Page 40 of Destinies of Diamond
“You were never selfish, little one,” came the reply. “I think that was always the problem. If you had been, we wouldn’t have ended up in this situation in the first place. But don’t worry. We can still fix it. You’re safe now.”
“I’m never safe. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know who I am anymore.”
“You will. You just need to give yourself a little time. You can’t uproot your whole life and expect it to go smoothly outright. You’ll always be Selene Renard, the daughter of Tanya Renard, but you’ll also be so much more. I promise everything will be clearer soon. Just hang in there, for all our sakes.”
Was Gaia talking to me, trying to encourage me? Was it Tartarus? The voice didn’t have a gender I could identify, so I wasn’t sure. Either way, it did help, and the fuzziness blurring my consciousness started to dissipate.
I came to once again, only to realize that at one point when I’d been out of it, half a dozen people had arrived at the med bay. Commander Trevor had returned and surprisingly, Prince Archibald was with him. Brendan, Knox, Pollux, and August were by my side. Dr. Bell still hovered nearby, fiddling with some instruments and checking over some scans.
“Welcome back, Acting Pilot Renard,” he said. “You had us worried for a few minutes there.”
“What happened? Did I…? Is my baby…?”
“Your baby is fine. You did come very close to a miscarriage, but we were able to stop it in time.” He shot me an uncharacteristically concerned look. “That doesn’t mean this incident wasn’t serious. Blood tests show there’s some kind of poison in your system. I’ll need you to tell me everything you’ve eaten in the past twenty-four hours.”
Poison? Impossible. “I only eat at the mess hall. I didn’t have breakfast this morning. I felt unwell.”
“And before that?” he prodded. “Yesterday? Did you eat when you were on Terra?”
I shook my head. “No. I didn’t stay that long in New Washington. I did grab a bite while I was tending to the women in the med bay, but it was packed rations.”
“We’re going to have to check all the rations then,” Archibald said. “If our supplies were infested with some kind of virus or venom, we might have an outright plague on our hands.”
“Actually, before we do that, I’d like to have a word with Selene in private,” Brendan offered. I didn’t think I’d ever heard him sound so cold, not even when we’d first met.
Commander Trevor shot me a conflicted look, obviously not very happy with the idea of leaving me. Prince Archibald didn’t give him a choice. “Of course, Brendan. We’ll be right outside. I’d like to talk to Acting Pilot Renard a little more once you clarify things.”
“Thank you, Uncle,” Brendan answered.
As Commander Trevor, Prince Archibald, and Dr. Bell left the room, my lovers all knelt at my bedside. Brendan’s demeanor softened slightly, although he was still just as tense as before. His eyes were glowing a poisonous green and I wondered just how much it had hurt him to see me sick.
He took a deep breath, seemingly bracing himself for something very difficult. “Selene, I think we have a pretty good idea what’s going on, but it’s not something easy to explain or to hear,” he said. “I need you to be perfectly honest with me. Are you well enough to hear it?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glowered at him. “Just tell me, Brendan. I doubt anything can get me more agitated than the not-knowing. I need to understand what caused this to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future. I’ll be far calmer when I’m not stumbling around in the dark.”
I should have known better than to tempt fate. Pollux reached for my hand and squeezed it gently. “We have reason to believe this might have been caused by your mother. Did you take anything she gave you?”
A memory of the capsules I’d swallowed this morning flashed through my mind and I froze. I wanted to deny it, but I couldn’t. For a few seconds, I could do nothing but stare at them, dumbfounded.
“I’m assuming that’s ayes, then,” August said darkly. He didn’t sound surprised, but the increase in temperature suggested he was very unhappy with the situation.
His anger made me snap out of my shock. “There’s no way my mother would hurt me or my baby,” I managed to say. “You’re wrong. It’s impossible.”
“I think you know it isn’t,” Knox replied. “This pregnancy isn’t exactly something you wanted and the High Priestess knows that. Let’s face it. It’s not out of the question that she’d try to help you, even if it means making you miscarry.”
“But… But… She knows I want to keep it. Why…? No, it can’t be. She’s a High Priestess of Gaia. There has to be another explanation.”
Even assuming the capsules had been the ones to hurt me, it could have very easily been an accident. My mother knew my pregnancy was risky and complicated, but she might not have understood the intricacies of Heliad biology. She might have given me something that was incompatible with a half-alien child.
“I know what you’re thinking, Selene, but we’re not making unjustified accusations,” Brendan offered. “Our… common friend is at the academy. He heard your mother talking to her subordinate—a woman named Yolanda. They were discussing their plans and your mother admitted to intending to end your pregnancy.”
There was only one common friend Brendan could be referring to, and that was Jared. But it would’ve been next to impossible for Jared to come to Tartarus without being spotted. Our base might have suffered damage from the generator shutdown, but that didn’t mean the sensors were completely offline.
He might have taken the chance, though, if he truly had heard my mother discuss such a thing. How could I be sure?
The answer was easy enough.“Jared is with Zephyrus,”Sphinx whispered in my head.“The Lower Chimera Unit is hiding him. So far, he’s safe, but we’ll have to find a way to get him out before anyone finds him.”
With Zephyrus. He had gone to his chimera. He must have been in a panic, because he’d told me he’d never quite put his faith in the Harpy.
