Page 73 of Prince of Tides
“Yeah, they can be like that,” I said wryly.
“So, what’s wrong with you?”
I explained everything slowly, over many sips of water.
“How are you feeling?”
“Good,” I said. “I’m drinking more water now. Apparently, I wasn’t drinking enough.”
I neglected to tell her the why. Telling my sister I had a baby sea dragon growing in my belly was … not on my list of conversations to have just yet.
“Where is he?” she asked when I finished explaining.
“Rip?”
“If you want to give him a name,” she said hotly. “He should be here.”
“It’s a long story,” I said.
My sister looked around the room, then at the IV, all rather pointedly. “I think we have time,” she drawled.
“I’m not mad at him,” I told her, declining to explain. “He wasn’t able to drop what he was doing. Even if he’d tried, I would have told him not to.”
I frowned internally as I explained. I’d only intended to get her off the scent, but as I spoke, it rang with a truth I hadn’t understood. Ididn’tblame him. His people needed him, and there was nothing he could do being here instead of there.
But did that mean I was ready to accept what he’d told me about “fate” and how he and I were basically preordained to be together?
Maybe not yet.
“You okay?” Mel asked. “You’re awfully quiet.”
“I feel much better,” I said truthfully. “Sore throat, but even that’s going down. Everything has faded since they hooked me up to fluids and I’ve been drinking water.”
“Good. I’m going to go run to the bathroom really quick, okay?”
“Of course,” I said, reaching for the cup. “Just leave me that.”
Mel smiled and stood up, heading for the door.
She stopped halfway as it opened, and a large nurse entered, face covered in a mask.
“Who are you?” I asked, not recognizing him.
Another nurse entered after that. And another.
“What’s all this for?” Mel asked, turning to look at me.
As she did, one of the nurses lunged forward, grabbing her up and stuffing a cloth over her face.
I inhaled to shout, but the hulking nurse shook his head.
“Not a peep,” he said as I stared down the barrel of the pistol he’d pulled from somewhere
Chapter Thirty-Six
Rip
Three long days later, I finally dragged myself back into the Bay of Summoning, exhausted, hurting, and more than a little worried.
