“But fundamentally, it isn’t the same car.”
“Enough!”
Birds scatter above our heads and snow comes falling onto us from the trees. Josie’s standing there, her eyes hardening onto my face as I close my eyes. I hate her analogies. I hate how she can always get into my head and make a point even when I don’t want
her to.
I hate it when both of us are right.
“We need to keep her here and keep her safe,” I say.
“We can’t do that. Because we don’t know if we can keep her safe.”
“If we can’t keep her safe, Josie, then how can we keep any one of ourselves safe?”
“By no longer harboring those Primals,” she says.
“What are you saying?” I ask.
“Joel, come on. You can’t honestly tell me you trust them.”
“You don’t?”
“They’re Primals. And at least one of them in there is a direct descendant of someone on the Council. For all we know, that animal’s reporting everything we do back to them to gain the upper hand.”
“They aren’t animals, Josie.”
“And when they find out that one of their own—and don’t backtalk me on that point—is pregnant, they will stop at nothing to protect her. To protect what’s growing inside of her. We don’t even know how this pregnancy will affect her. Some Primal females get protective. Some get strong. Some get rabid, Joel. It depends on the part of her that rears its head throughout her gestation period.”
“What?” I ask breathlessly.
“Clarissa shows many traits from all types of races. It’s how she’s compatible with all of them. Wolf females get stronger the farther along their pregnancy goes. Bear females get protective and have a tendency to harbor her own pregnancy away from the father for the duration of it. Cat females get almost rabid. Crazy with paranoia. Bat females get—”
“All right. All right. All right. I get it,” I say.
“There are too many unknown variables, not to mention the fact that I don’t trust them. We have to stop harboring them. If the Council is coming after them, then we make ourselves a target by being around them.”
“And by making them leave and trek through the cold that might lead to their eventual slaughter, we protect ourselves,” I say.
“You can phrase it however you want, but yes,” she says.
“I thought nurses were supposed to look out for everyone.”
“Well in this village? We all look out for our own. They’re strangers, Joel. Outsiders. And we don’t know what their hand is in all this. I know for a fact that they’re lying to Clarissa about a great deal of things, so who knows what they’re lying to us about.”
“Lying? What do you mean?” I ask.
“They keep telling Clarissa they’re formulating war plans to solidify, then they’ll bring her into the loop. But that isn’t happening. They’re already solidifying plans that don’t include her so she doesn’t fight.”
“That’s a good thing. I don’t want her fighting either. She needs to stay safe,” I say.
“Do you want to know how they’re trying to keep her safe?”
“How?”
“By placing her in our care.”
“That’s perfect! That’s exactly what I want.”