Page 74 of Duty Preserved

I took her to the mess tent instead.

It was empty. The whole camp felt hollow. I sat her down at the nearest table and went to the cook station and made tea. I brought it back, put the mug in her hands, and closed her fingers around it.

She sat there holding it and staring at nothing.

I sat beside her. Close enough that my shoulder touched hers.

“Careful. It’s hot.” I wrapped my hand around the base of the mug to steady it in her grip. “Too much sugar. The cooks would be horrified. Drink it when you’re ready.”

She didn’t drink. She didn’t speak. I kept talking anyway. Nothing that mattered. Just enough sound so the silence didn’t swallow her whole.

I sat with her because that was the job. One step at a time, until she was ready to take her own steps again.

Across the compound, I spotted Zayn.

He was standing near the edge of the vehicle bay, alone, his radio still clipped to his belt. He hadn’t changed. His shirt was stained dark across the front, and his hands hung at his sides. He was staring at the ground six feet in front of him, and I was fairly sure he’d been staring at it for a while. Nobody had checked on him. Nobody had thought to.

I squeezed Sarah’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back. I’m not going far.”

She gave a small nod, barely a movement at all.

I crossed to Zayn. Close enough to the mess tent that I could keep Sarah in my line of sight the whole time. I wasn’t leaving her. I was stepping away.

“Zayn. Talk to me.”

He looked at me. His eyes were flat, the focus gone out of them. It took him a second to come back.

“We did everything right,” he said. “The dart hit clean. We waited the full time. Alyson checked the vitals from the remote collar. Everything said he was under.”

“And then?”

“Alyson went in. She was checking his breathing. She put her hand on his side.” He paused. “He came apart. One second, he was still. The next, he was—” He made a motion with his hand, a violent upward surge. “She was right there. On top of him. There was nowhere for her to go.”

“Who had the backup?”

“Daniel.” Zayn’s jaw tightened. “He had the dart gun. He was supposed to fire if this happened.”

“And?”

“He didn’t.”

Zayn said it flat. No judgment in his voice, which told me everything about how much judgment of himself he was potentially carrying.

“Cole grabbed it,” Zayn said. “Took it right out of Daniel’s hands and fired. Then Cole ran for her.” He looked at the ground. “That’s when he hit the burrow.”

“Did Cole’s dart put the lion down?”

Zayn considered that. “I think it was the first dart. The one Alyson gave him. It was probably catching up the whole time. The lion went down right after Cole fired, but the timing—it could have been either one.”

“So the lion wasn’t as sedated as everyone thought.”

“No.” Zayn shook his head. “Sometimes they come up. I’ve seen it before. The animal looks flat, every sign says it’s under, and then it isn’t. I don’t know why it happens.”

That was as far as Zayn could take it. The why would have to come from Sarah, when she was ready.

“Go get cleaned up,” I said. “Get some water. Eat something.”

He looked at me like I’d said something in a language he didn’t understand.