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“That, too.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined feeling so torn about leaving this nightmare of a place. I want to stay and fight even if I suck at it. Now that I know the War People and the Norfolk have lived intertwined lives for hundreds of years, and that this toxic dump isn’t some foreign planet, I feel obligated to salvage what’s left of it.
Stupid. I know.
I have to keep reminding myself that if we do things right, my world will live on. People will continue making bad choices, good choices, and everything in between. We’ll have wars, times of peace, and times of change. But at least we’ll wake up each day with a future.
“Are you sure this is safe?” I place my hand over the bump on my stomach. I haven’t quite accepted that there’s an actual living being inside it.
Alwar smiles down at me with those sapphire blue eyes that remind me so much of Bard. I wish he were here.
“Lake, I do not know of any woman in our history who has been a blood slave, became the War Queen, was turned into a vampire, and then placed on the great throne, even if only for a short time. And I certainly have not heard of a vampire who slept with a giant and a No One and who became pregnant.”
I try not to laugh. “It sounds like a soap opera.”
“I do not know what soap or music has to do with any of it,” he takes my hand in his and carefully presses a finger on top of it, “but I do know that you are strong. You are Norfolk. And if your great-great-great-grandmother can survive two Blood Battlesand capture the cold heart of a warlord, then you can survive this. Your child will, too.”
I look away, trying not to tear up. “I thought kindness was frowned upon here.”
“Kindness, yes. Honesty, no.”
Alwar takes a key from the enormous ring hanging on the wall and unlocks the red door in the middle of the wall. It’s about twenty feet up.
“Where does that one go?”
“To the place where I last saw Mahra.”
“The shower?” I smile.
“Very funny. It is a spot she enjoyed next to the river.”
Suddenly, the sounds of horns echo off in the distance.
“Shit. Now? They’re coming now?” I say.
“War waits for no monster.” He smiles and extends his large hand.
I climb on, and he lifts me to the door as he unlocks it with his other hand.
“Take good care of him.” Alwar glances at my stomach. “He will be the last of us, you know.”
I start to cry. Alwar is confident he’ll win and hold the wall. It means I won’t ever see him again. Not Bard, not Master either. “I will do my very best.”
He kisses the top of my head and holds his hand to the red door. I step out and look over my shoulder as the bridge pulls me in, and I’m broken into a million pieces. Only this time, I’m not alone.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It’s lonely here on this big estate. No sounds of Bard chopping wood to prepare for winter. No Grandma Rain yelling at Master to get off her couch or to stop leaving dead critters on the front porch. No howls of No Ones trying to pass through the house, looking for snacks. No deep voices talking to me through the walls, telling me their beautiful lies with their beautiful mouths.
My best friend Sunnie has stopped by a few times to keep me company, but things just aren’t the same between us. She was really hurt when I dropped off the face of the earth to spend time finding myself—a lie—only to return pregnant.
I’ve been back for three months now, and people in town continue to whisper behind my back. Mostly rumors about my ex, Dave, who disappeared without a trace. His family’s been looking for him ever since, and luckily, while I was gone, no one came here. At least, not to search with a warrant. If they had, they would’ve found his blue Ferrari back behind the shed, the GPS disconnected. Now the car is down in a gully off of Rebel Road, a place too steep for anyone to ever find it.
Poor Dave’s family. And poor Dave.Bard, a brand-new No One at the time, chewed his face clean off out in the woods. I think Bard was just trying to protect me, even if he didn’t know why. Bard eventually remembered me and our past, but it took time.
Time. Now there’s a topic I can’t stop thinking about.I slide my hand over my stomach. The giant fetus is the size of a small grape now, right on track for a normal human baby. Thank God there were no issues going over the bridge, but I never imagined being here all alone, pregnant.
