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I backed farther away and spun around, before dashing back through the dark woods toward where I’d left Onyx tied to the tree. After swiping up my tabard and sword, I hopped onto the horse and took off into the night.
32
FARRYN
Istared down at the poached egg and toast, and roasted sweet potatoes on my plate, beside a glass of orange juice. All of it looked delicious. Smelled delicious, too, but I couldn’t stand the thought of eating. Not after the dream I’d had, or the nightmarish experience of watching someone climb into my window.
Palm to my stomach, I tried to settle the gurgling of nausea, and recoiled at the thought of that unsettling snaking sensation.My mind also remained wrapped up in Jericho and whoever the hell that woman was, and then the intruder who’d had me wired most of the night, jumping at every sound. In spite of what the angel had said, I couldn’t help the paranoid thoughts of more of his kind coming for me. Dragging me out of my bed and doing whatever it was angels did to punish the wicked.
Exhaustion weighed like an anchor on my muscles, and the burn of my eyeballs was the desperate pull of sleep. How silly of me to think that Jericho’s return from Ex Nihilo was the end of the dark circles and baggy eyes.
A figure moved in my periphery, catching my attention when she took a seat across from me.
Frowning, I tipped my head. “Vespyr? What …. Where have you been?”
Her cheek dimpled with a smile, and she shrugged. “Around.”
“Everyone has been looking for you.”
The smile on her face faded to surprise. “Really? Well, I was … visiting my sister.”
“Your sister.” Tone flat, I studied her while picking at my eggs. “As I understand, Jericho is planning to have a chat with you at some point about you coming and going.” Not that any of the conversation really mattered to me. I’d had someone break into my room the night before and dreamed that Jericho had had sex with a woman in the woods. Vespyr coming and going wasn’t exactly the most pressing issue at hand, but seemed to be a welcomed distraction.
“What’s the big deal with me coming and going?”
I was inclined to tell her that Jericho and I were both on Heaven and Hell’s shit-list, but instead, I kept it simple. “He tends to be a private person.”
“It’s just my sister. Not like I’m working as a spy, or anything.” Snorting a laugh, she reached for my toast and took a bite. “Food is so weird here. Obviously, we’re not really eating it. It’s just what our brains remember tasting. But I feel like I’m actually eating it. Like, texture, flavor, dryness. Wonder if that’s why the rest of them don’t bother to eat much. They forgot how it tasted.”
“So, your sister,” I said, pulling her back to the conversation. “You never mentioned her before.”
“You never asked about her.”
“She’s not here in Nightshade?”
“Nope. She’s living her best life in suburbia USA.” She reached for my juice and took a sip.
“But she visits you.”
“Yep. Every Wednesday she visits me.”
“Where?”
“At the hospital.” An obnoxious crunch announced another bite of toast, which she drowned in another, long sip of orange juice.
The eating was somewhat of a nuisance that I had to ignore for the moment. “You’re in the hospital, right now?”
“Well, yeah. I’ve kinda been there for a while.” Another obnoxious crunch followed a slurp of juice.
I wondered how much of what she was telling me was true. “How long?”
She jerked her head toward the rest of my food. “Hey, are you going to eat that?”
Without bothering to answer, I pushed my plate toward her. “How long have you been hospitalized?”
Sliding the plate in front of her, she took hold of the fork and shoveled in a bite of sweet potatoes. “Two years,” she said, her words garbled around a mouthful. “Give, or take.”
I let out a little cough and cleared my throat, my head trying to wrap itself around what could have possibly been the reason she’d have been hospitalized that long. The other thing was, did I even believe it? “You’ve been in a hospital for two years?”
