Page 84 of Chasing Never
Now that my initial relief at her not being one of the Sisters has subsided, another concern sets in.
Perhaps Kendra has changed her mind about helping us. Perhaps Malia is here to deliver bad news.
“You’re early,” I call out across the beach, trying to sound confident, like Nolan would.
I’m not sure I manage it.
She doesn’t answer. Instead, she strides toward me. Once she’s near, she puts her hand out, touching my belly.
I fight the urge to recoil and watch her face carefully.
“Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” I ask, suddenly fearful that I’ve misinterpreted the cramping sensation as less severe than it is.
“Not wrong,” says Malia.
I watch her withdraw her hand from my belly and pull a vial and cloth out of her satchel. She unstoppers the bottle, then tips it onto the cloth.
The scent is noxious, but I’m too taken off guard to recognize it quickly enough.
Malia shoves it over my face.
And everything goes black.
CHAPTER 38
When I awake, it’s to an intense surge of pain in my abdomen and my lower back. I let out a guttural grunt, the breath knocked out of me.
I’m lying on a cold floor, a pillow propping my head up, a blanket stretched out underneath me. Other than that, the room is completely bare.
When my eyes adjust, I realize it’s not a room at all, but a cave.
“Nolan,” I croak out.
But then I remember that Nolan’s not here. It was Malia on the beach with me. Malia, who— Panic seizes me, just as another surge of pain hits my body.
It feels like a growing wave, apexing in yet another spike of pain that knocks the breath out of me. “Mal—” Her name gets severed in my throat until eventually the feeling subsides.
I writhe on the makeshift pallet, a vain attempt to get comfortable. My legs are molten, weak from whatever substance Malia used to knock me out. I try to push myself up on my hands, but the exertion is effortful.
And yet again, another wave of pain paralyzes my limbs.
“You’ll need to breathe through them,” says a voice from the darkness. “It will make it easier. I can help move you if you wish.”
Malia steps out from the shadows. A cold sweat breaks out across my forehead.
“Please, just tell me what’s wrong,” I say. “Get me back to Nolan. Something is wrong.”
“Not wrong,” says Malia, echoing her sentiment from the beach. “It’s simply time.”
“Time for what?” I ask, just as another surge hits me. Just as the realization hits me.
“No. No, no,” I gasp. “It’s too soon.”
Panic washes over me. If the baby comes now, there’s no chance of survival.
“No. You have to make it stop,” I say. “Surely you have something that can make it stop.”
Malia watches me carefully. “Don’t fret. The child is ready.”
