I crawled next to him and laid my head on his chest, letting him sign his name on my skin until I fell asleep.
As promised,Williams and Theo arrived the next morning with a posse of guards. To my ire, I was excused from the meeting and asked to keep myself busy for a few hours. Isaac escorted me back to the main building, and I offered my time to Dr. Grayson, who smiled.
“Of course, Sophia. We just got in some supplies that need stocking.”
Isaac sat in a corner while I went to work. Two other medics were on shift, but the three of us stuck to stilted conversation that remained firmly within our shared duties—wishing for better supplies, dreading the deadly wounds, reminiscing over particular injuries.
Neither of them mentioned Lucas.
Neither of them even looked me in the eye.
At some point, Zara brought me a bag of my effects, mostly clothes, but a few books and Lucas’s pager were stuffed in as well. She added some clothes for Lucas, and I thanked her through a throat thickened with grateful tears.
“You holding up?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” I said, smiling.
She squeezed my shoulder. “Let me know if you need anything. I’m going to come by later to check on his injuries.”
Isaac and I returned to the cabin a few hours later to find only Lieutenant Salinas remaining at the door. Of all our guards, he was the one I knew the least.
“Lieutenant,” Isaac said with a salute, relieving him of duty.
Inside the cabin, Lucas was brooding.
“What did they say?” I asked, throwing my bag onto the table.
He glanced up from his hands in his lap. “They want this mission done soon.”
My stomach dropped, and I sank onto the couch beside him. “How soon?”
“Couple of weeks.”
A couple of weeks.
Just a couple of weeks left.
At most.
I wanted to beg to go with him, but the ask was ridiculous. I was untrained, unskilled, loud and reckless. The mission would be harder and less successful if I accompanied him.
Still, I didn’t want to say goodbye.
I also didn’t want to discuss it.
I curled into his side, and we sat like that for a long time, holding on to each other as long as we could before they ripped us apart.
A few days later,I was searching through my bag for a pair of sweats when I came across the note I’d moved to my bedside drawer weeks ago.
Grief is like snow…
After Lucas had found it on my broken body the night I’d nearly bled out in his closet, I decided it was safer to keep where a Hunter couldn’t find it if I was captured. Now that Lucas’s cover was blown, it didn’t matter if someone discovered it. I tucked it right back into my bra where it belonged and continued rifling through the bag.
I froze as my fingers brushed a familiar pink foil packet. Lucas sensed my stillness and was at my side in an instant.
The letters on the packet were so friendly and welcoming, as if taking a pregnancy test was some sort of joyous occasion.
Silence descended over us until he slid a finger over the edge of the packet. “You haven’t taken one yet?”
