“She’s waking.” Doctor Manae’s voice was nervous. “Gemma, stay with me.”
Gemma thrashed against the straps around her wrists, panic flooding her like ice. Her throat burned. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t—
A mask sealed over her mouth and nose.
“Just oxygen,” the doctor said. “You’re safe. Breathe.”
Gemma’s vision sharpened in flashes. Gunner stood nearby, his usual giddy smile wiped clean, his electropad hanging forgotten at his side. Electrodes clung to Gemma’s scalp. Her heart rate blared in a shrill rhythm on the monitor beside her bed.
She sucked in a breath through the mask, then another, until the air stopped clawing down her throat.
“Gemma, can you hear me?” Doctor Manae asked, her voice low but direct.
Gemma nodded stiffly, though her limbs felt wrong, slow and uncooperative. Like her body hadn’t quite caught up to her mind.
“Do you know where you are?” the doctor asked.
Another nod. “The temple.”
“Do you know who she is?” Doctor Manae motioned toward where the Kaizen stood just inside the closed door, her muscular arms crossed over her chest. Even her brown eyes—usually blank and emotionless—were sharp with worry.
Gemma couldn’t stop the word before it left her mouth. “Unfortunately.” Her eyes opened wide, but Gunner just started snickering, and the Kaizen rolled her eyes.
“I think we can say Gemma is still Gemma,” Doctor Manae joked, removing the mask from over Gemma’s nose and mouth. “Can you sit up?”
When Gemma nodded, Doctor Manae released the restraints binding Gemma’s wrists and ankles.
She pushed herself up. Every muscle in her body ached as if she’d gone through a full round of sparring drills with Christian.
Three pairs of eyes stared at her. Her pulse skipped a beat. “What happened?”
“What do you remember from your dream?” Doctor Manae asked.
Gemma opened her mouth to answer, but there was nothing. Her brows furrowed. She’d been plagued by nightmares for weeks. Why were last night’s a blank? She remembered falling asleep, warm and relaxed after her call with Christian, and then she was here.
“I can’t remember anything,” Gemma answered at last.
Both Doctor Manae and Gunner frowned. Gemma shot her gaze back and forth between them, trying to gauge what had really happened. It was Gunner who broke the silence.
“You were screaming inside your shelter. Woke most of us up. Phoebe got to you first. You were thrashing and digging your nails so deep into your palms that they bled. She carried you here herself.”
Gemma looked at the red-haired captain, stunned. The Kaizen had carried her?
“You started convulsing and speaking in another language, like some sort of memory bleed. The only word I could translate was ‘door.’ I think you were desperate to get there. We had to tie you down to keep you from fighting us.”
Her entire body felt cold as her pulse picked up speed again. “I didn’t hurt any of you, did I?” A lump formed in her throat.
“We’re fine,” Gunner said. “You didn’t hurt anyone.”
Gemma’s eyes burned. “I was just . . . I—I talked to Christian and fell asleep.”
“You weren’t asleep,” Doctor Manae said, stepping forward. “Not really. Your neural activity mimicked REM, but the activity levels in other areas were off the chart. Something was overriding your normal function.”
“It’s also probably important to note she’s been unconscious for six hours,” the Kaizen interjected.
What?!
Gemma’s mouth went dry; her heart skipped a beat. She gripped the sheet beneath her to try to still the uncontrollable shaking in her hands.
