Page 29 of A University of Betrayal

Nothing could come close to that disgusting event.

“Male Legacy Ruisangors are looking for a hostess to carry their baby.”

“A hostess?” I laughed, but Miles didn’t let that stop him from talking.

“You have to understand that a Ruisangor baby, even if it hasn’t turned yet, is seen as a foreign body to a human woman. This means that the mother’s body resists it and eventually dies. Only the child survives. But also rarely...” I looked at him, actually slightly disturbed. No, not just slightly, but completely. “The reason you became one of us is because you were created this way.”

My eyes widened. It felt like a stab through the heart to suddenly know something you didn’t want to know.

“Your mother died giving birth to you. Am I right?”

My gaze cleared, and I stared into his eyes, unable to answer. But he didn’t meet my gaze, instead, he looked down briefly, clenching his hands into fists before looking at me again. “We all never had a mother. That’s the curse that binds us Legacy Ruisangors.”

I found it hard to concentrate on his words. My thoughts revolved around my origins, that I had lived half my life a lie, that my father was a monster, as well as all the fathers of those who lived here.Just like me.

“And female Ruisangors, no matter if Legacy or Transformed...” he began, bringing me back to the present. “...are unable,” he hesitated, “...to have children once they have been changed.”

That had been the limit. These last words, it had taken to tear me apart inside.

I staggered back...

“I knew it would upset you.”

I staggered back further.

All my life I had dreamed of someday having a child of my own, of giving it the home I had never had myself, of raising it.I wanted my own children. A family.

“The others prefer to keep quiet about it for now, but I think it’s better if you find out about the ugly side of this life before it’s too late.”

Miles looked at me, concern in his brown eyes.

What did he worry about? About a monster? They had indeed turned me into a monster, and now I was learning the price Ireallyhad to pay, the price I would now pay for eternity.

Chapter 8

Julie

Methods of Madness

Secession Studios, Greg Dombrowski

“Don’t be a disappointment, not again!”

Her words kept bouncing into me, stinging me with their vehemence. Sharp and unpredictable.

“I’ll keep an eye on you and see how well I’ve trained you.”

It was just one sentence and yet it weighed on me with full force.

Stop shaking, come on... There’s nothing to be afraid of. Nothing, I told myself, but it didn’t help.

“Are you okay?”

I glanced up at Bayla, who had stepped closer without me noticing and put her warm hand on my trembling hands, but I snatched them away from her, startled, and looked at her apologetically.

She gave me an indistinct look, but I couldn’t analyze it.

Fear ate its way through my body.

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