e second. I know you deserved the truth. Please believe me.”
“You’re full of lies.” Gorde sneers and strides to the door. “How can we trust a single thing you say from now forward?”
“She was the one who helped save us all from Taxx.” Her voice rings out and Gorde stops, as if frozen.
“Remember that?” She sniffs and wipes her eye. “Everything happened so fast, and he was going to hurt me, I could tell. He didn’t want to, but his hand was so shaky on that gun. And then, I don’t know how, but the baby and I—we made him stop. We held him in place so you could take him down.”
“That’s not possible.”
“I didn’t think so, either.” She swallows hard. “But I can—do things I couldn’t before I got pregnant. I’m not the same, anymore. But she’s not, either. And she likes you. She already knows you.” Her voice and eyes plead with us. “She’s not like her father. I swear it.”
“I can’t handle this right now.” The word father undoes me entirely, and suddenly I’m at my limit for strange new words and stories. All I want is to get away from this place, this situation, this horrible mess. “I’m leaving, and I don’t want to see you when I get back. I don’t want to ever see you again.”
Gorde roars out a curse. “I don’t want to see you again either, or that young. Never in my lifetime. Vecking waste of air.” He leaves the dome, slamming the door behind him, gets into our transport, and zooms away.
Last time it was Gorde who had to exercise, but today I’m the Zandian who needs to pump my demons out of my body. I take off running, going as fast as I can, in any direction that reveals itself open, until I’m miles away, lungs burning. Trying to outrace my mind, and the images of her in my head.
Chapter 14
Danica
I’m in the clinic alone, wondering if I can take the supplies I need and go somewhere in private, and the squeezing feeling comes again. This time I know it’s a contraction. My entire belly clenches, and the pain—like nothing I’ve known before—screams through my nerve endings like liquid fire.
I whimper and sink to the floor, clutching my stomach. My knee twists as I sink down, heavy, and my joints pop and groan, but that’s nothing. All I can feel is the knives stabbing me from the inside.
“Guh!” My vision is all dots and static and I vomit, a thin stream of watery liquid that’s warm on my chin and breasts.
“Danica? Mother Earth.” It’s Bayla’s voice. I can’t see her, because everything swims in front of me, bursts of red and black and yellow. “What are you doing here?”
“I was looking for—aaaah,” is all I can manage. Another contraction seizes me and I fall into it, crying out for mercy, for relief. There’s no way I could have done this alone, and I’m glad beyond belief that she’s here. “Help me, please.”
“I’ll get Dr. Daneth,” she calls out. “I’ll be right back. You’re going to be fine.”
Her voice does something funny, trailing off into deep low waves of meaningless noise, and I shut my eyes against the flashes of light, as if that might dull the pain.
Time warps, and now the doctor is back with Bayla. I’m on an examination table, and the lights are bright, like the sun, but I’m freezing, shivering, my whole body jerking and twisting from the convulsions.
“Call Gorde and Benn,” some being says.
“Lift her up so we can inject the solution into her spine. Now.”
Then the pain is magically gone and I’m in a half-slumber, a lovely twilight where all the sounds and colors in the room are magical, gorgeous, relaxing.
Then it’s like my dream, that nightmare and I wake up, because my baby is here and she’s crying for me, reaching for me, and there’s so much blood. They’re taking her away, her little face and those pretty little arms with the delicate green scales.
“No!” I scream with all of my might. “No! Don’t hurt her! Please, I beg you, just give her a chance. Please!”
Hands hold me back, push me to the table, forcing me away from her, and as she disappears from my vision, I scream and scream and scream.
I open my eyes and don’t know where I am, or what happened. I’m lying in a bed, not my own. White coverings on me. There’s a soft beeping sound, and I’m so tired. More fatigued than I’ve ever been. Suddenly it rushes back and I sit up, wincing at the pain across my entire belly, a dull fire, like some being is pouring salt into a wound.
I gasp and touch my body, only to find bandages. Did they cut me open after all?
“Help,” I gasp.
Bayla materializes with a fluid tube. “Sip this,” she murmurs, and raises the tube to my mouth.
I push her hand away. “Where’s the young. Where is she? Did you hurt her? I need to go get her. I need to get out of here.” I try to stand, but even swinging my legs over the bed is an impossible task. I gasp and fall back, panting. “Please, Bayla.”