“I spent ten years watching Rick run the numbers on operations exactly like this one. I’m sure.”
Darius holds my gaze for a moment, weighing my words. Then, he nods. “We’ll keep the captured operatives until we’re satisfied we’ve extracted everything useful,” he says. “After that, once you’ve recovered, I’d like your input on everything we’ve gathered about the Covenant’s structure.”
“You’ll have it.”
Another pause. Shorter this time. “You’re welcome in this pack, Kain. That’s official.”
I ponder what it costs a man like Darius to say something like that, given everything—and what it means that he’s saying it anyway. “Thank you,” I reply.
Violet convinces Darius to go get himself some coffee, with the promise that she will eat some more soup later. She watches him go with fondness in her gaze.
“He likes you,” she says to me when he’s gone. “He’s not good at showing it when there’s still a threat assessment happening, but he likes you.”
“I’ll take it.”
“You should.” She lies back on her pillow, some of the brightness going out of her now that the immediate company has thinned. “I’m going to try to get some sleep before he comes back.”
As she closes her eyes, the entire medical center goes quiet. Somewhere down the corridor, there are footsteps, voices, the ordinary sounds of a building doing its work. Outside the window, the sky is fully dark, and the pack grounds below are lit with the amber warmth of evening lights.
Anne is still on the edge of my bed.
“Lie down with me,” I tell her, moving over as much as I can to make room for her.
“I’m fine.”
“You fought today. You got hurt. Lie down.”
She looks at me, then at the bed. It’s narrow, but not impossibly so. She lets out a resigned sigh, takes off her shoes, and carefully stretches out beside me, on her side with her back to my chest. I put my arm around her.
She sighs. “We have a lot to talk about.”
“I know.”
“Good.” A pause. “Don’t move. You’ll pull something.”
I don’t move.
Through the bond, I can feel when she stops fighting sleep. The tension leaves her slowly—shoulders first, then the rest of her—until she is breathing steadily and the presence of her in my chest is soft and even. Finally, deeply at rest.
I stay awake a little longer. Not from pain, not from vigilance, but because I want to. Because I spent ten years in rooms I couldn’t leave, and this is one I am free to leave whenever I want. Because the woman beside me is here because she chooses to be. Because the man who held me captive is dead, and that part of my life is over.
I close my eyes, and sleep comes to me peacefully.
Chapter Thirty-One
Anne
The next evening, Kain and I are both discharged. I fuss the whole way from the medical center to the car, the whole drive home, and the whole walk up to my apartment.
Kain says nothing. He lets me hold his arm on the stairs even though he is walking perfectly well, and when I keep glancing sideways at him to check his color and the steadiness of his breathing, he endures it with what I can only describe as patient amusement.
“I’m not going to collapse on the stairs,” he says.
“There was a blade sticking out of your heart thirty-six hours ago.”
“And now, there isn’t.”
“That is not the reassurance you think it is.”
