Page 106 of Midnight Sanctuary

Dr. Grigory groans, pained. “Er, well, yes, theoretically speaking—”

“Then I’ll wait.”

“Alyssa—”

“Give me a number. Put a number on it and then I’ll decide for good.”

He twists back and forth like he’d rather sacrifice a finger than pick a number. “Alyssa—” he tries again.

“Please,” I say. “In your expert opinion, just give me an educated guess.”

He sighs, his shoulders drooping forward and that damned clipboard dangling loosely between his fingertips. “Thirty percent. Forty tops.”

I nod. “Then I think I should wait. I can do it. I can keep these babies safe until it’s time for them to be born.”

“Ty, dolzhno byt', shutish' nado mnoy!” My head swivels towards Uri, who’s glaring down at me with shock and outrage. “Are you fucking serious?”

Dr. Grigory clears his throat and retreats toward the exit, mumbling, “We’ll give the two of you a moment.” Then he and his nurses scurry out of the room like mice clearing a burning building.

I shove myself upright in bed. “If I let them deliver these babies now, there’s a sixty to seventy percent chance that we’ll lose one!”

“And if wedon’tlet them deliver those babies now, we’re running the risk of losing one baby anywayandlosing you.”

I square my jaw. “I’m willing to take that risk.”

“No.”

My eyes go wide. “No?”

“I’m saying no,” Uri growls. “As the father of those babies—”

“Screw you! You may be the father, butI’mthe mother andI’mthe one carrying them. My body, my decision!”

Uri’s hands are clenched into fists. His eyes are flared with danger—and once upon a time, I would’ve done anything he told me to do if he said it while he looked like that.

But things have changed. I’m not the scared little girl dangling on the fence anymore. The game has gone up a level, the stakes have raised, and somewhere along the way, Uri showed me how to be stronger. How to stand my ground.

He has only himself to blame for my defiance now. Terrifying though he may be, my fear of losing a child is greater.

“Don’t do this,” he rasps as he grabs my hand. “Don’t do this. We’ll still have one baby. And we can make more if that’s what you want. I don’t want to risk your life in the process.”

It’s the most earnest request he’s ever made. And if I hadn’t lived through losing a sister, he might have stood a chance of swaying me. But as it stands, I know I can’t make any other decision.

“This is my choice, Uri. I don’t need your blessing or your permission; I just need your support.”

His eyes go cold. He drops my hand. The next thing I know, he’s storming out of the room. And no matter how desperately I call after him, he doesn’t stay.

He doesn’t even spare me a glance before the door slams shut.

48

URI

The whole point is to storm out to show Alyssa how I feel about her choice. But I only get as far as the hallway right outside her door. Going farther than that feels like ripping out my own heart. So I pace up and down, unable to justify actually leaving the hospital. Even moving out of sight of her room is impossible.

The truth is, no matter how pissed off I am with her, no matter how unreasonable I think she’s being, I can’t bring myself to leave her. Not now. Not after everything we’ve been through. The most I can do is prowl the corridors like a caged beast and shoot furious glances at her door when I pass.

The nurses stay clear of me and no one dares approach me until Nikolai, who walks down the hall with two cups of coffee in hand. He takes one look at my face and offers me a cup. “Not sure you should be drinking caffeine right now, but here you go.”

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