Page 50 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures
Amelia took a step away from him.
“Are you afraid of me?”
“Because you’re basically a mummy? No.” Amelia moved further back. “Because you turn into an animal…”
“I never should have transformed in front of you.” His voice was even.
Amelia gazed towards the three guards in black uniforms who were marching by the gate and didn’t pay any attention to her and Mikhail.
“Amelia, give me two weeks to find out why the Oracle sent me to you. After that, I’ll drive you to the city completely unharmed, and you will never see me again.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, curling up inside the thick jacket. The cold was already crawling up her skin.
“What do you say about my proposition?” Mikhail asked.
Did she really have a choice? “Why are you doing all of this?”
“What?”
She waved her hand around. “The Hospital, the Oracle… Why do you need to fix the immortal world’s problems, when you could just live your life? You have everything that most humans dream of – eternal youth and a pile of money.”
“Humans don’t understand the meaning of life.” His jaw tensed, sparking up her curiosity.
“And what may that be?”
“It would take too long to explain. And as for why I’m doing all of this – I have my reasons.” Mikhail’s voice became sharper than the cold. With each passing moment, night was falling, and the Hospital behind him resembled more and more a black monster with a thousand glowing eyes.
The sight made her shiver. The world she had known had begun to fall apart three years ago, but now she realised it had never truly existed.
Maybe... it was time she created her own?
“All right.” Amelia raised her chin. “Say I agree to these two weeks… What would happen if, in the end, it turns out that I do play a role in all of this?”
“Do you have reason to believe so?”
“No, of course not. But just hypothetically…”
“Hypothetically? Your life would change completely.”
The way he talked suggested that she had no say in anything, which annoyed her even more than his aloof composure. “What if I don’t want it to change?”
“Some choices do not belong to us. But you will be generously rewarded for your assistance when you leave. Whenever that may be. Do you want a medical residency somewhere in particular? In Bulgaria, abroad… Say the word, and we’ll arrange it for you. Or would you prefer your own hospital? I’ll supply the necessary funds. Whatever you desire, name it.”
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
He sighed. “Why would I lie? I could just lock you back inside, right?”
He could. Yet another reason not to trust him.
“Why don’t you?”
Mikhail waved his hand with nonchalance. “We live in a modern era. Keeping up the peace with humans is vital for us.”
Amelia pretended to take her time and consider. Mikhail kept quiet, giving her the space for thought, although they both knew that she didn’t have a choice.
“I have one condition,” she said in the end.
He arched his eyebrows. “Go on.”