“I’ll accompany you,” Fin said.
“No, obviously, with you there, I won’t get any thinking done. Besides, you need rest too and you’ll do it better in your own bed.”
He leaned in to whisper only to me. “But I don’t want you to leave.”
I let him take my hand again. “I know you don’t. Which is part of why I should go.”
We stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment. I traced the pattern of crystals in his irises and then glanced down at my lap. “Can you hand me my phone please? I left it on your desk.”
He retrieved it and pressed it between my palms, covering them with his own. Carefully, I extricated my hands and opened my phone. After a few presses of buttons, I’d sent him back the latest check he sent.
His eyebrows were nudged together, and he stared down at me in open-mouthed shock. “Why did you do that?”
“You’re disappointed in my performance, that’s clear enough—”
“Zoey, please. I told you I overreacted because I was scared,” he said, then crouched down to look up at me instead of towering over me.
Damn it. I wanted to take it back. The words, the actions, the payment. I wished we could start the day over again. I’d dug in too deep to back out now, though.
I glanced over my shoulder. “Captain, can you take me home?”
He glanced between Fin and me. “Nope, sorry. Gotta stay prone. Doctor’s orders. You should do it too. Rest, sleep on it, rethink things in the morning.”
Of course, he was on Fin’s side. I’d completely imagined the connection we created as we had sewed each other up.
“I see, well, thank you. I’ll find my own way home then,” I said, and dropped to the floor next to Fin.
He steadied me and I pulled away.
The captain spoke up. “You’re being unreasonable. Let the man apologize and then lay down and take your medicine. I’m sure Holly would love to cook something for you.”
I shook my head. “I’m good. It’s time I got back to my own life. I’m not having visions anymore, and you know where the Black Mage is going to be to take care of him. I want to get back to my life.”
Fin sputtered and stood again. “You don’t mean that. You still want revenge on him as much as I do.”
Not at this moment. Right now, I just felt exhausted. “No, I want to sleep. That’s it. Just sleep, undisturbed.”
I could tell Fin wanted to keep asking me to stay with him. It made it easier that he didn’t, though. There were only so many times a woman could turn down something she actually wanted.
He moved so I could squeeze between him and the gurney, then I hobbled out the door. When I made it outside, an SUV sat on the driveway, a soldier in the driver’s seat. He rolled the window down and I poked my head in.
“Are you taking me home?”
“Yes. Hop in.”
I climbed in the back, careful of my wounds, and lay across the backseat. At this point, if we got into an accident, maybe it would just put me out of my misery.
Before the car even made it to the end of the driveway, I missed Fin. The small smiles he gave me when he thought I wasn’t looking. The way he watched my every move, as if memorizing them to think about later. I knew he didn’t hate me, and I knew I didn’t hate him, but damn, I didn’t like him right now.
The soldier helped me into my apartment and then insisted on staying outside to guard me. I told him to go about ten times and then even wrote it on a piece of paper and held it up to the window. Of course, he didn’t leave. I stared at my phone and waited for Fin to text me, but he didn’t.
I climbed into bed and thought maybe I should have had him do some healing on me before I stormed out of his house. The magic I’d felt earlier was still there, and I tugged it gently, like sliding a thread through the eye of the needle. It was enough to ease some of the ache in my body to allow me to sleep.
It comforted me knowing Fin was on the other end of it.
Chapter Sixteen
At least in my dreams, the pain couldn’t get to me.