A History of Madness (The Outlands Pentalogy Book 2) by Rebecca Crunden

Author:Rebecca Crunden [Crunden, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

The following morning, Kitty began to vomit, and for several hours she could not stop. Yet she refused to be the reason they got caught, and she pressed on even as they called at her to wait.

Nate gripped her hand tightly as they walked, and was relieved when she told him his touch made the pain stop, but just as her touch could not stave off the deadly infection which had ravaged him, his touch could not force her body to accept what was inside of her.

She was sick the next morning, and again the next. They were close enough to Middletown by that point, but she was too weak and Nate refused to let her carry on. By nightfall, after hours of watching her clutch her stomach, face screwed up in agony, his decision was made for him.

‘I’m going to go ahead,’ he announced. ‘I can make it there tonight if I go on my own and don’t stop. I’ll find Ciara. I’ll get us transport and come back.’

Kitty paled and stood up. She immediately tilted to the side and had to grasp Tove’s arm for support. ‘I’ll be fine. This has happened before. It’ll stop. Once—once it’s gone.’

‘I’m supposed to let you keep going like this? How long did the last ones take?’

‘She was sick for weeks,’ said Tove quietly, ignoring Kitty’s glare.

‘How far along are you?’

‘A couple weeks at most.’

He swallowed hard. So sick and she was barely pregnant. It was like poison. ‘And you had bodymen and physicians,’ he pointed out, trying to keep the shaking from his voice. ‘We don’t have that now.’

‘You can heal me.’

‘That’s clearly not a long-term solution.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ she said, hardly looking resolute.

‘You won’t. And it’s too dangerous to push you further and for us to keep slowing down. I’ll get help, Zoe will stand guard, and I should be back by dawn. Ciara knows me.’

Kitty glared at him but didn’t protest. ‘Fine.’

Her acceptance worried him immensely and only increased his resolve.

‘I’ll be quick, darling,’ he promised, giving her a confident smile that he didn’t feel. ‘Now, does good Ciara have a code on her lavish home?’

They glared at each other for a minute before Kitty jotted the code down on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

They were hidden in a tunnel beneath the road and overhead Nate could hear the distant hums of flying hovers. It wasn’t going to be a fun night.

He took Zoe aside and lowered his voice. ‘If I don’t make it back by morning, keep going.’

Zoe nodded.

‘Kitty will fight you,’ he warned. ‘Don’t let her. If I don’t come back, don’t wait.’

‘I won’t.’

Nate squeezed her shoulder, checked his gun to make sure it wasn’t jammed or rusted, and kissed Kitty on the cheek before darting out of the tunnel and scrambling up onto the road. The night was cold but not unbearable, and as he ran he managed to ignore the throbbing of his ears and the burning of his nose.

The stars

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