Page 6 of Serpent King's Revenge

Lily laughed.

“Guess I deserved that,” Justin said.

“No, I’m fine,” I said. “I really am starting to feel better. It wasn’t too deep.”

“It wasn’t,” Lily said. “If it was, you’d be in the hospital.”

“See? I’m totally fine,” I said, making my way back to the sofa and slumping down on it.

Justin nodded. “You know," he said, "for someone who just killed three guys in our apartment, you seem awfully squeamish."

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know…just throwing up like that? You seemed pretty damn unflappable before.”

He was right; I wasn’t the type to throw up, not for anything. Even in all the time I’d spent trapped here with Nathan, I’d never been sick.

My heart skipped—no, not skipped, more like tripped and stumbled over a possibility I hadn't considered.

Was I pregnant?

The room felt impossibly small as the word echoed in my mind. Was it possible? A surge of panic twisted in my gut, mingling with the earlier sickness. My cycle, the stress of it all—it could just be a false alarm, right? I hadn’t had a period since Nathan had abducted me, but I’d just figured…

…yeah. There was no way. I had an IUD. Missed periods happened.

“You guys keep some Ibuprofen around here?” Lily asked, interrupting the silence.

“Yeah,” I said. “But I already took some. Need to just…wait it out.”

“I wish I had something stronger,” Lily said. “We could–”

“No,” I shook my head. “I’ve got to stay sharp. We need to figure out how to get Nathan back.”

“Okay–let’s pause,” Lily said. “All Justin told me was that you needed help. I’m still not in the loop, I have no idea what’s going on or what this weird apartment is…like, can you fill me in?”

I looked up at Justin, who’d gone pale at her question–but Derek said what I was thinking when he asked, “You didn’t tell her?”

Lily frowned, looking between the three of us. “Didn’t tell me what?”

Justin took a deep breath, his brow furrowing. His eyes were sparkling with unshed tears, and Derek came over and squeezed his hand. “Lily…you might want to sit down,” he said.

She shook her head, crossing her arms. “No way. Tell me now.”

“Okay,” he sighed, squeezing Derek’s hand back. “Lily…Nathan’s been arrested. And Ma…Ma’s dead.”

Everything seemed to come to a screaming halt, the silence so dense you could have heard a pin drop. Lily stared at Justin like he’d just grown another limb, then she slowly–very slowly–shook her head.

“No way,” she said. “Ma…I just talked to her this morning. She’s…”

She covered her mouth and Justin took a step toward her. I got up with a wince, planning on going to take her hand, squeeze her shoulder, give her a hug…anything.

But she rounded on me.

“Does this have something to do with why you’re hurt?” she asked. “Did you do this?”

“Lily, no–” Justin said. “She saved our lives.”

“And why did your lives need saving?” she said. Her voice was choked, panicked–a night and day difference between the girl who’d patched me up and the one who was breaking down right now. “I don’t…no, she’s not dead. She…”

---