“I’m sure that’s come in handy more than once.”
Nora nodded slowly. “The important thing is that Symes will get off. There will be questions for me, no doubt. Symes tells me one of the investigators is already trying to tie me to Indigo, since I was in the car, but we’ve got our story together. Indigo saved me, whisked me away through the shadows, the same way she brought him to the hospital.”
“It’s weird that you keep talking about her like she’s not you. I mean, you told me already. Why keep doing that third-person thing?”
Nora glanced out the window, smiling softly. “It’s a beautiful, sunny day, Sam. Peaceful. Your hula girl’s dancing in the kitchen window. There’s a time for me to be Indigo, but this isn’t it, and when I put her away, I like her to stay there, at least for a while.”
“Fair enough. But speaking of putting things away…”
She held her coffee mug in front of her like a shield. Took a sip. Stared at him over the rim. “You want to talk about Damastes.”
“We don’t have to.”
“I don’t mind, I guess. Not much to say. I put him in a box and hid him away where he won’t be found, and I feel lighter for it.”
The coffee seemed to have revived Sam a bit. He shifted on the sofa and didn’t look quite so pained this time. “So you put the genie back in his bottle, but how long does that last?”
“Forever, if I can help it. And I think I can.”
“And while he’s there, you still have access to his power.”
Nora nodded. “To the darkness, yeah. I’m still Indigo. Stronger and more controlled than ever, learning new skills, understanding how all of this magic works. Xanthe is helping.”
Sam studied her thoughtfully, then reached out for her hand. Nora held her coffee mug in one hand so that she could take the comfort he offered. Their fingers laced together, solid and familiar.
She didn’t tell him that sometimes she could still feel Damastes in the shadows within her. Why worry him unnecessarily? Nora didn’t want to tell Sam because then she would have had to explain. She couldn’t hear Damastes voice, and it wasn’t as if he might influence her or break free, only that she could sense him there. What she sensed was his fury. Fury and despair. And it made her smile.
Sam tugged gently on her hand. “Hey. So, I’m in pain and it hurts if I move a lot, but otherwise I’d be putting the moves on you right now. Y’know, turning up the charm, blasting that seduction wattage.”
“Excuse me, ‘seduction wattage’?”
“Oh, yeah. Fifty thousand volts.”
Nora snickered. “And somehow electricity metaphors are sexy?”
“Wait, they’re not?” Sam looked stricken.
Nora finished the last of her coffee. She moved to put the mug back onto the coffee table, but Sam didn’t let go of her hand. Nora felt her heart quicken a bit and turned to look at him.
“What I’m saying, in my incredibly sexy way, is that if you promised to be careful not to hurt me any more than necessary, I might be persuaded to let you kiss me.”
Nora’s mouth had gone dry. She wetted her lips, lifted his hand, and kissed the big bruise on the back of it. Then she extricated herself from his grasp and pushed aside the blanket, stood and faced the sofa.
“That’s not really what I—”
“Sam, stop.”
He blinked, giving her an uncertain smile. “Okay.”
Nora exhaled and turned away, pacing a moment, trying to figure out what words ought to be coming out of her mouth. Finally she faced him again.
“You weren’t talking to me in a ‘friends with benefits’ way just now.” Sam started to deny it, but Nora waved the protest away. “No, it’s okay. It’s … it’s good, in fact.”
“Which is weird, because it doesn’t seem like you think it’s good.”
She perched on the end of the coffee table but did not reach out to him. Instead, she fixed her gaze upon his. “It’s only been a few days. You’re still recovering. Maybe your brain’s addled by painkillers or your concussion, and I want to know that you’ve thought this through.”
“I have, Nora,” Sam said in that business-y tone she’d always thought of as his grown-up-people-talking voice. “I have.”
For a few seconds they sat looking at each other. Then she nodded once and stood up again. “I’ve got to go.”
“Nora…”
“No, really. I’m not ditching you because of this. There’s something I need to do, something I’ve got to do or I’ll never feel right again.”
She picked up her coffee mug and walked it into the kitchen, rinsed it in the sink, and put it in the drainer, then made her way back into the living room, where Sam still sat with his own coffee, watching her the way she imagined novice lion tamers watched their charges the first time in the big cage.
“Nora?”
“I’ll be back later to look in on you,” she promised, “but we’re tabling this discussion until the doctor gives you an all clear. No way I’m letting myself get involved with you right now.”
“Define right now.”
Nora pointed a finger at him. “I’m not kissing you until I know you’re no longer concussed.”
Sam grinned.
Nora wrapped the autumn shadows around her, stepped into them, and vanished.
*
When Indigo stepped from the darkness, it was into the apartment two floors above Nora’s. The space remained empty. The fall sunlight beyond the windows barely seemed to reach into that dusty space, which only days before had been filled with light and laughter, with furniture, and with the kindness of a woman who had fast become her best friend … all of which had existed only because Indigo had summoned it into being.
All of which had existed because Nora had wished it. Needed it. She had created an imaginary friend for herself, but that light and laughter and warmth, that friend, had become real and true. Of all the things she had done wrong, all of the things the darkness had taken, it had given her one true thing in return.
Indigo let the shadows go. She needed to be Nora right now.
Nora opened her hands and closed her eyes. She searched her memory for the lamp in the corner, for the big plush chair with the chocolate stain on the arm, for the spider plant hanging by the window.
With her eyes still closed, she heard a familiar laugh, and she grinned as an unfamiliar joy filled her.
“Woman,” she heard, “you look like hell swallowed you down and then spat you out.”
Nora opened her eyes, her smile growing. “Shelby. Welcome home.”