Page 16 of Monsters and Mocha

“Of course. I’m here for you, Shelton. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together.”

CHAPTER TEN

FITZ

“Iwould appreciate it if you didn’t keep throwing yourself into the jaws of death whenever you had the chance. I don’t think even Henry has enough coffee to keep me going at his rate.”

The words were accompanied by a warm, bubbly feeling flowing through his chest. For the first time in recent memory, Fitz was free of the pounding that had seemed to take up permanent residence in his skull. He blinked as the world slowly came into focus, this time through both eyes rather than one. He turned his head in the direction of Darby’s voice.

She was sitting in the green chair, arms and legs splayed out as if she had collapsed into it rather than taken a seat. Despite the large, dark circles under her eyes, her hair was tied neatly back rather than the frizzy mess it had been in before, and her familiar blue coat was crisp and clean. It was the coat that jogged his memory.

“You were the nurse from the hospital.”

Her jaw worked back and forth for a moment. “Intern. But yes, we did meet there.”

“This isn’t the hospital.”

There wasn’t nearly enough white for that. And rather than alcohol and disinfectant, it smelled like grease and metal.

“It’s not.”

“Where am I?” Fitz’s panic, which had dissipated for a few moments at the foreign sensation of being comfortable, now began rearing its head again. Sharp pain knifed through his heart with every beat.

Darby straightened, and her brow twisted in concentration. “Please stop doing that. You’ll heal faster if you can remain calm.”

The warm, bubbly feeling surged through him again, and he felt his breathing relax.

This isn’t natural.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to help you, but my magic isn’t strong enough to fight against you and speed the healing process along at the same time. It’s either one or the other. And since healing you is much more beneficial to both of us in the long term, I would appreciate it if you let me focus on that.” She slumped back into her chair.

“You didn’t answer my question before. Where are we?”

She closed her eyes with a sigh. “My workshop.”

“Your…” His words trailed off as cold realization flooded through Fitz. He lifted his metal arm, which now responded almost readily to his command, and held it out in front of him accusingly. “You? You did this? Why?”

Her eyes popped open, a fire burning in their brilliant green depths. “Because you were going to die and it was the only way to save you.”

His gaze trailed from his arm down to the toe of the metal boot poking out from the edge of the blanket. Revulsion boiled in his stomach. “You should have let me die. I didn’t ask for this.”

The fire in her eyes turned to tears, though Darby kept a stubborn tilt to her chin. “You didn’t ask to be born, either, but most people don’t complain about that.”

His brows rose along with his voice. “And you’re Deus, that you get to decide?”

The stubbornness deflated. “No,” she admitted quietly. “But I saw what you did for your men. I couldn’t just let you die, not without at least trying to save you.”

“You saw? And what do you think you saw?” His heart was pounding again, but Darby seemed to be ready for him this time, and instead of knives all he felt were points of pressure.

“I saw what you were willing to sacrifice, and I saw the men you were willing to sacrifice for. Merry told me what you did, how you saved them. I found them all, Captain. Every single one of your men came through our doors, and every single one of them will walk out, thanks to you.”

Tears of thankfulness blurred his vision. “I was just doing what I was trained to do.”

She met his eyes, her own resolute and unblinking. “And so was I.”

A tapping at the window broke the tension between them that followed. Fitz followed Darby’s gaze as she looked up and sighed at the dark shadow on the other side of the window pane. She pushed herself up from the chair with a stifled groan and pushed the window open.