Page 20 of The Dark Elf's Secret Baby

I have to look, though. I have to at least knowwhereshe is even if I may never knowwhy.

With my heart leaping into my throat, I lift the paper back up in front of my eyes. Panic surges through me as I scan the list, and then, as if I can’t believe it, I reread it. Over and over.

And no matter how many times I do, it doesn’t change what is written there.

Layla Whitlock. Zerva transfer for Bronchite Marias.

Bronchite Marias. More commonly known as the kiss of death. It’s a disease that plagues the young and the old typically – the weak – and it destroys their lungs until they die of asphyxiation. It’s not contagious, developing from an inhaled particle in the air, so we transfer those afflicted instead of ending them.

And it kills the afflicted within a year of diagnosis.

Pain, hot and fresh, lances through me. I collapse against my chair, it groaning beneath me, and the papers fall to the floor. Of all the possibilities, I hadn’t expected to see something like that…

Frantic, I pick it back up, searching for the death toll. Layla’s name isn’t on it, but the records stop a few months after her transfer, and I’m still missing most of the data from the year after. I have no way of knowing if she’s still alive.

The only blessing I have is that Zerva falls in my jurisdiction. It’s the largest of the isles right off the coast of Camp Horizon, a perfect place to put the old and sick. And as it has such a small output, it never needed its own Lieutenant. It just fell underneath Camp Horizon.

I jump out of my chair, knowing that I won’t be able to stomach being in this office another second. With quick strides, I’m out of the door before the chair even crashes to the ground. The guards outside my door jump, but I don’t care.

Instead, my eyes land on the first medium-level soldier I can source. “You!” I have no idea what his name is, either. It’s very low on my list considering I’ve been scrambling to find the correct data to run my outpost.

“Me?” He looks around, realizing I’m stalking toward him, and then stands still, bowing his head to me. “Yes, sir.”

“Arrange for me to sail to Zerva.”

He looks up at me, confusion coloring his eyes, but he doesn’t dare question me. “When, sir?”

“Tomorrow.”

13

Layla

“Don’t push Addie!” I call out, watching my son run through the surf with his best friend. I can’t believe how fast he’s grown. It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in my family’s cabin on Tlouz finding out I was pregnant.

Now he’s nearly two and a half. He’s become the light of my life.

“Jasper Kerym Whitlock!” I shout. He’s pushing Adelaide again and I stand, worried that he’s going to knock her over. He may be the light of my life but he’s also a tiny terror when he wants to be.

“Don’t worry,” Harper says, leaning over in her seat. “Addie can take it.” Adelaide is his best friend from school. Her mom, Harper, had just had her when I arrived and was so friendly and helpful to me in dealing with everything with my pregnancy.

Adelaide grabs Jasper by the hand and shows him the shell she was looking at and he seems to calm down a little.

Zerva is just so different from Tlouz, from the mining camps. It’s so warm and tropical here. There’s palm trees and sand and we’re surrounded by water. It feels like I’m living a dream being here. I was worried when I first arrived that it would be just as hard as before but it’s turned out to be nothing like I imagined.

The island is home to a variety of races, including some orc refugees. Mostly people come here to get away from something or settle somewhere more accepting. It’s also a haven for those of us with more difficult circumstances, like Harper and I, single moms with children. The sick and elderly come here for relief from the harsher working conditions, and there are a few mixed-race marriages.

The picnic basket is sitting between us and I reach in and grab a molusket cake. “How is Addie doing with her letters?” I ask.

“She’s doing better!” Harper grins. “She’s so smart! I can’t believe how smart our kids are. They’re easily the smartest of the whole class.”

The two of them attend one of the island schools for the younger children, learning letters and numbers and such while we work during the day. “Yeah, they are very smart babies.” I agree, taking a bite of the molusket cake.

“It’s probably because of Jas’ father, right?” Harper asks. I wince. Harper knows that’s a sore subject for me but she brings it up every once in a while.

“Mama, look!” Jasper comes up to show me the shell that he and Addie were looking at. “Pretty,” he says.

I look it over for him, admiring the iridescent colors that glitter across the white shell. “Very pretty,” I tell him. He seems happy that I approve and runs back to Addie to add to their shell bucket.