“That is true,” Aria agreed.
“It’s in your best interests to make an appeal to the court as a victim. You were a prisoner of war.”
“Yes,” Aria nodded. “I was.”
“So all we have to do is explain why you helped them after the Final Strike. Coercion on their part, perhaps. Did they force you to assist them? Were you a captive on that island?”
She should just lie. Vyktor was gone and she was on her own. But Aria couldn’t bring herself to do it. All she had left was her memories, and the truth of what had been between them. Besides, she didn’t believe for a second that she was ever going to get off these charges. The government were determined to make an example of her. Her face had been splashed over every magazine, website, newspaper, and letterbox flyer in thecountry. In the eyes of the world, she was deeply guilty already. They didn’t understand that the government had lied to them and blamed much of the destruction they had caused on the dragons.
A tap on the door interrupted the meeting. Her lawyer looked relieved.
“We need the prisoner. We need to run some medical assessments on her.”
“You have to make sure I’m healthy before you execute me,” Aria laughed sadly. “Just give me a bullet and be done.”
Nobody paid attention to what she said. Nobody cared. They unshackled her and led her to a medical chamber where she was shackled to a bed while a doctor with a chronically flat affect went through the motions of an exam. Aria did as she was told, there was no point resisting. She peed in the cup when they asked her, then went back and allowed herself to be shackled again.
“Oh,” the doctor said a few minutes later. “That’s interesting.”
“What?” Aria lifted her head.
The doctor looked at her with his dull milk eyes and said two words that changed everything.
“You’re pregnant.”
Aria stared at him. “I can’t be. I haven’t been with a man in…”
She hadn’t been with a man—but she had been with a dragon. Vyktor. Holy… was it even possible?
“Lie back, please,” the doctor said. “Lift your shirt.”
He produced an ultrasound machine, squirted gel on her belly, and began moving the probe back and forth over her stomach. Aria watched the doctor’s face as it began to contort.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I think it has a defect.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It… er… it… uhm… it has…” The doctor called his assistant over. “What would you say that looks like?”
“It looks normal. Strong heartbeat… all limbs present and correct… and…” The assistant’s voice trailed off too. “Wings?”
Oh, god. It was Vyktor’s.
The doctor was talking again, not to her, of course. “We will have to make alternative arrangements until the… offspring is born. The possible studies are…”
Aria had thought she knew fear when she flew her first fighter mission. She had thought she knew fear when the dragon ripped her canopy off and stood above her with its fire breath and sharp claws. But she had never known the deep, primal, true fear of someone wanting to harm the life inside her.
“No,” she said, her voice shaking with rage. “No, you will not hurt…”
“Sedate her,” the doctor ordered his assistant.
Obeying directly, the assistant pushed a dose of sedative directly into Aria’s neck. Almost immediately, the world began to fog over.
“No…” Aria reached out for her cuffs. She had to get free, but already the weakness was overcoming her.
She felt herself being unshackled and moved, but she was powerless to do anything as two guards lifted her onto a stretcher and began carrying her back to her cell.
“Lizard fucker,” one of them muttered. “She fucked the lizards. Now she’s got a lizard in her belly.”
