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“It won’t hurt me,” he said with resolution. “And I’ve already been in here with you twice. I don’t know if it’s related, but you didn’t wake up until I was in the chamber with you.” He stared at her with the kind of intensity that rivaled the magic in the room. “So I’m not really worried about it,” he concluded.
She nodded. “Okay.” It smelled like fresh-squeezed oranges and rainy earth in here. “Did anything interesting happen this morning?”
“With my dead friend?” He leaned a hip against the table. “Not really. I recently made an enemy out of a weapons dealer named Gaven Payne. He burned down my mom’s restaurant the same night you fell into a coma. I went on a bit of a…revenge spree.” His dark smile sent a chill up her spine. “Hunted down a bunch of his men in Angelthene. And now, for some reason, the rest of them are here. In Yveswich. And they’re turning up dead.”
“You’re sure you’re not the one doing it?” she teased.
He smirked. “Whoever it is, I guess I should thank them. It’s one less problem I have to deal with.”
“What’s the cause of death?”
“Raw magic, as far as I can tell.”
“Explosions?” Raw magic—the same type used for protection spells on buildings—could be fused into explosives that were very deadly and sometimes unpredictable.
“Mmhmm. Same way Gaven blew up Blackbird.”
“Blackbird?”
“My mom’s restaurant.”
“Oh.” She drew a deep breath. Little balls of light clung to her limbs, their touch comfortably warm and kind of fuzzy.
Darien was watching her intently.
“I already knew that, didn’t I?” she asked him. Her teeth chattered around the words, but the shivers were lightening up. “About Blackbird, I mean.”
“Don’t feel bad for not remembering. I’m sure you’ll be back to your old self in no time.”
“Do you know if it’s normal? Or is it just…me?”
He shook his head, a strand of dark hair falling in his face. He smoothed it back. “It’s not just you. Roman and Tanner said memory loss is a common symptom of being in a coma.”
“I hope they come back soon. I want to remember everything. I want to remember the others.” Her attention flicked toward the door. “I want to remember…you. I feel like I know you a lot better than I think.”
“We’ve pretty much been stuck together since we met, so…we got to know each other well.” His reply felt loaded, but in what way, she didn’t know.
She idly traced the stitching on her bathing suit. “I heard hellsehers can…show people their memories.” She peeked up at him. “Is that true?”
A beat of silence. And then: “What do you want to see?”
She whispered, “The day we met.”
75
Caliginous on Silverway
YVESWICH, STATE OF KER
Allowing Darien into her mind felt…strange, to say the least. Seeing herself through the eyes of another person was…also strange.
The feeling was not exactly a good one—at least, not at first.
Darien must’ve sensed this, because he gently took one of her hands that had tightened into a fist and laced his fingers with hers.
She looked up at him in question, that uncomfortable pressure in her mind—the memories that didn’t belong to her—still there.
“Touch helps,” Darien explained, his voice whisper-soft. “But if you want me to stop, I will stop.” She didn’t know what he meant, exactly—whether he was referring to the hand-holding or the memory-sharing.
