to sense that this was not a moment for interruption.

Daemon didn’t look shocked.

Victoria caught that right away.

"You already knew," she said.

He nodded.

"Yeah. The System told me. I was going to say something after I finished talking with Kassia. Roxanna found out first." A small smile pulled at his mouth. "She beat me to it."

Sana spun toward Kassia.

"Wait. You knew too?"

Kassia’s hand was already resting on her stomach. When she smiled, it was soft, almost careful, as if she was still getting used to saying the truth out loud in front of so many people.

"Yes. How could I not?" Her thumb moved slowly across the fabric of her dress. "This baby is why I made it through those eight months.

When everything felt like it was going to break me in that place... this child kept me going."

Daemon’s hand curled into a fist at his side.

The cage. The experiments. All those months she had been alone while he searched, fought, and failed to reach her in time.

Hearing that their baby had been her strength when he could not stand beside her hit harder than he expected. Guilt and gratitude tangled together in his chest until it was hard to separate one from the other.

Kassia’s voice stayed quiet, but steady.

"Because of my baby, I got out. My baby saved me."

Daemon stepped closer and knelt in front of her without caring how it looked to the others.

He leaned in until his face was near her stomach and spoke like the child could already hear him.

"Hey, little one. This is your father."

Kassia’s breath caught.

"Thank you," he murmured. "For giving your mother confidence when I couldn’t be there. I promise I’ll take care of her from now on. I want to meet you. I’m already excited... my sweet little warrior."

He kissed her belly gently.

Kassia’s hands came up and held his face. Her fingers were trembling. Tears gathered in her eyes, but this time they weren’t from pain.

She bent forward a little, forehead nearly touching his hair, as if the moment might slip away if she did not hold onto it.

"Daemon... we’re finally becoming a family," she whispered. "We’re really going to be a father and mother."

He looked up at her.

"Yes. Thank you for believing in me through all of it."

For a moment neither of them moved. His hands stayed at her waist. Hers stayed on his face. The afternoon light made the whole thing feel almost too ordinary for how heavy it was.

Around them, no one interrupted. Even Sana, who rarely stayed quiet for long, only watched with a small, crooked smile.

When Daemon finally stood, Kassia’s hand found his again and held on like she was afraid the happiness might disappear if she let go too quickly.

Sana let out a breath and smiled, a little unsteady.

"Alright. We’re celebrating. Obviously. The newest member of this ridiculous family deserves a proper welcome."

A few soft laughs followed, easing the sharpest edge of the moment without erasing what it meant.

Evelyn, though, was still staring at Kassia’s stomach like the math refused to work.

"Kassia... how far along are you?" she asked carefully. "From the look of it, I would have said maybe two months."

Kassia shook her head.

"No. I think seven or eight."

Evelyn blinked.

"What? How is that possible?"

The confusion in her voice was honest. She had raised a daughter. She understood the normal shape of pregnancy. What she was looking at did not match any of that, and the mismatch left her stranded between disbelief and concern.

Daemon answered before the confusion could grow sharper.

"Mother-in-law. She’s dragon lineage. She’s not fully human anymore."

Evelyn’s mouth opened, then closed again.

The news footage came back to her immediately the white dragon over Ashford, wings cutting across the skyline, the whole city staring up in fear.

She had seen that creature on every channel. Connecting it to the quiet young woman on the garden bench still felt unreal.

And yet the longer she looked at Kassia, the harder it became to deny. There was a different weight in her presence now.

A steadiness beneath the exhaustion. Something older than the fragile body she currently occupied.

Daemon kept going.

"The System said her gestation period is twenty-four months."

Sana’s head snapped toward him.

"Twenty-four months?"

"Yes. That’s why I said she’s not like a normal human pregnancy. I need to take her to Morwenna.

She’ll know more about dragon lineage than any of us what Kassia needs, how the child will grow, all of it."

Roxanna nodded almost at once.

"That would be wise. If her body follows dragon rules, ordinary medical care may not be enough by itself. We should not guess with this."

Evelyn still looked stunned, but she stopped arguing. Strange as it was, the pieces were starting to fit. A dragon child. A two-year pregnancy.

A girl who had survived cages and still carried life through all of it. Shock would not help anyone nearly as much as care would.

Then Victoria stepped forward.

She had been quiet through most of it, just listening. Now she walked over and hugged Kassia without making a big show of it.

"Congratulations," she said. "I’m really happy for you. We’re sisters now. Don’t forget that."

Kassia hugged her back, eyes shining.

"Thank you... Victoria."

Sana piled in next, less careful and much warmer.

"Don’t think you’re getting out of auntie duty either. I’m going to spoil this kid shamelessly."

Roxanna’s hug was gentler.

"If you feel any pain again, tell me right away," she said. "I’ll be here."

Even Evelyn finally stepped in and rested a hand on Kassia’s back.

"Rest properly from now on. This house will take care of you."

Just like that, Kassia was surrounded. Arms. Voices. Warmth. The kind of laughter that only shows up after fear loosens its grip.

For the first time since the cage, since the dragon, since all those months of surviving alone, she looked like someone standing inside a future instead of outside one.

They started talking over each other almost immediately.

Sana wanted to argue about names before the child even had a chance to arrive. Roxanna tried to pull the conversation back toward health and rest, only half succeeding.

Evelyn began listing foods under her breath, then asked whether dragon pregnancies needed different nutrition, then answered herself by deciding they would prepare both normal meals and anything Roxanna recommended.

Victoria stayed close, one hand lightly at Kassia’s arm, making sure she would not sway again.

Kassia laughed once, soft and disbelieving, as if she still could not fully accept that this many people were happy for her at the same time.

For so long, survival had been her only goal. Now people were talking about dinners, nurseries, and who would hold the baby first. The difference was almost dizzying.

Daemon watched them from a step away.

Sunlight moved through the leaves and caught on their hair and shoulders. The same garden that had felt so tense a few minutes ago now looked almost too bright.

His wives and Kassia stood together without sharp edges between them, smiling, teasing, leaning into one another like the worst of the distance had finally cracked.

Something in his chest pulled tight, in a good way.

I have to protect this, he thought. All of it.

Not just Kassia. Not just the child. All of them this stubborn, fragile circle of people who had somehow begun to fit around one another despite every reason not to.

Sana was already planning a celebration dinner. Roxanna was quietly checking Kassia’s color and breathing between sentences.

Evelyn looked like she was mentally rearranging half the house for a nursery she did not yet understand. Victoria smiled with them, joining the warmth without resistance.

Daemon’s eyes moved from face to face and then stopped on Victoria.

She was laughing with the others. Easy smile. Easy voice. To anyone else, she looked completely caught up in the happiness.

But Daemon knew her better than that.

At the edge of her smile, her eyes were faintly wet.

Not enough to cry.

Just enough for him to notice.

And in that small shine, something unspoken sat waiting something Victoria had not brought into the celebration, something she was still holding carefully behind her happiness while everyone else celebrated a future she had once believed she might never live long enough to see.

Daemon’s smile faded a little as he watched her.

Whatever she was carrying, he would not ignore it.