“Not Lieja.” Apex shifted his body in front of mine. “Atlanta. She is pregnant with my child. By the holy law of our people, therefore, I belong to her—and she belongs to me.”
“Pregnant?” Idria spat the word like it was a curse. “That cannot be, Apex.”
“No? Look at her yourself, then. Her breasts are swollen. Her cheeks are flushed. She has been nauseated for days, and her body rebels against exertion. She would not have stumbled in her dance otherwise.”
“And you think you are to blame.” Idria’s eyes narrowed hatefully. “All this time as you trained her, you were fucking her as well? I have tolerated many of your disobediences, Apex. They have always come to serve me well in due time. But this—this is beyond disobedient.” Idria crossed her arms over her chest and turned her face away. “No. You would not betray me like this. I know you, Apex. Perhaps you have gone soft-hearted for the girl, but you are a loyal soldier. You do as you are told. Whatever little bluff you are pushing here, I simply refuse to believe it is true.”
“No? See for yourself, then. You there—” Apex waved one of the palace’s tiny servants forward. “Fetch me that bowl of gilly-fruit and bring it here.”
“Apex…” Idria’s voice dripped with warning as the servant rushed over with the bowl of fruit.
Apex plucked one of the small fruits he’d fed me earlier from the bowl and offered it to me. “Eat.”
Gingerly, I took it from him and popped it in my mouth. It seemed absurd. What was a piece of fruit going to do to prove that he was telling the truth? But then again, everything I’d experienced lately had been absurd. Nothing had been normal or logical since I’d been taken from Earth. All things considered, whatever was going on now was pretty much par for the course.
The entire ballroom seemed to hold its breath as I chewed and swallowed. Just like before, the fruit was juicy and pleasantly sweet.
“Um. Ta-da?” I said, looking between Apex and Idria.
Now, it was Idria’s face that was a shade too pale.
“Not sour? It does not disgust you?” Idria looked like she wanted to hit me no matter what I told her, so I just shrugged and told her the truth.
“It tastes like fruit.” I didn’t know what else I was supposed to say.
As soon as the words left my lips, Idria’s mouth twisted like a wet bedsheet being wrung out to dry.
“You slut. You insipid little bitch!”
Then, she really did pull her hand back to hit me, but Apex stepped in her way before she could.
“And you.” She stared Apex down like she was imagining him dead in a dozen different ways at once. “You think that this will stop me? You think that I care that you have bred this dim-witted little whore?”
“It is our law,” he said simply. “By the moons, I am the cub’s father. Atlanta is under my protection now.”
“It was our law.” Idria slapped him across the face, hard enough to make his head turn. He didn’t try to stop her, though I was pretty sure he could have. “We have new laws now, Apex. New moons. New gods. With my union to my king, everything changes at my will. Except, might I remind you, the fact that I made you. I own you. And no matter how many little humans you impregnate, that will never change. Not for the rest of your life.”
I just kind of…stood there. I knew I was probably expected to know what was going on, but…this was all a little over my head. I was still trying to figure out how the hell they were all so sure that I was pregnant. Distantly, I could recall Apex saying something about gilly-fruit…but so much had happened since that day, I couldn’t really remember what.
Okay, Apex. I looked up at him, hoping for a reassuring word, or a glance, or something. Unfortunately, he was too busy staring Idria down in defiance. Please, please, please, let all of this be part of your plan.
“So the human is pregnant.” Idria shrugged. “I do not care, Apex. This changes nothing for me, except that it has lost me time. Your cub will be sent to the labyrinth beneath House Brixta to begin training as a specter as soon as it is born. A suitable life for the baz-terd spawn of a human womb and a slave.”
“My cub is no baz-terd,” Apex growled.
“No? Am I not using that word correctly?” Idria looked at me with interest for a moment, like I was some kind of English-to-Lunarian reference guide. “It does not matter, I suppose. None of this does. My plans are already in motion. They will stay that way. You, Apex, will go to Lieja and fuck her as you have your precious human, until she too is with child. As I have ordered you to. As you must. And Atlanta, when she is done with this abomination of a pregnancy, will bear my king’s child. As I have ordered her. As she must.”
“And if we disobey?” Apex said it like he was begging for a fight.
“You will not.” Idria’s hand swept her skirts aside and drew a dagger from the slit at her hip. With her other hand, she snatched my wrist and dragged me over to her. When she pressed the blade to my throat, I could feel that she was ready to kill. “Or else, I will find a new human for my king to breed, and you will lose Atlanta and your cub at the edge of my knife.”
Okay, Apex. If you’ve got some big trick up your sleeve, now would be the time…
I looked at him with urgency, but he didn’t move. He hadn’t, this whole time. It was insane. I’d seen how fast he could disarm someone when he wanted to. Even Ronan and Gallix
