She shook her head. “Not really. It was dark. I told you Flynn was there.”
“Shit. It’s a big bite. It’s swollen.”
“It was a big bug. Don’t worry. It’s fine. It’s just itchy now.”
“We’ll have Guerre have a look at it when we get to the fort.”
“How long will it take to get there?”
“A couple of hours. This pod runs at hyper speed.”
“And I’m guessing there’s a depot under the fort, too?”
“Yep.”
“That could come in handy. Took a couple of days for me to get down to Valle de Lágrimas.” She wiggled a little lower, trying to get to a comfortable position so she could shut her eyes.
“Go ahead and sleep. I’ve got you.”
“You aren’t making me sleep, are you?”
“No, but I can if it helps.”
“No.” She began drifting off, then thought of something else. “When do I have to give you my decision? We have time, right?”
“Some. I’ll try not to rush you.”
28
Ash did sleep, despite being overwrought. Merc was the one wounded from fighting those monsters, but she was the one who needed comfort. If this was going to be their lives, there was no way it could work for him.
She heard Merc speaking softly as he gently rubbed her arm. “We’re here, love.”
She sighed, loving the feel of being in his arms.
I love it too, he said. And it can work for us. You’ll see. I would be happy to have you to care for.
She forgot their minds were linked so tightly that they communicated in shared thoughts. She straightened as she realized that he could hear her thoughts, but she could only hear the thoughts of his that he sent to her. Why was that? Was he somehow blocking her? Or was it because she wasn’t a mutant but a regular?
“If you take the changes, you’ll be able to hear me. And once you can, then you’ll also want to learn how to block me and others from your mind. That you can’t do so now exposes you to Omni predators. It’s how Flynn has been able to touch your mind.”
Omni predators. Mind reading. Mutations. Monsters. It was all too much.
She got off his lap, feeling sluggish, as if she’d taken the longest, deepest nap of her life. “Tell me I didn’t drool.”
He laughed. “Drool? No. Snore…for the love of God, woman, can you snore.”
Ash gasped, making him laugh again.
The pod’s door opened, revealing another small depot. A fire door and a short hallway led to an elevator. It had cryptic floor identifiers as well.
She’d been to the fort several times. As much as she and the girls had gone exploring, she’d never seen this depot, which was a reminder that what she thought was real wasn’t.
She sent Merc a panicked look. “I don’t know who I am or where I am or what I am.”
He frowned, then pulled her close. “You sound like us after we were changed.”
“It’s all so disorienting.”
“It is. I know,” Merc said. The elevator took them to the second floor where the bedrooms were. “I asked Liege for privacy. I thought you’d like to get some rest before facing everyone, even Summer.”
“I have to borrow clothes from her.”
“She left some for you in my room.” He opened his door and let her go in first.
Ash stopped just inside the door. “This isn’t your room.”
Merc sent a quick look around. “Yeah, it is.”
“No.” Ash walked around the room. “I was here before. I guess, maybe, you painted the room. It was white when I was here. You had a painting there and over the bed.” She pointed to the beautiful seascapes that had hung on the walls. “There was none of this tan decor. Everything was blue and white.”
When she glanced at Merc, he looked pale. “You’re describing the room I had back home. When my wife was alive.”
Ash was dumbfounded.
“How did you see it?”
Her mouth went dry. She crossed her arms. “I walked in here and saw it, months ago. Before I went to Valle de Lágrimas. It was when I first saw you. I lay down on the bed. I thought I slept, because I had a dream of you, standing at a cliff. It was the first time I saw you.”
“It was our beginning. Guerre had me in a coma. I guess I pulled you into my nightmare. I wondered how I’d conjured you. Do you remember seeing the Matchmaker in that vision? I did.”
She nodded. “I didn’t know who that was, though. After that, I kept seeing him, all the way until I met up with you in Valle de Lágrimas.”
A small stack of neatly folded clothes sat on Merc’s big bed. Ash was glad she and Summer were about the same size—they’d been sharing clothes since their college days. Summer’s stuff, as much as anything else, made her feel as if she was safe at last.
Merc pulled her close. It took a long moment for her to relax into him, and when she did, she didn’t want to let go.
He kissed her forehead. “I need to give Liege an update. Feel free to have a rest. Help yourself to anything. If you want another shower, there are towels in the closet.” He stepped back and ran his hands down her arms until he caught her hands. “You’re safe here, Ash.”
When he was gone, Ash moved around his room. It was about the same size as the other bedroom she’d been in. The decor and paint made it virtually indistinguishable from the others. She went out to the wide patio the rooms on the east side of the fort shared. It looked exactly as it had the day she’d started this odyssey, except the weather was much warmer and the sun was just rising.
Ash went back inside and took her toiletries and Summer’s clothes with her into the bathroom. There were no towels there—the sink was on a floating vanity. She went back into the large walk-through closet area and saw towels on a shelf near the bathroom. Merc’s color of choice was seafoam, like the colors in his old bedroom. Ash had to reach for the towel, as it was on an upper shelf. She braced herself against a closed cabinet door to grab what she needed. The cabinet opened, revealing cubbyholes containing things belonging to a woman.
Jealousy slashed through her. There wasn’t much there. A purse, a scarf, a pair of sneakers. And mixed in with those things were some kid things. A doll, a brush, two more pairs of shoes.
Ash realized what she was looking at.
A memorial to Merc’s late wife and daughters. Remorse at her first reaction seared her. She quickly closed the cabinet, realizing it was constructed in such a way that she wouldn’t even have known it opened if she hadn’t happened to lean on it.
Her heart beat hard. Those sneakers were so tiny. How horrible to have lost your wife and babies.
She wondered if she’d feel anything if she touched their things. As she stared at the closed door, her curiosity grew. What would she see? Intimate details of Merc and his first wife together? Not something she was interested in. Merc playing with his girls?
She had no way of knowing what clues would come through. She was not an expert in the art of psychometry—she’d only just begun to accept that the flashes of story she sometimes picked up on were real and not the stuff of her overactive imagination.