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“Because it is unwise to shift forms when pregnant. The little one does not shift with you, while the placenta will. It can cause very serious complications.”
“Thanks for the tip, but nobody’s scales are…leaking. And I have a lot of questions, but now isn’t the time for family planning.”
“So you do not intend on planning?”
“Oof, Dekka.”
She arched a brow at me.
“I plan on not needing a plan.”
“That is a terrible plan.”
It wasn’t thebestplan I’d ever had, but a baby was just not in our immediate future. The cosmos didn’t need me pregnant. It needed me to open the Gate.
And if the cosmos didn’t need me to open the Gate and instead intended to use me as a cosmic landslide, I had other plans. Because I already had a mess of little cousins and nieces and nephews who needed me to open the Gate.
Dekka’s fingers grazed my forearm.
I startled. Dekka wasn’t much of a toucher.
“There’s a bruise on you, little one.” Her magic felt along my soul.
“Damn right there’s a bruise. I was in the living room waiting for the lights to go out and everything to end. And I didn’t say a fucking thing likelet’s all get into the basement.”
Not that I expected Dekka to sympathize, care, or understand.
Dekka nodded acknowledgement, but said nothing.
Good.
“How close is the Seat to making a decision on Homeworld?” I asked. “Are we going withintentionalannihilation or just really ugly collateral damage?”
She cast a glance at me. “Close. Since Keon was unavailable, Hekon translated more information relevant to our interests, which I intend to review and pass to Keon to disseminate to you. Hekon, however, informed me he needs all his resources for the current situation and archival research is cancelled.”
“The Gate research project has been cancelled?” Hekon hadwarnedus we could only have as much time as the cosmos let us have, but I’d thought we’d have more time. Not sure why I thought that, but…
“Helena,” Dekka said sharply. “The time is here. Speculation is running rampant and becoming very dangerous.”
“I’ll find a way. I just need more time.”
“Helena.”
“I’m not letting humanity’s fate get sealed like this!”
Dekka grabbed me by the wrist and her touch stabbed agonizing needles into my soul. I gasped and almost dropped to my knees on the street.
Without another word, she dragged me back to the roost.
Once inside, she closed the front door and spun around on me. Her tone bit into my soul. “I will chase hope until it is exhausted, butyoumust accept there aren’t any places left to look.Ifthe most recent data from Hekon contains explicit instructions on Gates,andthey are simple enough for you to manage, then a new possibility emerges. If you can’t bear to watch what happens next, you and your consorts can go into stasis. Perhaps that is exactly what you should do.”
“That’s the best I get? Just go to sleep and when you wake up, it’ll all be over?!”
“What can Lemuria reasonably give you in this situation? Because if you want more time, thereis no more time.”
Half my brain screamedthere has to be another waywhile the other half did the cold math. There wasn’t time. I’d been on borrowed time and fumes since the moment I’d come to Lemuria.
There has to be another way/There is no other way.
