Eight Months Later...

Her limbs heavy with sedation, Max squirmed on the metal table, her ankles and wrists restrained in canvas straps with metal buckles. She could hear the steady, slightly quicker beeping of her heart monitor. Just over her pregnant belly, she could see Alec leaning, deflated, against the wall to which he'd been tied. His cuffs were much sturdier than hers, his sedation much heavier – probably because they sensed he would do anything within his power to protect his woman and child. He watched Max as she wiggled her wrists against her restraints. She gently reached the tips of her fingers toward her stomach, surprise tears welling in her eyes. She had put all of her trust in him.

She felt White's presence behind her, his dark, polluted energy somehow seeping into the air around him. Max tried to mentally prepare herself for what was about to happen – but how does one prepare for something like this? The glint of fluorescent light against the gun caught Alec's attention, and he fidgeted with agitation, as if he needed to move but lacked the motor function to do so. She rationalized that the sedatives were doing to him what they'd been doing to her.

She remembered this from her vision. White was standing in the room, right behind her, about to grab her. About to shoot her. In the vision, he appeared disgusted; he felt he was doing righteous work by eliminating the X series, doing the right thing by completing the breeding cult's task. Eliminate 'The One.'

Max whimpered, panic setting in. Her heart sped up, the heart monitor beeping erratically. Her eyes were wide, filled with uncertainty and unshed tears as she imagined what might happen. It would only take a split second for White to pull the trigger and end their lives. She looked to Alec, pleading with him to do something. To do anything. To save them. This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

White's sinister glare focused on the mass on the floor next to Alec. "You did me a favor, really."

Alec squinted against his helplessness as if trying to wake from a nightmare. White was going to kill their baby, Max, and Alec – in that order, likely. He clenched his jaw once. Twice.

Smugly, White pointed the gun at Max's stomach. "Now she cannot deliver," he said simply, his finger rubbing against the trigger.

Max took a deep breath and tried to brace herself. She squeezed her eyes shut as a loud shot rang out, and everything turned red.

A/N: This is the end of "Eight Days," but the story continues in "Wingmark." Max and Alec pick up where Eight Days leaves off, searching for the translations for her runes, and pushing toward discovering their destiny.