Page 41 of Destinies of Diamond
Could it be true? I wasn’t sure, but I did know one thing. I had to be more careful with what I put in my body and the actions I took. For all I knew, my mother’s capsules had been entirely harmless and my fit had been caused by Commander Trevor’s request.
“You can always check,”Sphinx pointed out. “You still have some of the medicine from her.”
Once again, she was right, and I hated her a little for it. But that was a stupid, petty thought, and I needed to be practical if I wanted to protect my baby. “All right. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m getting a scan of the medicine I took. I have it here with me, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to share the information with Dr. Bell. After that, we’ll handle the issue with our common friend.”
“Whatever you want, Selene,” Brendan replied.
He was already extending his hand, silently asking me for the capsules. I remembered a different time, when he had been the one to poison me. In his case, it had been an accident, through Typhon’s skill, but the same thing could not be said about all the other people who had died in Gaia’s Haven.
My lovers. My mother. My child. Commander Trevor. My chimera. Jared. There were so many things I didn’t know how to handle. But I couldn’t hide or pretend anymore. Somehow, I had to settle my differences with my lovers, because if I didn’t, I might not survive it.
****
Brendan
A convenient side-effect of being the tamer of the Typhon was having a lot of knowledge about poisonous chemical compounds. Part of it was induced, things Typhon had taught me when our minds had connected. I’d cultivated that information, well aware of how useful and dangerous my secondary skill could be.
I had never expected to use it to identify a poison meant to force a miscarriage, but stranger things had happened.
We didn’t have a lot of time at our disposal, since my uncle’s patience would probably run out soon. He’d been surprisingly supportive about this whole thing, but that was just because he was under the impression Selene might be carrying my child. Dr. Bell hadn’t gotten the chance to ascertain the true nature of the pregnancy, so my uncle had taken me up on my word. That would help us, for now, but it would also draw unwanted attention from my father.
That made it all the more important to be sure Tanya Renard had truly intended to end Selene’s pregnancy. Thankfully, it didn’t take me long to verify that.
The blend of plants in the capsules shouldn’t have harmed Selene’s body. The intent had been to make her miscarry. But the herbs had had an unfortunate interaction with the energies the pregnancy emanated, leading to her whole biology being thrown out of whack.
Jared had been right to panic and to come here. If we hadn’t been informed about this, she could have very easily been killed.
“Well?” Selene asked as I set aside the scanner. “What’s the verdict?”
“I’m sorry, Selene,” I replied.
I didn’t expect her to take me up on my word, not after everything that had happened, so instead, I brought her my tablet and showed her a hologram of the atoms and particles that made up the capsules she had ingested. “These are the results from the test. Here is the biological structure of the compound in the medicine. And here is a simulation of its effects on you.”
The projected image was almost eerie, since it displayed the venomous substance enveloping her uterus and attacking the incipient cells of her baby. I felt horrible for showing her such a thing. But I had to believe in her strength and in her ability to understand and deal with the situation that was in front of her.
Selene pressed her lips together so tightly they went white. She didn’t say anything, but maybe it was better that way. If she had, we might have all fallen apart out of anguish and shame.
I had no right to hate Tanya Renard when I’d betrayed Selene too. I’d been the one to start this whole mess. If I’d been a better leader or had found another solution, she would’ve never been kidnapped by Jared in the first place. But I hadn’t, and I was well aware that her suffering was my fault.
Even so, I couldn’t accept the fact that her mother had turned on her at such a critical time. For good or ill, Selene had made her choice. She wanted to keep the baby. We couldn’t deny her that. All we could do was help her, protect her, and love the child when it did come into the world.
“We don’t know if the capsules have had any significant side-effects on you yet,” I said. “I’ll speak with my uncle again and try to secure a safer test.”
“But how will we explain the genetics of the child?” Selene asked. “It’ll be obvious that it’s not human.”
“They’ll all assume that it’s mine, like Commander Trevor has,” August offered. “There’s… There’s a lot of stuff going on here, Selene, and some of it, I don’t understand myself. But I think the best thing to do would be to make sure you’re calm and safe. Let us handle the rest.”
It wasn’t the right thing to say. Selene’s eyes flashed and something exploded in the med bay. “How can I possibly be calm when a minute ago, Brendan told me my mother tried to kill my baby?”
Technically, it wasn’t a baby yet, but I didn’t think pointing that out would help. Neither would telling her that we understood, because we didn’t, not really. “Selene, listen. You’re in a delicate condition right now. Between the pregnancy and the pills, your hormones and skills are all over the place. If we’re telling you this, it’s not because we’re looking down on you. It’s not a suggestion at all. Consider it an order from your superior officer if you must, but keep your head down and rest.”
I hated the idea of pulling rank on her. I had the authority, because I was a prince and the leader of our unit. But this was a private matter and had nothing to do with our official business. It wasn’t my place to give her such orders.
And yet, when I spoke, the tension in Selene’s stance started to settle. She collapsed onto the pillows, drained of strength, but also of anger. “I wish things were different. I wish we could have had a real family.”
“We still can, Selene. Everything is fucked up now, but—”
“Something’s wrong with me, Brendan,” she cut me off, her voice still calm and level. “I don’t know what it is, but there’s something inside my mind, struggling to come out. I kissed Commander Trevor earlier, and I don’t know what could have possessed me to do such a thing.”
