What am I going to do? Jade asked herself for what seemed like the hundredth time. Her fingers skimmed her flat stomach.

A child was growing inside her.

Damn it, Jade. What did you do?

She couldn’t help but laugh at her words. She knew exactly what Past-Jade had done to put her in this situation, but it still didn’t make any sense. She needed to talk to someone who could answer her question, and Rikes looked too straight a medicus to be that person. On the other hand, Vivaldi’s loose morals made him the kind of practitioner she needed.

“Jewel?” Lady Lisandra stared at her, waving her hand in front of Jade’s face. “Are you here?”

Blinking, Jade took in the small room she called her own at the brothel. “I need to see someone.” She jumped off the bed before remembering to be careful, and her vision filled with white dots as blood rushed to her head.

“Is he the baby’s father?” Lady Lisandra’s strong hand grabbed Jade by her elbow, keeping her upright.

“Gods no,” Jade sputtered. She rode the wave of dizziness to its completion before adding, “Absolutely not.”

It can’t be him, can it? she thought, panic fast settling in her chest.

The man dealt with medical experiments that were often unethical. What if he had used her as an unwilling guinea pig? No, he couldn’t have.

She wasn’t thinking straight. Her visit to Vivaldi’s clinic dated only a handful of days. There had not been enough time for him to do anything that would leave her with child. She was probably two months pregnant, maybe slightly longer than that. But what if this wasn’t her first visit to Belarus?

Not knowing for sure was a terrible sensation. In addition to the rumbling stomach and the crippling nausea, a dreadful heaviness took possession of her chest. Pressing her palm against her sternum, Jade gasped for breath. “It’s just a person who has experience with enhanced people like me.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Lady Lisandra held the bathroom’s door open for Jade.

“No, thank you. I can take care of myself.”

Lady Lisandra shook her head. “I know that, but do you want company?”

“There’s no need. Thank you, though.”

As Jade refreshed herself, Lisandra exited the room only to come back a few minutes later with a tray of food.

“Let’s have breakfast together.” Lady Lisandra straightened the duvet on Jade’s bed, placing the tray down. “Just a morsel or two.”

The nausea still wreaked havoc on her senses, but Jade needed the sustenance, and she accepted a small tartelette. The tangy flavor of purple berries exploded in her mouth, tickling her tongue. After a few tentative bites that safely made it to her stomach and stayed there, she finished the rest of the breakfast. She only took a sip from the tea, though, because at the smell of freshly-brewed red lavender, her stomach churned like a dinghy on turbulent waters.

Jade waited a moment to make sure she wouldn’t need to make a mad dash for the bathroom, then walked out of her room, followed by Lady Lisandra.

“I’ll be back before my shift starts,” she told Lady Lisandra when they reached the servants’ door.

“I hope you find your answers.” The woman hugged Jade, surprising her.

She would have seen a dagger coming from hundreds of meters away. Yet, it was beyond her capabilities to expect an affectionate gesture. For a moment, Jade stood there without knowing what to do, rigid in the woman’s embrace.

Lady Lisandra stepped back before Jade reciprocated. “Take care, Jewel.”

At hearing her fake name, Jade felt a twinge of regret. A life of deceit grew tiresome when the people surrounding you were kind.

An hour later, she was banging at Vivaldi & Sons’ corrugated cardboard door.

“Master Assassin,” Vivaldi greeted her nervously, his eyes cutting over her shoulder before inviting her inside. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.” One hand held open the door, the other motioning Jade to step into the small foyer, he gave her a good look before saying, “You don’t look well.”

“It’s why I’m here.”

Vivaldi raised an eyebrow. “If it’s side effects from the erasion, you signed a waver—”

“I’m pregnant,” she said.

He crossed his arms and tilted his head. “Not my doing.”

Jade let out a sigh of relief that provoked a frown from the tall medicus.

“Not sure what you were worried about, but I feel slighted by whatever you assumed.”

She didn’t have time to soothe his wounded ego. “Never mind that. Tell me how I could get with child.”

Again, Vivaldi looked beyond Jade as if expecting someone to burst into the clinic. “Not here.” He turned and walked to the hatch door.

Once inside the clinic proper, safely ensconced by reinforced metal walls, the medicus led her into one of the empty cubicles reserved for his patients. The space was dark and only large enough to contain a narrow pallet. With the two of them standing on either side of the metal frame, there was barely room to breathe.

Vivaldi held a finger before him when she opened her mouth to speak. His eyes cut to the wall behind Jade, and he mouthed, “Not alone.” Reaching over her side, he switched a lever on the wall. A low hum filled the cubicle, and he nodded that she could speak.

“What is it with all the paranoia?” Jade spat, her nerves stretched too thin already to play Vivaldi’s cloak-and-dagger games.

“Lower your voice,” he said. “Three nights ago, someone entered the clinic. A few of my smaller machines were stolen—”

“The Badlands have a reputation. Did you forget where you work?”

“Whoever entered left the most expensive items behind, even those that were easy to transport.”

“They didn’t come to steal,” Jade said.

“No, they didn’t. I must assume they came to plant something in my clinic. So, you’ll forgive my caution.”

“You didn’t check whether I was pregnant,” Jade finally said, having had enough of chitchatting.

“Not standard procedure with an assassin, and you were in a hurry.” Even shrouded in darkness, Vivaldi’s eyes shone with curiosity. “Are you sure you are with child?”

“A medicus tested me earlier this morning, and I’ve been vomiting my guts out for the last few days.”

“Do you mind if I repeat the test?”

“Go ahead.” Jade followed him out into the hallway and into one of the labs.

As soon as he entered the room, he closed the glass door and switched a lever to turn on the hum.

“Remember to keep your voice low,” he said, his gaze anxiously looking behind Jade.

She grabbed the plastic cup he handed to her and used the small lavatory attached to the lab. Her emotions ran the entire gamut from disappointment to relief as she watched for the second time that day as the clear liquid of the reacting agent become pink. She was too confused by her reaction to try to understand her feelings but looked up at the medicus for answers.

“Remarkable,” Vivaldi said, looking at the test tube with fascination. “You are indeed carrying a child.”

“How?” Jade asked. “My body isn’t good for it.” She waved her hand in distress.

“Not entirely true.” Vivaldi leaned against the edge of the surgical table in the middle of the lab. “The nanites in your system have altered you to a point where you are the next step in evolution. You can still be killed, but your artificially-extended life span makes you practically immortal. You are an improved version of an engineered bride. Theoretically, shifter semen would be strong enough to fertilize your eggs.”

Jade lowered her hand to her stomach as dizziness overtook her. “What are you saying?”

“That your child’s father isn’t human.”