PartOne
Welcome to The Cradle
ChapterOne
Dahlia
There is so much blood.
“Take him,” Maple murmurs, her voice a broken whisper, barely loud enough to pierce the cloud of terror enveloping us.
Her hazel eyes lift to me, once vibrant now dull under the shadow of death. “Please. They can’t find him. They can’t have him.”
Fear coils in my stomach.
“No, no, no. You’re going to be fine. You have to be.” I shake my head, panic rising. “I can’t—” I can’t take him… Questions canter through my mind, each one more frightening than the last. Take him where? How do I feed him?
What will I do without you?
“What will I do without you?” I blurt out helplessly. “I’ve been…” My voice falters, trembling to a heavy pause. “I’ve been following youforever.”
“You don’t need to follow me anymore.” Maple tries to smile for me. While her blood seeps into rumpled sheets around her weak body, she tries to soothe me!
My heart shatters.
“You’re unique, Dahlia,” she says. “You’re resilient. Clever. Loyal. You’re not just a… a pet for a man.”
Pet.
The cruel term hangs in the air. That is how Maple refers to us—Lace Girls. She calls us pets. A term that feels derogatory and unfairly simplified.
Suddenly, gunfire and booming voices erupt from outside the abandoned tower. Danger prowls at our doorstep in the form of a Marshal takeover.
“I am not like you, Maple,” I cry. “I don’t want more. I’m content. Don’t leave me. Don’t go?—”
“Please, Dahlia. Theymustn’tfind him.” Maple lifts her newborn toward me, laboured gasps escaping her, as if each inhale and exhale is a battle fought and lost.
“There is a boat waiting for me.” She wheezes, and her eyes glaze over. Fading. “Please, take him.”
“You were going to leave?”
I can’t bear to look at the mewling infant, but scoop it from Maple’s arms, its weight seeming too much for her.
“I don’t understand,” I sob. “You have a boat? To where? Why?”This doesn’t make sense. “The Trade will take care of him, Maple. I can’t.”
She surrenders to the grappling pull of exhaustion, slumping to her back. Her eyes fall to me, grip me… Then close.
No.Swallowing to temper my thickening throat, I drag my gaze across her bloodied dress to the crimson pool between her legs. My teary eyes widen on what I dreaded, what I knew— What I don’t need to see. The baby nearly split Maple in two. It killed my closest friend. My favourite from my Collective.
Extraordinary Maple.
I look back at her ashen face. “Maple?” I reach out and grip her shoulder, shaking lightly. “Maple.Please, why can’t The Trade find him? Where is the boat going?”
Her mouth opens and moves, but no words pass between us.
What?
I lean over her with the infant heavy in my arms, fussing at my chest. “What?”
