The Invisible Planet

Part 54: Lying

Angeline sat awake into the night, sitting behind her door and holding a kitchen knife she'd borrowed from Marita a few days back. Every sound was a threat. She had half a mind to try her chances in the forest, but a single knife would be much more effective on a person than on a LightWalker.

Unless they had swords. Or spears. Or came at her all at once.

The worry was making her nauseated — or was it the pregnancy she had selfishly kept a secret from the man she hoped to be the father of her child?

Tears filled her eyes again. She had cried more in the past few weeks than she had in the last decade.

Maybe Shay was right. Maybe she should have asked Dekita for something to end it.

She drew her left hand over her stomach. The bump wasn't even noticeable yet, but she knew it was there, growing within her.

Across the room, from the foot of her bed, she heard the sound of a throat being cleared.

She covered her mouth with a shriek.

"I can feel your fear from the other end of the village," said Takka. "What in the Star's blue sky did you do?"

Her eyes welled up again, this time from relief that it was only him.

"No, seriously— I can't actually read your mind. What did you do?"

It took her a moment to compose herself again, wiping her eyes and steadying her breath. "I told Aster. I told him everything."

"Everything?" Takka repeated in a disbelieving tone.

She nodded with a sniffle.

"Did you tell him it's Shay's baby you're carrying?"

A chill ran down her spine as she stared into the black shadow sitting at the edge of her bed. "What?"

"Oh, don't look at me like that. We both know it's his."

"No, I— I mean, he's not even human," she protested. "Is it even possible?"

"He told you, didn't he? That it happened before."

She nodded hesitantly.

"So you know it's possible. You know you didn't eat the berries. You also know you were feeling a little off before you slept with Aster. Am I wrong?"

"I was just tired," she argued. "It wasn't anything unusual. I didn't start feeling sick until later."

"You are lying to me, and I do not appreciate being lied to," he said irritably, standing up. "You should count yourself lucky. If it weren't for my desire to see the look on everyone's face when you give birth to a hybrid, I would've told Marius by now."

"Why?" she asked. "What have I done to you?"

"Nothing. You're simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Really, I should be thanking you. You see, I had someone like you, once. I loved her. The problem with love and luck is that it rarely goes hand in hand. Her birth control failed, and I got her pregnant by mistake. I then mucked it up further by trusting Shay with that information. I was terrified that Marius would find out and have her killed. I told him not to tell anyone, but he turned right around and told Thalia. All he had to do was shut up. Now, the tables have turned, and I hold in my hands the power to make him feel what I felt. To watch the look on his face when Marius cuts out his heart."

It wasn't enough to convince Shay. She needed to convince all of them. It was much harder to get a lid on her emotions when they were being churned like butter in her stomach.

Focus. Control it.

"It's not his baby," she said.

He went quiet for a few seconds. "Logically, I know you're lying. But it doesn't feel like you are, and I don't like that."

"I'm not. It's not Shay's."

"How can you know for sure?"

"I had my period after we had sex."

He was quiet for several seconds, and then he slammed his fist into the countertop with a startling crash. "You're lying!" he yelled.

She shrank into the corner as the dark shadow grew, towering against the ceiling and spreading toward the walls on either side.

"Tell me the truth, or it'll be the last thing you ever say," he threatened, his voice louder and seeming to come from multiple directions.

She gripped the knife tightly, staring up at him through tears as she struggled to steady her breath. One mistake, and it would be the end. With her jaw clenched in resolve, she took in a breath and said once more, "It's not his."