“What?” I asked.
“We all used to crash in that room most of the time,” Cabe admitted, pressing his nose into my hair again so that his voice was muffled. “If you look under the bed you’ll find two single mattresses.”
“Ah.” I clucked my tongue lightly in understanding, shifting a little bit so that I was more comfortable. “It was the closest room. First door.”
“The rooms are situated by order of importance,” Cabe said, a laugh in his voice.
I was distracted from my laugh by Noah’s fingers plucking at the pants I was wearing. “We should stop by home on the way and pick up our stuff.”
“Our stuff?” I asked.
“Surely you didn’t think that you and Tariq were going to go back to Weston’s lair all on your own, did you?” Disbelief marked Noah’s tone.
I turned to Cabe, searching for confirmation in his expression. His face was closer than I had expected, and his eyes dropped to my lips as I stared at him. The arm across my middle grew tense, drawing me closer.
“If you’re moving, so are we,” Cabe confirmed, his voice rough.
“B-but—”
“I’m going to stay and look after Silas,” Quillan interrupted my nervous protestation.
“When did you all decide this?” I asked, turning away from Cabe to stare at Quillan. I had expected some of them to follow me, but I hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly and seemingly without discussion.
Quillan shrugged. “Just now.”
I pulled away from Cabe and launched across Noah to throw my arms around Quillan’s neck. “Thank you!”
A laugh bubbled from him and I released him to do the same to Noah, planting a kiss on his cheek. He grinned, but quickly tried to smother the smile, and it prompted me to kiss his cheek again. The smile broke free, transforming his whole demeanour: just like his glare, his smile was a powerful force, and I knew that my own smile grew in response. It felt almost wrong, to be this happy. It had been such a long time since I had smiled so much that it made my cheeks ache. Cabe pulled me back as the limousine turned a corner, and I settled against him.
“You should drop me off at the hospital and get your stuff and Tariq while I’m in there,” I said to them, my mind drifting off to thoughts of Silas.
Just like that, the brief happiness dissipated, leaving a horrible, hollow ache in my stomach. The others agreed, and ten minutes later the limousine stopped at the Maple Falls hospital. Quillan got out with me and the silent giants followed as he led me to Silas’s room, carefully bypassing the nurse’s desk at the start of the ward.
I entered the room with my heart lodged in my throat, and the sight of Silas almost broke me into two. He was covered from head-to-toe in bandages and hooked up to several machines. His heartbeat was a pitiful, sluggish imitation of the irregular kick inside my chest that I was used to. I swallowed, pulling away from the others to approach his bedside.
“Block the door,” I whispered. “Don’t let anyone in.”
To my surprise, Hans and Andrei were the ones to do my bidding, moving to stand right up against the door, their fronts turned so that they could still keep an eye on me. I nodded to them and then turned back to Silas, carefully unwrapping the bandages from my hands. I set the wraps aside and placed my palms over his chest, closing my eyes tightly against the image of him. It was weak of me, but I didn’t want to examine him too closely. I didn’t want to see the evidence of him having changed in any way. He was different, though. Of course he was. I had caught the brief impression a trimmed beard shading his squared jaw before I looked away. It tipped the wildness hinted in his usual appearance into something course and intimidating. The nurses had obviously cleaned him up, but I wasn’t sure that any amount of soap could wash away the truth of what had been done to him. It devastated me, and the valcrick spluttered into being, trembling in my arms and begging to be let out after so long. I held it back, needing to draw upon the right emotion so that I didn’t harm Silas any more than he was already harmed.
Quillan must have sensed my turmoil, for he moved behind me, setting his hands on my shoulders and leaning down to whisper in my ear. “Want me to tell a joke?”
A reluctant laugh spilled out, but I kept my eyes closed. “Okay.”
“Do you want to know why all Zevghéri are genetically superior in some way or another? Why they look more physically appealing than their human counterparts?”
“Why?” I asked, keeping my hands steady on Silas’s chest.