Page 36 of Inextricably Tied

It could end there. She could cut off the conversation, leave them in silence for the rest of the night…but she won’t, he has no doubt. Daring little thing.

“I never questioned what I saw, because it’s always been true. With objects, I see the past. With people, I see the present. With you…”

The bed creaks under Flint. They both freeze, but he doesn’t wake. Harbinger’s voice lowers.

“I don’t know if what you show me has ever happened. Ever will happen. You’re so Between. Not real, but not imaginary. Not alive, but not dead.”

“Like you?”

There’s a pause. “Like me.” And then, after another long moment: “You’ve been in my dreams.”

It’s not a question, so Agony doesn’t answer.

She presses further. “Well?”

“Turn me around.”

“Are you connected to me, too?”

“I’ll tell you if you turn me around.”

She scoffs. “Well, that answers that.” But there’s an open space at the end of her sentence, an uncertainty that Agony leaves to linger in the air. It thrills him, how he can anticipate her. How she’s glancing at Flint, making sure he’s undisturbed before her socked feet touch the carpet.

There it is.

Footsteps grow closer behind him until her presence engulfs him, like sinking into a warm bath. His eyes shut before something hard and plastic presses against the base of his neck.

“Pull any shit, and I’ll beat you to death with this room phone. As long as it takes.”

When she turns him, his grin is radiant. It’s a shuffle to maneuver him without getting too close, but soon, he’s met with Flint’s dozing form. “What did you give him?” Agony murmurs as she crosses back to the other bed.

“Healing potions to fight infection. But it’s hitting him harder than expected.” Worry crosses her face, flecked with shades of remorse. “He needs the rest. If he doesn’t take it willingly, his body will make sure he does.”

She props herself back against the other headboard, one pillow stuffed behind her. It’s different than the motel linens Agony expected. Her case matches the pillow pressed to Flint’s chest as he curls around it in sleep.

“You bring your own bedding,” Agony notes.

“Have to.” Harbinger slips her feet beneath the worn gray of her sheets. Her shirt is oversized, but he can make out the bare skin of her legs, the column of her throat under the low-slung collar.

“So you don’t have to wear the suit to bed.”

The shirt pools up toward her thighs when she shifts, revealing the shorts underneath. Agony drags his eyes up to hers, but she looks away, back to the casefiles splayed before her. Agony lifts his chin toward her pajamas.

“That his?”

She doesn’t look up. “Start answering my questions, or I’m gonna turn you back around.”

Right: their deal. “Yes, there’s some connection. No, I’m not sure what it is.”

“You don’t seem to know much of anything.” She flips over a notecard, emphasizing the words again. “But you have been in my dreams.”

The corner of his lips turns up. “That’s sweet, darling.”

She moves to stand. His hands jerk up in surrender. “Ok, ok!”

Clattering chains shatter the quiet. Both their eyes dart to Flint. Agony holds the breath he doesn’t need. The line of Flint’s brow knits, teeth grinding. Then he rolls onto his other side, settling Harbinger’s pillow against his chest. Neither of them moves until his breathing evens out again.

“Yes,” Agony whispers. “I’ve been in your dreams.”