Page 53 of Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry

He had opened his eyes, and she had not been there.

He had woken alone, with no one to help him because no one understood him.

She was not going to leave his side again for longer than an hour. She could still join Sari and David at the café tomorrow, since it would be right after Khiann fell asleep again, and she would not stay for long, so there was no chance he would wake up again while she was gone.

She would catch short naps in the rocking chair and go home only to shower and change, since she could do that in less than an hour. She would not go as far as bringing in a cot and sleeping next to his bed, but she could doze off in the chair, and no one would think anything of it.

Beside her, the monitor's rhythm changed, indicating that Khiann was surfacing again.

Annani was up and leaning over him before he opened his eyes, and when he saw her, his expression relaxed and that small, crooked smile lifted the corners of his lips.

"I am sorry I was not here when you woke up. I will not let that happen again. Did you forget what I told you about me having dinner with my family?"

He squeezed her hand twice.

She was not sure he understood her question correctly. "You remembered what I told you?"

One squeeze.

She searched his face, looking for a hint of what might have upset him, but he looked at her the same way he always did, as if he was glad she was there.

"Julian tells me that you had an eventful evening," she said. "I do not know what you were doing, and you cannot tell me. I have decided not to guess but to wait for you to tell me when you can, no matter how long it takes."

She put her thumb over the band on his.

"Were you frightened while I was gone?"

He did not squeeze at all.

She waited, and he kept looking at her without doing anything.

"Very well," she said. "That is either a no or a question you did not care for. I shall take the no, because I do not like to think of you being scared."

He squeezed her hand once, but she was not sure what he was trying to tell her.

"My daughter Sari has arrived, and she is coming to see you in the morning." She smoothed the blanket. "I hope that is okay with you."

He did not respond, which was better than a no.

"Someone told me today that she sang to her mate while he was recovering, and it steadied him. I do not know many songs." She sat back in the chair, his hand still clasped in hers, and searched for a song they had shared, but there had been none. They had not been together long enough to collect such things.

"I can sing you the ones I know," she said. "They are mostly nursery songs I sang to my children when they were young."

She started with a counting song about a farmer with a great many sheep. She sang it quietly because the acoustics in a converted operating room were unforgiving. She kept singing until his eyelids began to droop.

"It is all right, my love. Go to sleep. I will be here when you wake up next."

19

KIAN

"The drones were delivered at four-fifty this morning, Safe Harbor time," Turner said. "The munitions have been sitting there since the resupply run, so everything we need is now in one place. The sooner we deploy them, the better."

Kian leaned back in his chair. "How long to assemble and test?"

"One day should do it. Wednesday for final preparations. If Losham can schedule the meeting for Thursday, that's perfect. If not, we do it as soon as he's ready."

Onegus let out a breath. "Good. What I like best about this plan is that we don't need to deploy any additional Guardians to the island. We're using humans to operate the drones."