What on earth were people saying about me? How did anyone even know I existed? I supposed word had traveled from Arkendale about the source of the cure, and perhaps Link’s men circulated stories, but that information had likely twisted into wild fairytales as it passed from person to person. It made sense now why this strong woman kept her chin lowered. She was standing before me in misguided reverence.
I didn’t want to disappoint her or shatter her fantasy, but I wouldn’t delude her either. “What are the rumors?”
Blinking rapidly, her gaze fell on my stomach, and her hand shakily reached out. “May I?”
I nodded, my body stiffening against Roark as her fingers grazed the swell of my belly.
Making the situation even more awkward, she lowered to her knees and touched her forehead to my naval. “They say you fought the Drone in Iceland. That you killed all the bugs with a single thought. That you weep blood and move as fast as the spiders.”
Oh. Well, most of that was true. I touched her cheek. “I’m not as fast as the spiders.” I sighed. “Please stand up. The pavement must be burning your knees.”
She remained kneeling with her head bent. “They say if a golden strand of your hair is used to sew a wound, the injury will heal within minutes.”
“Wow.” I laughed and shook my head. “News to me.”
She looked up with a knowing smile. “They also talk about how you fly through the Black Canyon with blood-red wings, and the spots on your back represent all the creatures you’ve slain.”
I turned in Roark’s arms, lifted the hem of my shirt, and showed her my back. “See? No wings. And the spots are just pigment changes in my skin.”
Pigment that changed whenever I controlled the aphids.
When she gasped, my insides constricted. I didn’t want her to place false hope in me just because I had some biological anomalies.
I pressed my fingers into Roark’s shoulders, his warmth burning my hands through his shirt, and met his eyes. “Tell her to stand up.”
He kissed me with smiling lips and twisted me back to stare down at her kneeling pose.
She rested her palm over my belly, her head returning to its bowed position. “The prophecy says your daughter will destroy the spiders the way you eliminated the aphids.” She looked up, and her eyes were filled with so much hope it staggered me. “She will reverse the programming and save our babies.”
A hollow ache lodged in my chest, clenching tighter with each desperate word.
I didn’t know how my child would save them, but I was willing to do whatever was needed to aid the effort, including dying while delivering her. “I hope so.”
“She will.” Selene rose and set her shoulders. “I can see it in your face. You know what’s at stake, and you’ll sacrifice yourself for it, just like the prophecy said.”
Roark’s breath cut off, and Jesse and Michio looked away, their jaws hardening and postures stiffening.
“The people know this, as well.” She stretched out an arm, making a wide gesture to the surrounding crowd.
With nerveless fingers, I rubbed the ledge of my belly. “That’s why they’re here? For my child?”
“They came for you.” Her gaze lingered on the women at the gate. “For a glimpse, an encouraging word, or a touch of your hand. For your blessing, a token of your strength, so that it might carry them through the years ahead.”
My throat dried as I struggled to parse my conflicting emotions. I was shocked by what people thought of me. Hopeful for the future. Sad to not be a part of it.
Hundreds of faces peered through the gate, staring back at me like a waking dream. Thousands more watched from the river’s shores and surrounding bluffs.
I swallowed. “How many of the pregnant women have been bitten?”
“Most of them.” She absently touched her neck, the marks no longer there, but the venomous consequence shadowed her eyes. “The few who haven’t been bitten know it’s only a matter of time.”
They faced an unthinkable future. If we couldn’t reverse the programming, the spider babies would have to be killed. If they were born with fangs, who would be able to hold them? When they walked and became mobile, grew faster and stronger, who would be able to stop them? Killing them young, perhaps as soon as they were born, was the safest option.
Selene held her pregnant belly, probably only days from giving birth, and stared at me grimly, fully aware of what she would have to do.
Maybe my daughter would save them, but not without their help. I gazed out over the masses of surrounding people. I’d arrived here on the ruthless wings of confusion and adversity, fighting, killing, and surviving, just like them. Yet here we stood, together as a whole, undivided. Was it a sign that peace would return? That a harmonious world waited beyond the horizon? My daughter would need their continuing persistence and faith in humanity, and right now, they needed mine.