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“The spiders?”

“The hybrid spiders currently being conceived.”

My stomach roiled with lava and acid. “You still haven’t explained why you’re so certain your hybrids will be fertile.”

He grinned. “Why would the world need a powerful child to save it from a species that couldn’t reproduce?”

Shit, he was right. Jesse assumed the predicted threat was aphids because they didn’t age or starve. But that was before he knew I could kill them with a thought. And a single generation of spider hybrids wasn’t enough to threaten the future of mankind. But if they could reproduce, would they take over the planet and devour what was left of the human race?

I swallowed. “Why do you have so much faith in this prophecy?”

“Because Dr. Nealy does. As much as he continually disappoints me, his conclusions are never wrong.”

I tightened my arms around Michio, knowing he could hear this conversation and hating that he couldn’t participate. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve. You created nymphs. Now you’re curing them to create a new species? Was the nymph virus one of the missteps you referred to?”

He touched his face, something he did often. I supposed his fall into the lava river would be considered a misstep.

“As you witnessed on Malta, the nymphs cannot successfully reproduce. But the prophecy assures me the hybrids will flourish. You see, missteps and flaws are necessary to learning.”

Ugh. Was I wasting my time trying to reason with him? “Sometimes our flaws are the very things holding us back from true happiness. They can warp our views and limit our understanding. They make us stubborn and scared. You must know that? And you’re smart enough to know that the prophecy is against you.”

The Drone stared at the floor, such an uncharacteristic mannerism. Was I getting through to him?

He shifted his pensive gaze to me. “What are your flaws and warped views, Eveline?”

Since he had access to Michio’s thoughts, he already knew every damned one of my insecurities and weaknesses, the most detrimental being my failure to fulfill the prophecy.

If I’d slept with Jesse two years ago, if I’d been more convincing about my feelings for him and removed the IUD, the prophesied child would’ve already been born. I wouldn’t be here, probably wouldn’t have met Roark and Michio, and wouldn’t have cured the nymphs. But Jesse would’ve been raising our child right now as a weapon against the Drone. A child that could’ve cured as well as saved humanity.

It was a heaping pile of what-ifs, and none of them felt right, but they were a helluva lot more optimistic than what Michio and I faced in this room.

My chest squeezed, aching to talk about it. What kind of desperate loser voiced her concerns to a genocidal nut-job? Well, I wasn’t that desperate.

“You don’t have to tell me, Eveline. Dr. Nealy just answered it in his head.” He smiled, sickeningly. “Let’s see…you believe your biggest flaw is your refusal to get pregnant. You can’t stomach the thought of bringing a child into this world. And you’ve been hiding behind that excuse as a way to ignore an impossible decision. The prophecy predicts your death, which means this child dooms your guardians to a life without you. But by not having the child, you’ve doomed the human race to extinction.” He leaned back, folded his hands on his lap. “How’d I do?”

Michio knew me better than I knew myself. And now the Drone did, too. I expected exactly zero sympathy from him. He initiated the extinction of humanity and didn’t give two shits about my guardians.

He stared at Michio’s slack face. “Dr. Nealy is conflicted about this, as well. But I have a solution for both of you.”

Oh, fuck. I was just bursting with high hopes.

He brushed the fabric on his thigh, watching his hand straighten invisible wrinkles. “I find no pleasure in the death of anyone.”

Seriously? He wanted to offer a solution and began with that?

He lifted his gaze to mine. “You know as well as I do, nonviolence doesn’t stand a chance against its adversaries. Pain and death will always sit at the heart of peace. And I want peace, Eveline, which is something that would’ve never been achieved among humans. A new species was necessary in removing man’s imperfections.”

“You’re creating a mindless species. That in itself is an imperfection. You’re trying to play God, except God gave his creations freewill.”

He compressed his lips then rubbed them with a talon-tipped finger. “I’m not playing anything. I’m simply choosing not to turn my cheek. It would’ve been a morally grave action to allow humanity to continue as it was. You said it yourself. Human flaws are the very things holding mankind back from happiness.”

Oh, good grief. “A sane person would try to teach, convert, heal, or reform flaws not wipe the entire flawed species off the planet. Why did you kill the Lakota? They were as close to peaceful and flawless as humanly possible.”