The dust motes drifted from the curtains in the low light of Thay’s bedroom when I turned, hiding my face in the center of his chest. The sound of Wolfe shuffled in the rooms below; he was yelling at the recruits in the kitchen.
Seriously. What was the point of being awake this early?
“I don’t want to get up yet,” I groaned against my guy, breathing in the smell of menthol lingering from the night before.
“This is going to hurt like hell,” he said, and my eyes drifted north to a blurry face I couldn’t quite understand.
“What do you mean?”
“I love you,” he leaned into me. “For fucking ever, Daph.”
The white of a new world stung my eyelids when they blinked into motion. I thought I was in Thay’s room, but this wasn’t right. My eyes strained, taking in the sterile walls, bright windows, and the unsteady pulse of a black boot shaking beside me.
“She’s been out for three days. Her body needed time to heal,” someone said before the door clicked shut.
I breathed slowly until the room settled. I was in the hospital.
“Ouch,” I moaned, trying to move. My chest felt like it was on fire, like every bone inside of me had been cracked open and shoved back together in a box.
“Thay?” I mouthed, but the words came out in fallen letters, like the air in my lungs had been trapped there for days. Before anyone could answer, I drifted back to sleep, and when my eyes opened, I took in the person sitting next to me.
It wasn’t Thay. He was tall, red-haired, and had a rope burn around his neck.
Wolfe? I blinked; something sharp scraping through my chest.
“Nate?” I choked out. “Nathem?”
His foot stilled when I peered up at the flash of terror beaming in his eyes.
“You’re alive,” I coughed, reaching for him. “You made it.”
Something like hope fluttered inside me as I sank back into the pillow. It was almost too much to feel, settling heavy behind my eyelids.
I don’t know. Maybe I should go back to sleep?
A muffled, dizzy feeling rippled through my brain, and I couldn’t quite piece this together.
Why was I in this bed?
“Where is Thay?” I asked again, but Nathem didn’t speak. His eyes only widened when he pointed to his throat and shook his head.
“You can’t talk?” I asked, and he nodded. “Well… is he in the bathroom?”
My friend shook his head, the rims of his eyes filling with water.
“Or?” I rubbed my temple. “He went to get something to eat?” A flash of Thay on the road in the rain tore through my mind. “No…” I said, mostly to myself. He had been shot. “Did they take him into surgery? Is he in recovery?”
Again, he shook his head.
“Is he in custody? Did the police get to him? We’re going to have to find him a lawyer.”
Nathem blinked, the muscle in his neck tightening, as if he were trying to force the words out but couldn’t.
“Where is he, Nate? Where is Thay?”
He pointed at me, his finger moving into the space between us. I turned, but there was only a wall.
“I don’t know what that means,” I snapped. “Can you write it down?”