But minutes later, it all came back up.
The headache never left, but it changed texture — sometimes a sharp ice pick behind her eyes, other times a dull crushing pressure like her skull was too small for her brain. Moving made it worse. Light made it worse. Sound made it worse.Existingmade it worse.
Emmy let Spence pack more ice around her head, and wished she could just stop existing until this was over.
She heard Spence and Zander again, filtering through her headache and exhaustion.
“…eight hours now…”
“…isn’t worse … heartbeat is steady … not prepared to call Aaron unless she asks me to…”
Part of Emmy wanted her parents, but mostly, she didn’t want them to see her like this.
“She’s awake again,” Zander said.
Warm hands brushed her hair away from her face, and she leaned into the touch without thinking, desperate for any comfort, any kindness, any reminder that her body wasn’t actively betraying her.
“There you are,” Spence murmured. “You’re doing so good.”
Emmy wasn’t doing anything exceptbarelysurviving, but she’d take the praise anyway.
Some time later, Emmy woke enough to wonder what time it was, and asked Spence. He told her, and she groaned when she realized it’d only been around ten hours since that first desperate sprint to the bathroom. Time had stopped being linear somewhere around hour three, and now she was just this broken, achingthing.
Spence’s hand found hers in the dark, his fingers threading through her shaking ones.
“Still here,” he said quietly.
“Still dying,” she whispered back.
“Not on my watch.”
Another cramp seized her gut, and Emmy curled around it with a whimper, already knowing what came next.
Spence was already moving, already helping her up, guiding her back to the bathroom for the hundredth time.
Or maybe it was the thousandth.
Chapter 29
Zander telepathed Spencer, knowing his boy was going to argue with him, and wanting to keep things as quiet around Emerald as possible.
You’ve been awake twenty hours. I’m on my way down, and you need to go into the sitting area with a blanket and pillow so you can get some sleep on the sofa. I’ll watch over her while you sleep.
I’m fine. Really. You have too much to do.
I have everything delegated that I can for now. You need at least six hours of sleep, preferably eight. I can feel your exhaustion.
You aren’t going to let this go, are you?
Smart boy.
Fine, but I’ll go under protest, Sir.
Zander chuckled.I love you, boy. Using Sir when you refuse an order only marginally helps, you know.
It helps a lot, Sir. It shows I respect your authority even though I’m expressing my opinion. You don’t want a yes-boy, you want someone who’s honest. It’s my job to argue, sometimes.
And it’s my job to look out for all my people, especially my boy. I’m bringing you three burgers, fries, and half an apple pie. You’ll eat it in the sitting room, and then you’ll go to sleep, and yes, that’s an order.
