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  She smiled hesitantly. “You were. I was instructed to administer medicine that would speed your gestation along. Of course, there’s only so much that we can do. Part of it’s still up to nature to decide when the fetus is fully-developed.”

  I hoped the type of nature she was talking about was more like a slow, oozing slug and not like a furious landslide, rip-roaring over anything in its wake and over in seconds.

  “Can you estimate how much time I have left until she comes?”

  Vivian’s brows drew together. “Has no one told you?”

  “Told me what?” A shiver crawled slowly up my spine.

  Vivian sighed and walked toward me, wringing her hands. “I’m very sorry that you haven’t been informed, but you’ve been scheduled for a caesarian section in less than two days.”

  My heart skipped a beat and then began pounding against my chest. “What exactly is that?”

  “It’s a surgical procedure, really. May I explain?”

  I nodded. A surgical procedure?

  She motioned to my lower abdomen. “An incision will be made across your abdomen, here. The child will be removed from your womb. Your physicians will be able to make sure that you’re medically stable, while physicians who are trained to assist newborns will be able to care for your baby at the same time.”

  My God, they were going to cut her out of me. Will she survive it? Is she ready? “Will my baby be ready to... Be born? I remember one baby that was born early in our village and struggled.”

  “Of course. No one would approve of the procedure unless your child was already completely developed and ready to make her entrance.”

  Sniffing, I wiped a tear off my cheek. “Please make sure she’s not harmed, Vivian.”

  “Oh, Honey. You’ll be there. You’ll see that no harm will come to her. This is completely normal. I understand your apprehension. You’re young and have never experienced childbirth before, but trust me when I say that you and she will be fine.”

  Shaking my head, a trembling smile formed. A knot formed in my throat. “I won’t make it out of the operating room.”

  She grabbed my hands in her own. “That’s not true. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about. These procedures were once commonplace. It’s a simple operation, and one that rarely leads to complications.” Vivian assured.

  “I’m not worried about the surgery, or its complications. But believe me when I tell you that Queen Lillith has no intention of letting me survive it.”

  She smiled sweetly. I knew she had faith in the words she was trying so hard to make me believe. But she didn’t know Lillith. She was capable of more than Vivian knew. She grabbed my hands, rubbing her thumbs across the backs of them in a motherly way. “But a newborn needs her mother. You’ll be able to sustain the child when your milk arrives.”

  A tear slipped down my cheek. I shook my head in disagreement. “I’m already dead.”

  Vivian’s furrowed brow and widened eyes proved she was rattled, but I didn’t care. It was true. My execution documents had been signed and sealed. We just had to wait for them to be delivered.

  I couldn’t breathe. There wasn’t enough air. They were going to literally take my baby from my body by force, by surgery.

  What was the matter with these people?

  I can’t...

  She led me to the edge of the bed and asked me to lie down. “Your heart rate is too high. You need to calm down.”

  “I can’t just calm down!” I clutched at my chest. My heart hurt.

  She brushed the plastic probe of a scanner across my forehead and then sighed at the readout. But what worried me was her reaction to my blood pressure. “You’re under too much stress. I need to listen to the fetus, please.”

  “She’s not a fetus. She’s a baby.” I snapped, sending whatever tool she’d just grabbed clattering to the floor. It landed beneath a table all the way across the room.

  Vivian swallowed and attempted a smile. “Yes, of course. I just need to make sure she’s okay and not under stress as well. May I please check on her?”

  After trying to calm down, I finally answered, “Yes.” It sounded like a strained croak, like it wasn’t my voice responding at all.

  Vivian moved back to her bag and returned with some sort of scanning device, similar to the one she’d used on me when I was hospitalized the first time, shortly after my arrival in Vesuvius.

  I had to have a way into the city, so my best friend, Laney, had doused me with cow’s blood, and we’d pretended I was having a miscarriage. Once my mother saw, I was on the next express to a Vesuvian hospital where Vivian attended me.

  “This is a portable ultrasound device. It will create a digital image of the fe... the baby.” She smiled warmly at me.

  I nodded a go ahead.

  Giving me a moment of much-needed privacy, Vivian held up a blanket so I could raise my skirt over my bump. Once I was settled, she covered my bottom half. With a squeeze bottle, she squirted a tiny blob of gelatinous, blue goop on my stomach and eased the scanner across my skin.

  With a pensive expression on her face, she rubbed the machine up and down, across and diagonally. When she took the wand off my skin, the air cooled the gel quickly. She gave me a towel to wipe off with.

  She fixed her golden eyes on the tiny screen of the scanner and again watched the recorded movements of my child.

  “Can I see her?”

  “One moment, please.”

  I gave her that moment, trying my best not to squirm with impatience, and then she let me see my baby girl.

  She sighed and smoothed her hand over her already slicked-back hair. “I can’t lie to you, Abigail. I fear your child is somewhat stressed. It was once believed that a fet... a baby could feel the emotions of its mother in utero, and might react to those emotions. I’ve seen this myself, and I’m confident that your stress level is affecting your child. The insinuation that you made earlier, well I just don’t understand what’s going on, but do promise to look into it. I’m supposed to report my findings immediately, and you should be admitted to the medical facility for observation, but I’ll keep this quiet—for a time— provided that you allow me to check on you later this evening, perhaps before you retire to sleep.” She didn’t say it, but even she doubted I’d be moved to the medical facility before game time.

  Two days. No. Less than two days.

  “That’s fine. You can come back then. And, thank you for your help.”

  “You’re obviously frightened. I’m not sure how to alleviate your fears, because I don’t understand where your paranoia is coming from, but you seem very sincere. I’ll do my very best to help you in the next—” she looked at the wall across from us where the time was digitally displayed on the wall in glowing red letters “—forty six hours.”

  “Thank you,” I managed to say.

  My throat was thick as I watched her pack the medical gear back into her bag. She paused and looked at me before she placed her thumb on a small pad near the door. It opened automatically and then shut quickly behind her.

  Cage door closed.

  I needed to calm down, protect little bean. But how was I supposed to sit back and let stuff happen, and what in the hell could I do to stop it from my prison?

  Sobbing into my pillow wasn’t going to help. Whether they were monitoring the room or not, I was going to try to find a way out of there.

  AS JULIA AND I CLOSED in on the depot, her tiny hand in mine, my comm vibrated. I held it up, and the screen illuminated a sickly green color. It was from Kaia.

  ETA 25 MINUTES.

  I erased the message and its history, or tracers. Sometimes comms would imprint into different areas of the system. Vesuvius was definitely monitoring communications. There were five tracers. I just hoped they hadn’t zeroed in on them, or us, yet. We just needed hours, a couple of days at the most. We needed time to get in, get Abby and hopefully the others, and get out—making sure the Greaters couldn’t follow us.

  And,
if they found out Adam was orchestrating everything... I shook my head. He was in the middle of a spider’s web.

  “Twenty-five minutes.”

  Julia squeezed my hands. “We’ll be okay.”

  I was glad she thought so. If anything went wrong, if we stumbled across a guard, if a message was even partially intercepted, we’d all be dead before we realized we’d even been caught. The stakes were high.

  I cleared my throat. “Jules, I really—”

  “Shut up, Kyan. I’m going, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

  With that sassy mouth leading the way, she sashayed down the pathway ahead of me. Damn if I wouldn’t have to get her riled up more often.

  We met Kaia a few minutes later, sticking to the shadows for cover. The train was on time. Its whistle blew when it was a few miles out and then again when it neared the depot. But no one seemed to notice. I just hoped no one cared.

  My palms were sweating. I rubbed them down my jeans and waited as the sound of grating metal wheels against rusted track screeched the train’s arrival. Kaia led the way, sliding open one of the car’s doors and hopping in. Julia boarded next, and I closed the door behind us.

  “I’ll send a comm this time. My voice is shaking too badly,” Kaia told us. She was a mess. Someone might pick up on the fear in her voice; it was audible.

  Kaia sent a quick comm. I could see her screen. The skin of our faces glowed green.

  GOODS SECURED. PROCEED TO VESUVIUS DIRECTLY FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTION.

  When the train didn’t immediately pull away, I glanced at the ladies.

  Julia shifted her weight back and forth on her feet.

  Kaia bit her thumbnail and stared at her comm in case something else came through—not that it wouldn’t buzz the announcement.

  Nothing.

  I looked at the night sky above us. The train was hauling coal. The fuel-like scent wafted up from the floor and every wall of the open top car. It was how the train had gotten here so quickly. Coal was one of the closest villages to Orchard. For some reason, our car hadn’t been filled.

  Finally, the train lurched forward, and in a few moments, we were speeding through the dark.

  It would take several hours for the train to reach Vesuvius, even keeping the fast pace. I’d never left Orchard. Never. It was exhilarating and scary as hell at the same time.

  “What if we’re already too late?” Kaia asked.

  We’d all sat on the far side of the car so the wind wouldn’t freeze us. In the warming days of spring, the earth had begun to thaw, but the cold nights hadn’t let up.

  We huddled together, Julia sandwiched between us. She answered, “We won’t be late. But we do need a plan, and we’ll need Adam’s help to pull this off. Can you send him a message?”

  Kaia sniffed and answered, “Yes.”

  “Ask him for details on Abby’s whereabouts, for any schedule assigned to her, for all those granted access to her room. Ask him for any information that we’ll need in order to extract her.”

  Kaia began typing as fast as her fingers could fly.

  I interrupted. “Ask if he knows where she is. If she’s somewhere that’ll be hard for us to get in to, see if he can get her relocated somewhere that would be easy for us to access.”

  Julia stopped Kaia for a second. “And tell him we need to disappear once we’re in the city.”

  Adam’s reply came fast. PHOENIX IS WORKING ON EVERYTHING NOW. WILL COMM DETAILS ASAP.

  “Can he make all that happen?” I asked. Was it me, or did Jules light up at Phoenix’s name?

  With a single nod, she answered. “I know Phoenix. He’s a master at everything technological and brilliant in ways I can’t fathom. Not only will he see the problem at hand, but he’ll anticipate all the possible outcomes and obstacles. He can plan for them as well. If anyone can turn us into ghosts, it’s Phoenix.”

  “Is he loyal?” Can we trust this guy?

  “To Adam. Yes, he is. Adam’s like a father to him. Phoenix’s own father died when he was very young and impressionable. Adam took him in, taught him everything he knew, and encouraged him to venture beyond his own realm of knowledge, even when rules were bent or broken. He’d definitely fight for Adam Kelley. And, if Adam’s daughter is in trouble, Phoenix will help save her.”

  “You sound sure about that.” My voice was hard. I couldn’t help it. My hackles rose. Who was this Phoenix guy? And why and how did Julia know so much about him? He was around our age, considering what she’d just said about Adam helping the kid out, mentoring him and everything.

  Kaia looked up from the screen. “Julia has known Phoenix for her entire life. He’s very much like a brother to her, Kyan.” I didn’t miss the slight smirk on her face. I wanted to kick some coal dust up at her, but that wouldn’t have been gentlemanly.

  Julia stiffened and blinked at me in disbelief. “Kyan, are you jealous of Phoenix?”

  “I’m not jealous. Just wondering about this guy and why he’d stick his neck out to help us.”

  Julia only answered with a smile, her straight, white teeth glittering in the slender rays of the moon.

  “I’m not jealous.” I wasn’t. Not at all. I was just asking. We were putting faith in some guy I didn’t know.

  She giggled. “You already said that.”

  Kaia laughed aloud and Julia joined in.

  “Yeah, whatever. Laugh it up. But you’d better hope he can do half of the stuff you just said.”

  Or we’re going to be lined up and shot, I thought, but didn’t say.

  The train’s rhythmic rocking should’ve lulled me to sleep. I’d worked a fourteen-hour shift at the depot and was exhausted. But my mind wouldn’t settle. It wouldn’t stop running through possible scenarios.

  My imagination ran wild with images of what Vesuvius might look like. Julia had told me about the layout of the city. Most of the buildings were settled into a valley with the palace standing alone on a steep hill. The palace, where the queen resided, and where Abby was being held, was surrounded by some sort of wall. There were guards, guns, and technology I couldn’t even begin to understand, let alone picture in my mind.

  She said everything there was red. If it was as red as the hot little jumpsuits she typically wore, it might not be so bad. Weird, but hot.

  Did all chicks in Vesuvius wear the same get-up? What did the guys wear? No way was I going to be stuffed into some tight zip-up number. They didn’t leave much to the imagination.

  Ah, hell. I guess I would if it meant blending in. I wouldn’t like it, though.

  The farther from the depot we got, the more stars I could see. It was like they were twinkling for us. In the middle of the darkness there was light—small bits of it—but together it made something beautiful and hopeful. I imagined a great map, the land dark blue and the Lesser Villages tiny dots of white hope.

  With that thought, I finally drifted off to sleep.

  I’D SEARCHED THE ROOM AND found nothing. Maybe I could’ve launched a table at someone. That was about it. No blunt objects. Nothing sharp. There wasn’t even a lamp to chuck. And I’d looked everywhere, even under the bed—which was no easy task, mind you.

  My body was exhausted, but my little girl wasn’t. She was playing kick Mama in the lungs. I smiled. Even though the entire thing was scaring me to death, I’d miss that—those simple moments with her. They were the kind of moments I’d only share with her.

  I was laying on the bed on my left side when the door locks disengaged.

  Click.

  Click.

  Click.

  Click.

  I hated that sound. With a passion. Was the woman ever late?

  Vivian waited just inside the room until the locks slid safely back in place. She clutched her dark bag like a lifeline, the skin stretched white across her knuckles. The fact that she wanted to be anywhere but there proved she’d learned something about the truth. But how much?

  “Hi, Vivian.”

  “Abigail
.”

  I smiled and slowly sat up on the side of the bed. “Please, call me Abby.”

  She tried to smile. “Very well... Abby.” I’d taught her two words that day: child and my nickname. Maybe it had overwhelmed her. She definitely didn’t seem like the confident woman who’d waltzed in there earlier.

  The sun had set, and darkness had thickly draped itself over the city.

  Vivian’s eyes drifted over the room. Did she see that I’d rearranged things during my search?

  “Have you eaten?” Her lips pinched together tightly.

  “Not since I’ve arrived. I’m starving.”

  She didn’t look surprised. She looked pissed.

  “Well, I...” She huffed. Pecking out a harsh rhythm on her comm, she concentrated on her message, or maybe on the wording of her message. “That’ll be remedied shortly. I apologize for the oversight.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Viv. Don’t apologize for things you didn’t do and can’t control.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Very well. Thank you, Abby. I came to check on you and your baby. May I scan your abdomen?”

  “Dinner and a show?” I grinned. “Do I get a peek?”

  Her lips turned up as well, and I saw her shoulders relax. “Of course.”

  “Okay then. Scan away.”

  I used the sheet to cover myself, exposing my ever-blossoming bump, while she took out her instruments and doohickeys.

  Goop was applied. The scanner was smoothed over my skin. And Vivian was smiling. “She seems fine now. Please, try to remain calm. It helps her. If she’s too stressed, she may decide to make an early appearance.”

  Oh, crap. Calm. I can do calm. Can’t I? “I’ll try my best.”

  She packed her bag as I cleaned the goop off my skin.

  Without looking up at me, she asked, “May I see you in the morning, please?”

  “Sure. You know where to find me.” I joked.

  She forced a smile. “Yes. And your dinner will be here any minute.”

  “Thanks for that.”