“You look terrible,” he says.
“Thank you.” I shift against my pillow and keep it to a minimum when my ribs complain. “You don’t look too hot yourself.”
“I haven’t slept…for obvious reasons,” Ridge grumbles.
He pulls the chair up and sits. Flint stays standing. He leans against the wall near the window and crosses his arms. He looks me over.
“So,” Ridge says.
“So.”
“You going to tell us what happened out there, or are we extracting it bit by bit?”
I think it through and decide to stick to the basic facts. “I followed the Red male who took Carla. Caught up and dealt with him.” I pause. “After that, it was a matter of hiding, foraging, and surviving. I had a few run-ins. The last was the worst, and then you guys found us,” I tell Flint, who nods.
Ridge is watching me. “That’s it?”
“That’s most of it.” I shrug. “We hiked, but it was slow going. I sure was glad to see you,” I tell Flint.
He nods again.
“The female handled herself well,” I say. “She didn’t panic. She was levelheaded throughout. It made my job a hell of a lot easier. We got lucky.”
“It had nothing to do with luck,” Flint speaks for the first time.
Ridge leans back in the chair and stretches out his legs. He looks at the ceiling. “You did good, Magma. Surviving out there with a human female in tow, that’s no mean feat.”
“I did what I had to do.”
“You’re a hero. You know that,” Ridge adds.
I don’t have anything to say to that, so I look at the window. I don’t feel like any kind of hero.
“He’s right. You handled yourself well, for an old male.” Flint grins.
I laugh and wince, biting back the rest because it hurts too damned much.
“Noted,” I say. “I’ll add it to my list of accomplishments,” I push out.
Ridge is smiling when I look at him.
Flint makes a short sound. Not quite a laugh.
“How are you feeling?” he asks.
“Fine.” I mean it. “I’ll be good as new in a day or two. It’ll be like none of it even happened.” I know deep down that isn’t entirely true.
Ridge is watching me closely. “Even after all these years behind a desk at Security Central,” he says, “you still have the goods not just to survive but to thrive. You took down five Reds and walked away.”
“More like hobbled,” I say, smiling.
Ridge laughs first. Flint is half a second behind him. I hold back a laugh of my own, grinning instead.
“So, what’s happening between them and us?” I ask. “I take it we’re still on good terms with Mistveil? Is it strained?”
Ridge gets serious. He nods. “The peace treaty still stands, but our frontline is now back to its original position.”
“With extra guards,” Flint adds.
