There are two men in the room. But I can’t make them out. Not really. Just that they’re big and… they smell so good.
The weight pulls me back down, one more time. But I’m snuggled into warm blankets, and that smell… It wraps around me, holding me more tightly, more warmly than the soft cocoon I’ve been swaddled in.
The next time I wake, I blink… and blink, not trusting my eyes to stay open this time either.
There arethreemen now.
Three very large, verynot-human men.
I don’t have to ask where I am. Because they’re Sian. And the only place to find Sian men—that I know of, anyway—is on Isia.
How did I get here?
That should probably scare me. But I’m warm and… safe.
Eyes still heavy, I look at each of them in turn. The new one is yellow. It’s a soft color, but his face is painted with a scowl as he speaks quietly with the orange one.
And when my gaze slides to the third… Arc. I knowexactlywhere I am.
Neither of my sisters are exactly fans of the “cold boys,” but when Arc meets my eyes, I can’t help but smile.Ithink I’m going to like them.
In fact. I’m determined to like them. Assuming this is real and not a ridiculous hallucination.
My legs probably wouldn’t hurt if it was a hallucination, and I don’t think I’d need to pee. Also, am I hungry? Or do I just need water?
Arc watches me with a soft smile, like he’s waiting… maybe to see if I fall back into my darkness again.
A million and three questions swirl through my head. But the one that I ask isn’t the one I mean to.
“What time is it?”
All discussion ends, the other two rush to my side, but Arc hasn’t moved. He watches me from where he leans against the wall.
I want him to come to me, too. As if he was simply waiting for me to think it, he pushes away from the wall, coming to kneel at my bedside.
“You’re awake,” Yellow says… his name is on the tip of my tongue.
“Risk will tend to state the obvious,” Arc says, giving me his name so I don’t have to keep thinking of them in colors.
“And he’s Shock.” He nods toward the orange man, and I look down—up?—at them.
“It’s nice to meet you… What am I doing here?”
“We’d like to know that too,” Shock says, glancing at Risk like he might be the one with the answer.
“That doesn’t sound good.” I shift and then shiver, clutching the blankets more tightly to me. “Right. Cold boys.”
Arc winces. “What do you remember?”
I’d just gotten done teaching a round of classes and was going home for a little bit before… “I left the studio… said goodbye to Trinity, and then, honestly? I don’t even remember getting to my car.”
When Risk tucks the blankets more tightly around me, I say the only other thing I know. “And then I wanted ice cream.”
Arc looks down, and I vaguely remember… It wasn't ice cream. It was him.
I should probably apologize for licking him, but I don’t.
“Then buzzing and beeping and… waking up.”
