Page 24 of Blue Embers
“He’s a Draak,” I scoffed. “He’s gorgeous. He knows it, too.”
“They all do,” she rolled her eyes.
We shared in a brief moment of laughter, amused by the things we could relate on now. When we had dialed down the girlish moment, I scooted closer to the bed and cleared my throat, changing the mood to something less enjoyable.
“Artemis?” I eased into it. “I have a few questions, actually.”
“Shoot,” she said.
“I put the pendant in the museum and Killian seems really interested in it. Actually, he’s more than interested. Apparently there have been growing conflicts with the outer territories and rebels and he’s been wrapped up in it for a while. Either he thinks the necklace could have something to do with it or he’s just curious about it, but either way, he’s been looking into the thing.”
“Why would he be so curious?”
“That’s where my questions start. You never told me who it belonged to. I know you wanted to keep it secret, but after so long, I thought maybe you’d be willing to talk about it.”
“Seph, I…” she hesitated, turning away from me for a moment. “That’s a complicated thing to explain.”
“Artemis, please,” I muttered, closing her hand between mine.
Looking at me, I could see her contemplating whether or not she should tell me all the things she’d been keeping quiet for so long. Her umber eyes were solemn and reflective as traces of tears formed beneath them, making my heart ache.
“What is it?” I whispered. “Tell me.”
“You were so young,” she said. “None of this would have made sense to you back then. Maybe now you’ll understand why I could never talk about this.”
I got comfortable, wondering if this was it. If this was the moment she was finally going to tell me everything.
“You remember when dad took me with him to one of his rebel meetings?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said heavily. “I remember because when you came back I thought you were being a total bitch. You kept picking all those fights with mom.”
“I was pregnant,” she said, the information casting a shadow over my heart. My eyes darted to hers, waiting for the rest of the story. “One of the men at the meeting. He…” her voice cracked.
Suddenly there were daggers in my stomach. When I realized what she was trying to say, I felt like I’d been filled with stones and weighed down by the burdens she’d been carrying for years. I felt sick.
“Artemis,” I said in a shattered tone, squeezing her hand tight. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You were only eight. Mom and dad didn’t care. Who was I going to tell? No one would have done anything. Not out there. The only thing I could think about was the idea of it happening to you, so I left. Those couple months I was gone, I was desperately trying to figure a way out. It killed me leaving you alone, but I didn’t know what to do.”
“Is that when you met him? The Draak?”
She nodded, swiping a finger under her eye just before a tear trailed down her face.
“I was disgusted with myself when I thought I might have no way to get us into the sectors,” she continued. “I even tried to get rid of the baby. I went to some shady clinic and I knew I was going to regret everything, but I still went ahead with it.
“Then, this guy showed up. I’d never seen a Draak. Not that close and never any like him. He was beautiful and strong and had this look in his eyes that made me fear him and love him at the same time. I was crying my eyes out when he saw me and he took it upon himself to comfort me.Me. I could have been some junkie, but he spoke to me and took me off the street. Somehow he knew the perfect things to say to get me to tell him what was wrong and he convinced me not to get rid of the baby.
“For a few days, he put me in a motel since I told him I didn’t want to go home yet. I told him about you and about wanting to leave and move into the sectors and he told me he would help, but that he had business he had to take care of first. He came back every night for a week and then one day he didn’t. I waited two nights and I started to panic. I was young and I just started thinking of you and I thought he’d abandoned me and I just freaked out. I went to the clinic and I went ahead with my plan. Get rid of the child and get you and leave, but there were complications.
“The woman performing the abortion nicked an artery. The stupid bitch. I started bleeding out and she took everything I had on me and ran. I was dying and I just kept hating myself for being such a mess of a person. Then he came back. He found me and next thing I knew I was waking up in the motel, healed, alive, and with a handprint on my stomach that I didn’t understand. There was a note on the door and that necklace. It said to go to sector 1 and to talk to the regent there. A Draak named Fenris Bloodbourne. He said to drop his name and show the necklace and so...that’s what I did. I grabbed you, I brought us into the sectors and I never looked back.”
“And the Draak? The one who marked you?”
“I never saw him again. He changed my life, though. He changed both our lives.”
“What about the baby? Did it--”
“No,” she shook her head. “When I left you at that boarding school, I was consulting a woman about that and trying to figure out what to do. She was an older woman and we became friends after all her help. When I had the baby, I couldn’t just give it up, but I couldn’t keep it. Not when I had you, so she took it.”
