‘How was she in the safe room?’he asks Jules instead.
The boy looks down, worrying the inside of his cheek.‘I don’t know, it was weird sometimes.Whenever my father woke her to drink water and eat, it seemed like there was somethingwrongwith her.She wasn’t herself.’
‘How so?’
‘I don’t know.It was…’ Jules shudders.‘My father kept her asleep mostly, said it was safer.He told me Ariadne was sick and that Savannah offered to do a blood transfusion but that it was interrupted by an attack.He said she was weak, so we should let her rest.It felt like years down there,’ he adds quietly.‘They cut everything off within minutes, but we had water in the bathroom and in these boxes.That’s all that kept us alive, I think.’Lachlan’s heart clenches hard.Jules shakes his head, looks angry at himself.‘It’s nothing to what you went through, though.’
‘Don’t diminish it,’ Lachlan tells him, kissing his hair.‘You suffered too.’
Zaitsev motions at them to fall quiet while he releases the wraparound, to check in with Rook who confirms, ‘Eight bells,eyes on Shimmer.’He then resumes the wraparound.‘Can only do another minute.’
Blaire eats a little soup and then sits back, expression grim.
‘The fallout from this will be tremendous.Penhalyx has lost his two closest people.I cannot imagine how things will be going forward.’Her gaze lands on Lachlan’s hand, currently intertwined with Jules’ own.‘I think it’s time to start making plans,’ she says.‘Sooner than later.’
‘What plans?’Jules asks, sounds so tired it breaks Lachlan’s heart.
Lachlan taps Jules’ knuckle with his ring finger.
Zaitsev counts down with his fingers.Five seconds more.
Blaire says, ‘To get you and Mimi out of here.’
?
Grief settles like poison in the air and refuses to leave, even after sleep, even after food, even when he’s reunited with Mimi who won’t let go of him for hours once she’s in his arms again.Just being with her breaks Lachlan open all the more, for loveisweakness in many ways.Love is the water that crafts failures to cascade, wrecking manmade constructs of denial, repression and stilted functionality.He holds her in his arms, and she pats his hair, tells him, ‘It’s all right, Daddy.You’re safe now.’
‘I missed you so much,’ he whispers, kissing her curls and carrying her while he makes rounds.She’s calm and practical, seems to sense his grief instinctively.
‘I missed youmoon much.’
‘That’s the biggest much.’
‘Bee and Danny were worried.They talked about you lots.I was very good Shadow Sneak.’
‘I bet you were, baby.’
‘They said you were in danger and trapped.I told my friends to help.Did they help, Daddy?’
‘Yes, baby, all the birds and the worms and the foxes.’
‘And the fishies.’
‘What else did Bee and Danny say?’
‘They said you might not come home, but I knew you’d be safe because you’re my Daddy and nothing can ever hurt you.’
‘You’re right.It’s other people that got hurt.’
‘Silly’s brother died, didn’t he?’
‘He did,’ he tells her while walking the black and green corridors of this vast prison that feels like home.‘It was my fault.’
Mimi hugs him.‘It wasn’t your fault, Daddy.All faults areFarfars.I promise.Next time take Mari.He’s very good bodygarden fox, the best.’
‘I will, don’t you worry.’
‘Or even better, take me.I kill anyone who makes you sad.’
