His profile shifted toward her, but the line of his mouth remained flat.
I loosened my grip on the cage. “Elaine? Why won’t you look at me? Did they fuck with your head?”
She turned her neck slightly, her eyes flicking over my battered appearance. My lips were cracked from the wind and sun. My hair stuck to my face in a ratty ball of grease. Sore, oozing blisters covered my swollen knuckles from superficial frostbite. No doubt I looked like shit hit the door twice, yet neither shock nor sympathy touched her bowed lips.
Her lack of concern slipped beneath my bravado, wrapping cold fingers around my heart. I had cured this woman, freed her from her agonizing sickness, and had never asked for gratitude or support in return. We didn’t have that kind of relationship, but I needed her now. I spent two weeks emotionally alone and craving human touch, and dammit, I just really needed a hug. But there wasn’t a chance in hell it would come from her.
“I’m great.” Her smile seemed genuine, especially as she looked back at Michio, further twisting the pang in my chest.
A length of blue cotton wrapped around her slim frame and head, leaving only her doll-like features exposed. I cringed, recalling how the Drone made me wear something similar on Malta. He preferred women covered the way Elaine was now, which suggested he was here, even though I couldn’t sense his oily presence.
The thin fabric flowed around the hillock of her abdomen, her hand smoothing over the bump. The gesture crushed me with memories of my own pregnancies, but amid the sorrow was a bright spark of happiness.
Cured women could become pregnant.
How large had the population of cured nymphs in Arkendale grown? How many women were spreading across the country right now, curing and recovering and making babies? Hundreds? Thousands? Certainly more than I’d ever thought possible, which made everything I’d been through so fucking worth it.
No matter what happened to me, whether I escaped this cage or rotted in a grave at the bottom of the canyon, the future of humanity had a fighting chance.
But on the heels of my excitement came the worry of so many unanswered questions. What about the prophecy? Were evolving mutations still a threat? Was the nymph virus still in the air? Would babies inhale it with their first breaths and die?
Before I could stop myself, my thoughts spiraled into memory, until all I could see was Annie and Aaron lying together in bed. Their bodies frail and fighting for life. The light draining from their eyes. Their hearts slowing. Stopping.
The terrible pain in my chest scorched through my body. I braced against it, forcing the burn to harden into frigid steel.
Maybe the virus was long gone. But what if the babies were born as something other than human? Like an evolved species? Something more dangerous than the creatures already prowling the planet?
Michio opened the door and unfolded his tall frame from the truck. Elaine’s hands twitched at her sides, as if trying to decide whether she should touch him or not.
My own hands flexed against the cage. She’d always showed interest in him. Clearly, that hadn’t changed. Her exuberance in running out here hadn’t been one of surprise. She’d been expecting him. Missing him.
My heart thumped heavily. How long had they been together? Had he left me that night in Georgia and run straight to her? Who was the father of her child?
I hadn’t seen her in what? Four…five months? Michio had been gone at least four months. Given the size of her belly, she was well into her second trimester. The father could’ve been Tallis, one of the Lakota brothers, or someone she’d fucked on the way here. Or Michio.
Except Michio was infertile. Or a liar. Didn’t matter. Maybe he was shooting blanks, maybe his emotions were broken, but none of that meant his dick didn’t work. And he’d been painfully clear about wanting a child. Even if that child wasn’t biologically his.
The driver stepped out of the truck and strode toward the rear. Michio joined him, and together they began to remove the chains. They weren’t unlocking my cage. They were freeing it from the truck.
My stomach hardened as I narrowed my eyes at Elaine. “Why are you running around freely? Where the fuck is the Drone?”
“Evie,” she said in a scolding tone. “Don’t be rude.”
“Rude?” I slammed a hand against the wire wall. “I’ve been locked in a crate for two fucking weeks, Elaine. We’re way past rude. Who’s the father?”
Her eyes tracked Michio, clinging to him with way too much desperation. When he didn’t return her stare, she lowered it to her sandaled feet. “Tallis or Naalnish. I’m not sure.”
Both gone. Their tender smiles and protective demeanors flashed through my head. My hands fell at my sides, and my lungs struggled to fill. Both men would’ve made incredible fathers.