Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
“I think she’s tired,” Xi says.
I whirl on him. “What?”
But the stupid god isn’t even looking at me. Isn’t paying me any attention. He only cares about Finn. About what he can use him for. “Pregnant women are…” He pauses here to side-eye me, then quickly averts his gaze back to Finn. “Excitable.”
“I’m not excitable!”
He pans a hand in my direction. “See? They’re unstable. It’s the hormones, you see. It’s not her fault.”
I stomp my foot. “Finn! I’m not excitable! I’m not unstable! I’m the same girl I was yesterday. Someone you trusted and counted on!”
Finn sighs, it’s a heavy one, too. “I think you might need to rest, Jasina.”
“No! I do not need to rest!”
“She did,” the god adds, “just walk up seventeen flights of stairs.” He looks at me. “It’s taxing, my dear. Even for robust men like your partner here. So naturally, for a pregnant woman, it’s more than taxing.” He switches his gaze to Finn now. “It’s overwhelming. Where are my manners!” This last part comes out in a gregarious roar. “Let’s get you both to your quarters.”
“No!” I stomp again. “We’re not staying! Tell him we’re not staying, Finn. We don’t need quarters. We’re getting back on the train and we’re going home.”
Finn turns to me and he doesn’t even have to open his mouth for me to know that I’ve lost. That he is staying. That we do need quarters and I’m about to be sent to them right now. “We do need to rest.”
“No.” I shake my head. “You can stay if you want, but I’m leaving.”
And that’s what I do. I cross the room, heading for the stairs, but the moment I begin to make my escape, all the workers flank me, weapons drawn. They surround me, pushing in, caging me in until I can’t move.
I push them, trying to force my way through, but they are so heavy, I can’t even manage to knock them sideways a fraction of an inch. “Make them move!” I demand. “Let me out!”
“She needs to rest,” I catch Xi saying to Finn. “She’s going to hurt herself, which, in turn, will hurt the baby.”
“Finn!” I yell. “You’re not falling for this! Tell me you’re not falling for this!”
“Move aside,” Finn says, making his way over to me and the cage of workers. “Move!”
I catch Xi flicking his finger in the air, and the workers all part.
Finn reaches for me, taking my hand, pulling me towards him. “Please,” I beg again. Softer now. “Let’s just leave. Please. This isn’t good. Nothing good is going to come of us staying here. That god, he’s turning you against me.”
Finn reaches out to swipe a piece of hair out of my eyes. Tenderly resting his fingers against my cheek. “That’s not true, Jasina. Nothing will turn me away from you. It’s us, forever.” His hand slips down to my stomach. “We’ve got a future now. Something to live for. Something to fight for. Your idea to go home is a good one. We will go, but we’re going to rest here first. We need more information. The world isn’t what we thought it was.”
“He’s going to do something to you, Finn. That’s why he wants you. He just said he wants you to fight in his war. His war. It’s not our war.”
“If you let me take you somewhere comfortable so you can rest, I promise I will not let him do anything to me without talking to you first.”
I hesitate. He’s placating me. Pacifying me.
“Do you trust me?” Finn asks.
And again, I hesitate.
“Jasina?”
“Yeah. I do.” But it’s not even close to convincing.
Finn doesn’t miss this. “Ya know what? You have every right not to trust the Finn Scott you met in Tau City, but you actually have no right not to trust the Finn Scott you’ve been traveling with for weeks. I’ve done everything for you.”
He’s right. He’s absolutely right. But… Clara. Maybe she looks like her, maybe it was a trick of the light—but it’s not her.
But it doesn’t have to be her.
It just needs to be the idea of her.
And I’m jealous.
That’s what this is.
Jealousy.
But haven’t I earned the right to be jealous? He’s mine now. The father of our child. He’s mine now. And if we stay here and let this god pull us in to whatever stupid game he’s playing, he won’t be mine anymore.
Not unless he chooses me. And right now, he’s not choosing me. He wants to stay. So that’s it. Because clearly this god is not going to let me leave without Finn, and now that he’s captured Finn’s imagination, Finn is staying.
There’s only one thing left for me to do—at least for now. And that’s… give in. “Fine,” I sigh. “Maybe you’re right. I should go rest.”
I didn’t respond to his accusation about trust, and I can tell that Finn would like me to. But he doesn’t make me. Probably figuring we can hash it out in private later.