Page 42 of Godslayer
But he’s invested in me. I feel it.
“So…?” He says. “So what? What’s going on?”
“I’m… pregnant.”
He just stares at me. Unconsciously, I begin counting seconds and get to eight before he lets out a laugh and starts to smile. “What?”
I nod. “Yep. While I’ve obviously not been checked by a health center, I… I’m different. Emotional, and weepy, and—” He’s nodding his head. “I haven’t been tracking my cycles, or anything. Obviously, we’ve been busy. But it’s been like several weeks down here, hasn’t it?”
Finn is just staring at me.
“Finn? How long have we been down here?”
He shakes his head as if to clear it, then stands up as he lets out a breath. “Thirty-six days.”
“Thirty-six. Oh, yes. I’m late. By more than two weeks.” I try and sit up, to get out of bed now that the fainting spell is over.
But Finn immediately kneels back down and places a gentle hand on my arm. “Just rest. You just fainted. You just told me you’re pregnant and… well, we’re not in a hurry, are we.”
I laugh. “I mean… we’re in the middle of blowing up a tower, Finn.”
“Well, technically, we’re not. It’s broken and in the middle of the reset—whatever that is. Besides…” He pans a hand to the space around us. “This is probably as good as it gets as far as living conditions go. You won’t find a bed like this on the train.”
That’s absolutely true. We’ve been sleeping on the train floor, in side tunnels, or sometimes just right there on the tracks.
But I force myself up into a sitting position, fending off his objections with a fierce look of determination, as I pick up the thread of the conversation we were having before I fainted. “The factory. They’re making Little Sisters. I know that sounds stupid, and incredulous, and impossible, but Finn! Think about it! They have an Extraction every ten years to… I don’t know. Take the best of us and?—”
“Shhhh.” He’s pushing me back down into the soft bed. “Let’s forget about that for a moment. Just…” He sighs, and it’s heavy. “Let’s just take a time out. Can we do that? Can we take a time out?”
Now I feel guilty for not taking his feelings about this whole thing into consideration. He’s the Extraction Master. Not only that, he comes from a long line of Extraction Masters. His family has been officiating a Spark Maiden sacrifice for hundreds of years.
Well, maybe not hundreds. Family’s rise and fall, as they say. Just look at mine. The Bell’s used to be in charge of the Tower District. Now we’re down-city nobodies. But regardless of how long the Scott family has been in charge of sending Spark Maidens into the tower, one time is too many. Because surely you cannotfarmthe spark out of a maiden without killing her.
We grow spark.
And they grow us.
It’s too much.
So I let Finn push me back until the soft and buoyant feather bed is cradling my body, giving in. Because it’s all lies. Everything I ever thought I knew about my world is a lie and I need something real right now.
“Sure,” I say. Pulling him into the bed next to me. “Let’s take a time out.”
11 - FINN
“Did you just proposition me for sex?”
Jasina’s laugh is so loud, it echoes off the curved plaster ceilings. “What? No! Oh, my God. Youwouldthink that, though. You’re such a man.”
“Please,” I joke. I know she wasn’t propositioning me, it’s just fun to tease her. “The moment you stepped into this room and saw all these beds, you were like… we should take one for a ride!”
Her head turns so she can look me in the eye. We’re literally lying down, shoulder to shoulder, so these royal blue eyes of hers are just a few inches away. “You heard what I said, right?”
“That you’re having my baby? Oh, I certainly did.”
Her sigh comes out long and a bit tired. She turns over, propping her head up with a hand. “So what do you think about that? It cramps our plans to… you know, save the world and shit.”
I just want to stare at her. I could look at her for a whole lifetime and still not see everything there is to see about the rebel, Jasina Bell. A long piece of red hair has fallen in front of her face, so I push it aside, sliding it over her shoulder. “Creating new rebels is a calling all its own.”
