A gasp chattered through Kore’s teeth, and she squealed. Cursing as another band of pressure snapped around her ribs. Lightning ignited in her belly. “G-Gods,” she hissed, browssloped against the weight of her suffering. “I… I can feel it moving. In… into position. N-Nyx,” she gasped, one clawed hand shooting out to grip Sera’s forearm. “I need… I need Nyx. Please… wh-where…”
“The oldVireliiused to say a thing about dens,” Sera said, head tilting as she looked upon the laboring Siren.
Teeth bared, clenched hard enough to taste the ozone of screeching enamel, Kore groaned when another wave struck against the base of her spine. "Sera?—"
"No males may enter," she murmured, hands steady on Kore’s knees. Massaging tiny, encouraging circles into that soft flesh. “Unless theVireliiseeks to birth her youngandtend to her mate while the sea splits her open. They’re useless, decorative idiots, the lot of them."
Despite herself, Kore laughed. A bubble of sound that burst around a sob.
But she laughed.
"There we are," Sera crooned, and shifted closer, her braids falling forward to brush Kore's thighs.
Curling forward, Kore bore down. Because there was no choice. Because the pressure in the cradle between her hips was absolute.
"I can see it,” Sera murmured, tone low and soothing. Encouraging and firm, even as she hummed that enthralling tune. “One more breath and the head crowns. Just one more, sweet Siren, and you shall hold your baby to your breast."
Tears mixed with the sea, and Kore’s breath caught. Scales firing a violent shade of crimson.
“Now, Kore,” Sera ordered. “Push! Bear down upon it and do not stop until I say.” Turning her head without looking away, Sera issued a series of high-pitched clicks. “Nyxarion. Come catch your child.”
The next wave broke her open.
She screamed. Chin tucked forward, knuckles white where they were locked around fingers attached to hands she had no memory of gripping. Vision going grey, everything vanished behind a wall of heat. Splitting, tearing pain.
And so she did not notice when Nyxarion entered the den.
But she felt his purr.
One massive palm swept beneath her lower back. Offering opposing pressure.
“I’m here,” he murmured, lips moving against her temple. “I’m here, my precious queen. Push.”
There was no resisting it.
Kore pushed.
A ring of volcanic pain split her assunder, and then…
Release.
Sudden. A rush of pressure that vanished so fast, Kore deflated. Chest heaving, gills spreading in wide, gaping flashes.
And for several breaths, that was all she could do. Blink at the ceiling. Stunned. Her scales stuttering through a range of traumatized, ugly shades.
Until she sobbed. Just once. Reaching, arms weak and trembling. "Let me… let me see."
Nyxarion already had it. Those enormous hands cradled something achingly small. His silver eyes were bottomless, unblinking, fixed downward with an expression Kore had never seen on his face.
Awe.
Tiny gills fluttered along a throat no bigger than Kore's thumb. Translucent fins, delicate, silken fans that trembled along dainty forearms. A tail painted in the shades of a glorious daybreak.
"Virelii." Nyx's voice broke on the word. "You gave me a daughter."
Weeping, Kore reached for her daughter with trembling hands. Fingers splayed wide enough that the webbing caught the current and slowed her reach.
As if carrying the most precious thing he’d ever seen, Nyx lowered the infant against her chest. Crooning when the tiny, serpentine body settled against Kore’s breast.