“How are you feeling? Need something to eat?”
She shakes her nog. “I’m fine.”
“You seem unhappy,” I argue. “Do you want to hold your mortling?”
Her nostrils flare. “You mean your mortling.”
Jareth walks up behind me. “Our mortling.”
Grace looks away as tears flood her eyes. She sniffles and swats at the tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I’m so happy I could give you a family,” she says, her voice cracking. “It makes it easier knowing the baby will be with parents who love her.”
Jareth and I exchange a confused look.
“You’re her family too,” I say slowly.
She swallows and hardens her expression. “When I’m gone, please love her with every ounce of your being.”
“Gone?” Jareth growls. “What do you mean gone?”
“I’m…I’m…” She sucks in a sharp breath. “I won’t be here any longer.”
“You’re going to The Eternals?” I ask, horrified by her words. I don’t know much about the machines that are attached to her, monitoring her health, but I thought she was healing like she was supposed to.
“The Eternals?” Her face scrunches. “What? Dying? Er, no. I’m leaving the Facility.”
“What do you mean you’re leaving?” I hiss out, panic swelling inside me. She can’t leave. She completes us. We’re a rekking family!
“I can help find Molly’s daughter. It’s my duty. I need to do this…and if I don’t come back, I hope you’ll let Sareth know I tried to be a good person.”
“No,” Jareth snaps. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“I’ve made up my mind,” Grace argues back. “It’s the only way.”
“You’ll leave our daughter? Your mates?” I ask, emotion shredding my insides. I don’t like the feeling of loss that’s clawing at me.
Fat tears roll down her red cheeks. “Theron and Hadrian will need a guide at Exilium. I have knowledge that can help. I need to make things right with Molly and Aria. It’s the only way.”
“Leaving us is the wrong way,” I snap. “It’s rekking wrong, Grace, and you know it.”
Her lip wobbles. “I don’t belong here.”
“You belong with us,” Jareth bites out.
She glances at Sareth and then darts her gaze between Jareth and me. “You two had it handled just fine over there. You’ve always had each other and I was an outsider. I’m flawed and messy. I don’t deserve you two freaks. But you deserve this baby and it’s my gift to you.”
I’m shaking my nog when Grace holds up a hand. “Please leave.”
I glower at her. “No.”
“Leave and take her with you,” she whispers, not meeting our glares. “I can’t look at you anymore. It’s too hard.”
“You can’t do this to us,” Jareth pleads. “Grace. Don’t do this.”
“Go before I scream and make them take you away,” she threatens as she sobs. She curls into herself and rolls away from our penetrating stares.
“Grace,” I choke out.
“GO!” she screams so loud Sareth starts to cry.
Jareth holds the mortling to his chest and pats her back. His jaw clenches and then he storms out of the lab.
I lean forward and kiss Grace’s nog.
“You belong with us,” I whisper before walking away.
Her sobs break every sliver of happiness inside of me, but I sense she needs her space and some time. I’ll give it to her because I love her. But eventually that time will run out and we’ll be back for her.
She’s ours whether she realizes that or not.
15
Grace
“Are you sure you don’t need anything else?” Avrell hovers by my door in the sub-faction.
Had it really been weeks since I was first assigned this room after I woke up from cryosleep? It feels like years. So much has changed since then. I feel like a completely different person.
“I’m fine,” I insist.
“You should be with your mortling. She needs you.”
Apparently ever since I forgave him, Avrell now considers himself to be my personal therapist.
I sigh and shake my head as I organize my meager belongings in a small pack without looking up at him. “She has two parents who love her. She’s got everything she needs.”
“You’re telling yourself that to make it easier to make the choices you’re making. I understand. I’ve been there.”
“You can’t compare the two.” I shove a tunic and a pair of leather shoes into the pack with more force than necessary.
“My motivations were the same as yours. I thought I was doing the right thing. Saving my people. You think you’re doing the right thing by saving those girls.”
There’s nothing left to pack, so I look up. “And there’s something wrong with that?”
“Your heart is in the right place, but that doesn’t mean it’s the correct choice. Hadrian and Theron are more than capable of going to the prison and retrieving Willow and Limerick.”
“What if they get stopped by the guards? What if they get lost? I’ve studied the terrain and Exilium for months while I was preparing to transfer to the research center there. I withheld information before, with disastrous results. I don’t want to do it again. I want Sareth to be proud of me, to have a place here where she belongs.”