Old Lady of the Iron Crown

y P

back arching as another wave of tearing pain ripped through

sharp, echoing clang. She did not bother looking at my face. Her bloodshot eyes flicked over my bare

my swollen belly to force the contractions. Her breath reeked of cheap rolling tobacco and

orced my trembling hand up and shoved her heavy forearm aw

catching these babies," I rasped, my

cracked mirror hanging crookedly on the clinic's water-damaged drywall. I refused to close my

he clinic's single-pane windows, making the glass rattle against its wooden frame. Bass-heavy thrash metal

High heels clicked loudly on the warped floorb

e frame with a half-empty bottle of bourbon in her manicured hand. "Viper said if she isn't out

blowing a cloud of sour vape smoke into the sterile air. "She never

oring my slipping consciousness. My fingernails dug into the rusted iron

hed toward the battered nightstand where my cracked smartphone lay. My fingers

knocking the phone off the edge. It hit the dusty concrete

nder the frame with the steel toe of her boot. "Save your battery, gir

ed myself forward, leaning halfway off the mattress, and

a cold, murderous focus that made the old woman freeze. "Pick it up

thery mouth. Without a word, she bent down, hooked the phone

-streaked thumb across the spiderwebb

. Four agonizing times whi

ar poured through the speaker-glasses clinking, pool balls cracki

hting for air. "It's time. T

t, venomous voice purred through the r

seized in

htening on the plastic casing unti

ing the whole clubhouse a round to celebrate my birthday. And my new spot on his rear fende

ing his real name, raw rage tearing throu

ed by a deep, familiar gravelly voice that u

terly devoid of warmth. "I told her we're done. I don't care about her or whatever bastar

ead with a hars

turning to cold, dead ash. The man who had taken my youth, used my family loyalty,

the bedside table, splashing cold droplets across my

slowly, looking at her with eyes so hollow and lethal that th

the base of my pelvis. The bodies i

the agony splitting my hips apart. "Because I'm delivering them right

scles straining until the tendons in my neck felt lik

wn ragged breathing, the scent of fresh

cry from the nurse, the first baby a

nd child. Two thin, furious wails rose in unison, piercing straight

hears, and bundled the blood-streaked infants into coarse, scratch

gile bundles, pulling them flush against my skin.

ve bucks says she and those runts don't make it past t

d against my collarbone, brushing my b

ting salt and iron. "No Raven will ever put the

ing wave as the blood loss caught up to my pul

or slammed open with the splintering roar of deadbolts tearing through wood,