Page 100

Countless peaceful flowing miles later, I opened my eyes.

I moved my head to look down. Still bandaged, but not bloody now. That had to be good. A glance to my right showed I was alone. Not good, or at least, not what I’d wanted.

Another blink, gone and back, and Dom was beside me again, watching me intently this time, looking much less haggard, much less devastated.

Another tally in the column of good. If each time I returned, I found a bit more good, well, I’d be myself again in no time.

He leaned forward to lightly touch my cheek, his eyes still too much, still more than I could face. “Stay with me for just a moment,” he said softly and got up.

He left the room, but came back within seconds, holding some sort of satchel with both hands.

His right hand shook as he reached into the bag and pulled out a gory prize by its long blond hair.

I stared at Helen’s severed head with gimlet eyes, a sense of relief flooding me. Her eyes were wide, glassy, and black as though some dark terror had overtaken her right before the end.

It had clearly been a horrific death.

“She suffered greatly,” he told me. “The geas tortured her relentlessly before I found her and finished it.

“Thank you,” I mouthed, eyes already drifting closed again.

The next time I roused I remembered a bit more about the current timeline than revenge.

Sloan was at my bedside now, and I figured Dom must be setting trusted guards on me when he had to leave.

She was reading a book, but when I started to speak she straightened and looked at me. She reached for her phone and started texting.

“Any word on Lynn?” I asked her. I sounded pitiful, but at least the words were coming out faster now. My lungs must be healing, a healing that would have been slowed exponentially by the slayer weapons they’d kept impaled in me.

“Dom managed to get her eyes directly back into her hands,” she said without looking up from her phone. “But we haven’t heard from her since. We’re working on it.”

The matter-of-fact way she spoke to me was infinitely reassuring, as though things were normal, just business as usual, and I was myself and whole.

I nodded. It was better than I’d hoped for, honestly. “How long have I been out?”

“Two months.”

Worse than I’d hoped for there. “How is Conan?”

“The same. He was unsettled, but we let his friend in to see him whenever she wants and that seemed to help soothe them both.”

“Have we learned anything else about her?”

“She claims to be half dragon, and I’m leaning toward believing her. Do you think you’re up to having more visitors?”

“Is Dom close?” I asked. I wanted to set eyes on him before the darkness took me again. I could feel it coming like an invisible hand pressing down on me.

“He’s two minutes away. He started heading here as soon as I texted him that you were awake. He rarely leaves the building now.”

“Is he okay?”

She paused, and I knew she was choosing her words carefully. “Are you okay? I would say he’s however okay you are, perhaps…a few steps below that.”

I’d been afraid of that and I was not surprised. “Two minutes?” I asked, but I was already fading out.

The next time I woke Dom was there. He was fully dressed in a suit, sleeping on the bed beside me on his side, facing me, his hand reached out to me but not quite touching as though he was hesitant to.

I reached out to touch his cheek but was distracted by the sight of my hands. My skin was gray and my nails were gone, and the nailbeds were pink and soft.