Page 62 of Keeping Sarah

I voiced another concern. “I do not know whether Rex is using this time to retrieve his remnant, or—"

“Plant more of himself in her?” he asked incredulously.

I nodded, the thought eating me up inside. “Yes.”

Jac’s jaw clenched. “He would have to know that we would figure it out, right? He can’t be that arrogant to think he would sneak this under our radar, can he?”

“We have not yet successfully separated them,” I pointed out. “Who is to say we could do it after there wasmoreof him in her?”

“Are youtryingto get me to punch your hull again?” he asked in a tight voice. “Because this is a good way to do that.”

“I am not, Jac. I am—"

“Spinning out and panicking?” he guessed.

“Yes.” Guilt and regrets weighed heavy on my ghost. “And all of this is my own fault.”

He frowned at me. “What?”

“I should have…all those years ago, when I murdered Rex, I should have stalked his body here,” I said, having thought it a hundred different times. “I should have waited for his ghost to emerge and killed him again so he’d be gone for good. I should have—"

Jac kissed me to shut me up, so I let him.

“Stop that,” he gently chided, his good hand curled around the back of my neck as he looked into my eyes. “There is no way you could have known that any of this would happen years later, Deacon.”

I gave him a sad smile. “No, but I knew Rex was evil, and I should have eliminated the threat.”

Jac shook his head. “First of all, you didn’t murder Rex. You put down a rabid beast. Secondly, you are not an executioner. You are not the law. It was one thing to stop him from killingOde when she was a defenseless little girl, it’s another to hunt someone’s ghost, like an actual murderer.”

His kind words were a mere balm on a mortal wound. It was sweet of him to say, but none of what he said felt like truth to me. “I do not deserve your kindness, Jac.”

“You deserve the world, Deacon,” he said in a harsh tone. “Don’t ever try to tell me otherwise.”

I smiled up at him, ready to change the subject. “You’re all bandaged up.”

“I didn’t feel a thing.” He looked down at his hand and marveled at my handiwork. “You have a good bedside manner.”

“I am sure Ode will have something to say about my skills.”

“She has something to say about everything,” he said as he smirked. He hopped off the exam table and said, “Let’s take a nap, while Drift drives.”

“Do you think you can sleep at a time like this?”

“Probably not. But I can try.”

So, try we did. But sleep alluded us both. It was midday when we arrived at my father’s home. No one was out front when we landed, but there were shouts in the backyard, causing us both concern. We ran to the sound, only to find everyone crowded around the vivector. A fight was displayed on the back of Father’s cottage. I groaned my disgust with the sport.

“It is not so bad,” father said.

I disagreed. “How can you watch that filth?”

“It is not to the death anymore, so I see it as a triumph of athletic endurance.” Father shrugged, then looked concerned. “Where is Sarah?”

Helios was not lying. If the fights are no longer to the death, then perhaps there is a part of Sarah in Rex. Something which softens him. Perhaps this is a good sign.

“It is a long story,” I told him. “Can you quiet that thing down? I want to tell everyone at once, so I do not have to rehash it all again.”

“Very well.” Father turned the volume down and gave me the floor.

---