“Laetesh, ni…”
“What is she saying?” A deep voice. She could barely process it.
“I don’t know.” That first voice. A man’s voice. Not her mother’s. But one she knew. She just couldn’t remember from where.
A hand stroked her hair.
Everything faded away.
Waking up in a bathtub was a fascinating and unpleasant experience.
Nadi groaned. Moons, everythinghurt.
“Boss—” Movement to her right.
Her head spun when she tried to look to see who had spoken. She felt feverish. She felt weak. Like she was still half asleep. What had happened…?
Where was she?
How did she?—
A shadow in the doorframe, dimly outlined by the ambient light in the hallway behind him. A silhouette she knew.
Raziel Nostrom.
For a moment, instinctual fear took over, and she jerked. The adrenaline shock to her system was exactly what she needed, however.
“Fuck—” she groaned and sank into the water. At least it was hot water. With a shaking hand, she reached for her neck.
“Don’t. It’s still healing.” Raziel knelt beside the tub. It was one of those old-fashioned, claw-footed things. Big enough for a human to stretch out comfortably.
But not someone with an eight-foot fish tail. Her tail was draped over the lip of the tub and onto the floor. They’d…thrown a blanket over it. To keep it from gettingcold.
That was so oddlythoughtfulthat her focus got stuck on that and she didn’t realize Raziel was talking to her for a solid few seconds.
“Nadi?” He gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Hm?” She turned her head weakly to look at him. “Sorry.”
“I’m just—” He cupped her cheek in his palm. He still looked like shit himself, dark bruised circles under his eyes. His lips were chapped. He looked as though he had been walking across the plains in the blazing sun for a week with no food or water. “I’m glad you’re awake.”
“Relatively…speaking.” She felt like her head wasn’t attached to her shoulders. “Why’m…” She furrowed her brow. “Why’m in a tub?”
“I…I didn’t know what to do.” He frowned. “You always seemed to like to be in the water, and with your tail and all, I?—”
Nadi began to laugh.
It wasn’t much of a laugh. It was weak, it was dry, and it kind of hurt her, but she couldn’t help it. That was the funniest moons-damned thing she’d heard in a long, long time.
And probably one of the sweetest.
“I don’t need to be in the tub, Raz.” She smiled at him. Just barely, he smiled back. “But I appreciate it.”
“Good. It was getting annoying, constantly having to drain it and refill it to keep it warm. Ivan was starting to complain.” He sighed.
“Ivan—You mean he saw me like this?” Another wave of adrenaline rushed over her. The other voice. “No. No, no,no.”Struggling to move, she sat up, sloshing water over the edge of the tub and onto the floor.
“Nadi, don’t, you’re still too?—”
