Page 335 of Alchemised
For all of Lila’s exceptionalism and understanding of the perilous role she occupied, somehow she didn’t seem to realise that most people never had the chances she did, whether by birth or by ability. Lila was a once-in-a-lifetime talent, with the beauty to match, and a name with centuries of legacy behind it. The rules did not bend like that for anyone else. Especially not Helena.
She changed the subject.
“I really think you should tell Luc. He should know before this battle starts. That way if things go wrong, the Eternal Flame will know the importance of getting you to safety.”
Lila was silent for a surprisingly long moment.
“He already knows,” she finally said quietly, averting her eyes from Helena’s.
“What?”
“He broke in, through the window, when I was first placed in quarantine. He was so worried that I told him the truth. He said if people knew, they’d make me leave. Send me to Novis. He needed me, so I kept saying I wanted it to be a secret. He made me promise not to tell anyone.”
Helena was struck dumb for several moments. “He’s known this whole time? That you’re pregnant, and I’m the one caring for you?”
If Luc knew and allowed this, why was he so opposed to her healing Titus? It made no sense.
Lila flushed. “Sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t want him upset. He’s still not doing very well.”
“I need to go,” Helena said, standing up unsteadily.
Lila tried to stop her, blocking the door. “No. You’re angry, I can tell. Please, let me explain.”
Helena stared at her. Lila looked so much like her father, cast in a feminine mould—the height, the pale hair and blue eyes, even a scar on one side of the head.
“I don’t need an explanation from you,” Helena said. “I need to talk to him.”
She searched everywhere for Luc. Everyone she asked gave a different location: He was in a meeting, he was asleep, he was in the commons, the mess. Everywhere she went, he was always a few minutes ahead of her.
Finally, she tracked him down in the hospital, but he was in a private room, under guard, no admittance.
Helena stood waiting, and finally Elain emerged carrying a tray with several syringes and empty vials on it, and a tense furrow between her eyes.
“I need to see Luc,” Helena said.
Elain started at the sight of her. “He’s resting.”
Helena looked down at the tray, and Elain tried to turn it from her view.
“Why are you giving him all that?” Helena asked, eyes flicking from vial to vial. “These shouldn’t be combined, and he’s too young to need half of them. And these—” She snatched up a syringe with her writing on it. “—these are for dire emergencies only. If you overuse them, you’re going to give him heart failure. Who approved this?”
Elain’s eyes flashed indignantly. “I’m his healer.”
CHAPTER 63
Augustus 1787
TIME SLOWED TO A CRAWL THE NEXT day as Headquarters was emptied, the combatants dispatched. There was no time or opportunity to speak to Luc before he was gone.
Helena and all the other healers and medical staff waited in a prepped hospital ward, waiting for news, for injuries. The hands on the clock indicated that the bomb should have gone off, but there was no sound or shudder of an explosion.
No sign that anything had begun.
Of course, it was a smaller bomb, intended to be detonated inside an enclosed area. She wasn’t likely to feel it, and the fighting would mostly be on the West Island.
Knowing that didn’t make it easier to wait. After so many years, she could feel it all coming to an end and dreaded almost every possible outcome.
Perhaps it would end, and they would win and everything would be all right, but Kaine would vanish in the aftermath, and she wouldn’t know if he was dead or alive, trapped under rubble, or had fled somewhere far away.
