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"I will be as careful as I can," she assured me, hands gentle as she lifted the thin blanket covering me. I was nude beneath it, I hadn't realized that before. Lain shot me a playful wink before looking up at the ceiling. Ori politely averted their eyes, and Quinn focused on my face, though I wouldn't have minded if he had looked. Being naked didn't bother me, but Lelo's calm, detached manner as she worked was strangely soothing.

"I had someone follow Wyatt Aberdeen once he left," Ori said, giving me something to focus on as Lelo touched the edges of a fresh wound on my chest. I barely remembered the other's claws raking across me as we fought, and this new injury was inconsequential compared to the damage he'd done to my old wounds, reopening them and making them worse. I didn't even want to think about how damaged our wings were.

"He said he was my friend. He told me Quinn was in danger and where to find him." The words scratched my throat, and I gratefully accepted another sip of water from Quinn.

"That was the truth, at least as far as he believed it," Lain said without taking his eyes off the ceiling.

"You sound very confident," Quinn said, raising an eyebrow.

Ori nodded. "We have ways of determining if someone is lying. I'm not at liberty to say more," they added when Quinn opened his mouth to speak. "The point is that Wyatt spoke the truth. Do you remember him, Typhon?"

I scoured through the vague images and scattered bits of conversation that made up my memories of the time before I escaped, but couldn't find Wyatt in any of them. "I don't, but I think he was telling the truth, too. I just don't remember much of anything from before." And the few things that were surfacing weren't memories I cared to share.

"I assumed as much," Ori said with a shrug. "We trailed him out of town and into the mountains. We lost him about four hours in, unfortunately. I believe that there are magical protections around wherever he went that discourage anyone from finding the place. The person I sent wouldn't have lost the trail otherwise."

That didn't surprise me. Even with the little I could remember, I knew the place I'd escaped from would be protected and hidden.

Lelo's fingers touched my hip and I winced, reaching out blindly until Quinn took my hand, our fingers locking together. Just that gentle touch was enough to send fresh pain radiating through my entire body.

"I am sorry," she murmured. "With your unique situation, I was unsure what I could safely give you for pain. Until I know more, all I can offer are simple herbal remedies."

"It's fine. Just do what you need to," I said through gritted teeth, focusing my attention back to Ori. I needed the distraction. "Wyatt took the other with him?"

"Yes, he took the other chimera." Ori paused, a strange darkness flickering in their eyes for a moment.

"You made the best decision you could," Lelo assured him. She hadn't looked over at Ori when they paused, but she clearly knew they were upset.

"That remains to be seen." Ori ran their fingers through their long hair, the beaded charms tinkling against each other. It seemed to help settle them, and the darkness was gone when they continued. "We could have found a way to treat his injuries, but that collar is the problem. There's magic in it, alongside technology, and it seemed likely that we would kill him in the attempt to free him. The plan was to follow them back, find a weakness, then, as Lain would say, conduct a jailbreak."

"Surely a place that's big enough to hold the chimeras and everyone involved with them would have access to the outside world, right? Which means we can find it?" Quinn asked, breaking his silence.

"We're certainly going to try," Ori assured him. "Our best trackers are attempting to pick up the trail, and if they fail, I know a psychic who excels at finding lost things."

"So, what do we do in the meantime? How can we just go about our lives like everything is normal?" Quinn shook his head. "I'm still trying to deal with everything you and Lain told me. Magic and shapeshifters and secret magic cults… I feel like I fell into some weird fantasy book or something."

Ori laughed, but it wasn't cruel or mocking. That was a relief. I would have hated to undo all Lelo's work and hurt myself more by crawling out of bed and punching them.

"I was born into this world, and even I sometimes question the things I've seen," they assured Quinn.

"This will hurt," Lelo warned softly, cutting into the conversation. A warm, wet cloth touched the worst wound on my hip, and I couldn't hold back a pained cry. I knew I was gripping Quinn's hand too tightly, but I couldn't make myself let go. The throbbing, burning pain was inescapable, radiating out from the injury in nauseating waves. My stomach churned and I gagged, but there was nothing in my stomach for me to lose.

"I know. Try to breathe through it as best you can." She worked quickly, the smell of herbs growing stronger as she pulled items from the tray she'd brought. Quinn's full attention returned to me, and I selfishly clung to it. Exhaustion left dark smudges of shadow beneath his eyes and the bruises on his face taunted me, reminding me I'd failed, but even so, he'd never been more beautiful. The way he looked at me still, despite everything that had happened, left me humbled and grateful in ways I wasn't sure I could ever express to him.

"Once we get home, what do you say we spend a few days just curled up on the couch with Rom and the kittens?" he murmured. With his free hand, he brushed a loose lock of hair away from my sweaty face, the gentle touch a welcome change from the pain shooting through my hip. "We can watch movies and eat too much pizza and ignore the rest of the world for a while."

"Let's do that," I agreed. Something cool and wet touched the gashes on my thigh, and I groaned through the pain, keeping my eyes on Quinn's face. Words escaped me, and it was all I could do to stay focused on him and the whisper-soft reassurances he murmured in a steady stream as Lelo worked.

Finally, it was over, and Lelo gently covered me with a light sheet, layering a blanket on top of that to battle the chill.

"Lie still and do not move without assistance," she ordered as she loaded everything back onto her tray. "Leave the poultices in place, and I will check them in the morning. If you're recovering well, I will consider letting you go home." She murmured something to Ori, too quiet for even me to make out, then left the room, leaving Quinn and I alone with Ori and Lain.

"I almost wish we really were in a fantasy book right now," Quinn said after a moment. "In those stories, shapeshifters always heal when they change forms."

"Ooh, I've read some of those books. That part never made much sense to me, though," Lain chimed in, then smirked. "Then again, I never thought much about it. I wasn't really reading those books for their magical realism."

"We don't need to hear about your fetishes," Ori said, rolling their eyes. "Typhon, do you feel up to talking, or would you like to rest a bit more?" They made the offer in earnest, but I could tell that they really hoped it was the former.

"What else is there to talk about?" Quinn asked. "Until we find out where that base is, we're kind of stuck, aren't we?"