Iron Crowned Page 0,110

"You can't get rid of one without the other."

"It doesn't matter," he said. "The consequences are too big."

"I can't kill an innocent. She hasn't done anything."

"Not directly. Letting her live means he lives. And there's nothing innocent there. He can't live. Eugenie, you know that. I'm not trying to be cruel. Please. Do what's right."

Jasmine and Roland remained silent as this drama played out. Meanwhile, I realized how sickened the language of this whole matter continued to make me. Get rid of it. He can't live.

"You're so quick to kill your own children," I said in disbelief, echoing what Jasmine had said a few days before. "Don't you feel any remorse? You know better than me what it's like to be a parent!"

"Yes," he said, clenching his fists. "I do know. And it's amazing. I wish you could know what it's like...."

"But I can't? I can't have the same chance you and Maiwenn had?"

Kiyo shook his head. "You aren't the same as Maiwenn. You can't ever be."

It was like a gut-punch. I was stunned into silence, and a bit of his fierceness eased. I think he read my reaction as acceptance.

"Look, I don't get this," he said. "I don't get why you're resisting all of this after what you've always said! You never wanted a baby - any baby. If you've changed your mind, then ... well, try again. You just can't have these."

"And what then? I just keep having abortions until a girl comes along? What kind of a sick bastard are you?" I moved forward without realizing it, my anger exploding. Roland put a hand on my arm, keeping me back. It wasn't affection. It was a warning. It was defensive strategy, keeping us together.

"I'm trying to protect the human world," Kiyo said. He hadn't come any closer, but he was as ready as we were, his reflexes even faster. "And you should be too."

"And what happens if I don't do what you want?" I asked quietly. Here it was, the moment of truth.

He sighed. "I don't want it to come to that."

"To what?" My voice rose sharply, the anguish in me ready to explode. "What will you do?"

"I'll take you to Maiwenn - by force. And then ... and then she'll take care of it."

"The hell you will," I said. Goddamnit, I wished I had a weapon. I almost always traveled with them - but not to the doctor's office. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Roland's hand rest on the counter and wrap around something. A wand. He'd had his wand in the kitchen. But of course he would. Unlike me, he hadn't become careless. "I'll never let that happen. You guys aren't going to experiment on me!"

Kiyo's face displayed a mix of emotions. There was sorrow and disappointment. He did care. He didn't want this fight between us - but he also believed in his greater good. He believed he had to do anything to stop the prophecy, and I knew then that Deanna had spoken the truth. Ideally, he just wanted the pregnancy to end. If that wasn't possible, then I was what needed to be eliminated.

"How can you do this?" he asked, his voice both a threat and a plea. "How can you risk all this - just to save one life?"

It was only in that moment, as the words left my lips, that I learned the truth about myself, what I'd been holding deep inside. The girl and boy thing didn't matter. Only the heartbeats did - those tiny, rapid heartbeats pounding in my ears ...

"I'm not," I told him. "I'm saving two lives."

I sealed my fate with that. Kiyo moved so fast that I wasn't prepared for the attack. He sprang toward me, shape-shifting as he did into his giant fox form, fangs out, snarling. A blast of wind slowed - but didn't stop - his leap, providing enough time for Roland to jerk me out of the way. The wind magic hadn't come from me. It had been Jasmine, which was why the power hadn't packed much of a punch. The unaccustomed magic left her gasping, but it had been enough to buy us a brief escape.

Roland pulled me out of the kitchen, out to where we had more space to maneuver in the living room. Kiyo followed without hesitation, all brute strength and speed.

"He can be banished," I gasped out to Roland. "The same as a gentry."

Roland gave a brisk nod of acknowledgment. He already knew