Oh, no…

I let go of the book, allowing him to continue reading. I didn’t want to follow along the part about his fall. I kept my eyes on the other side of the room until he’d passed it. I was glad that he didn’t comment about it. I guessed he’d felt uncomfortable too.

“‘Josh was in much better spirits today,’” he began to read aloud, in a higher tone of voice than usual. “‘He enjoyed the trip to the beach and—’”

I clamped a hand over his mouth and glared at him. “Don’t read it out loud.” It was embarrassing enough as it was without him reading in his stupid girly voice.

He chuckled. “Fair enough.”

I removed my hand and allowed him to continue reading in silence. After about a minute, another smile cracked his lips. He turned to me and smirked. “You don’t half go on about my muscles.”

Oh, my God.

Just kill me now.

“It’s part of my job,” I insisted, even as my cheeks grew red hot.

“Sure it is,” he said, slanting me a sly glance.

He fell quiet again, fixing his eyes back on the pages. And gradually, as he moved further into the notebook, toward the middle of my notes, his smile faded and he stopped making comments. By the time he had turned to the last page, it was hard for me to put a finger on his expression. Somber… Touched?

He closed the book and placed it on the bedside table before twisting on the mattress to face me fully. His gaze was hard to hold. I wondered what was going through his head exactly.

He cleared his throat, and his voice was quite hoarse as he said, “Thank you, Grace, for letting me read that.”

I shrugged, smiling and trying to make light of the situation. “Just doing my job, as I said.”

But he didn’t return my smile. He continued gazing at me so intensely that I almost looked away… yet something about his deep, brown eyes kept mine glued to them.

His hand moved downward, brushing against my arm. His fingers wrapped around my hand before raising it to his lips. I was breathing a little too hard as he pressed a chaste kiss against the back of it.

“Not to sound corny,” he said in a low voice, “but you honestly have been a grace to me. I’m not sure where my spirits would be right now if it weren’t for you visiting me every day. If it weren’t for your friendship… I suspect that you won’t ever know quite how much it has meant to me.”

I beamed at him, the corners of my eyes heating.

“If it hadn’t been for your idea to bring me here, on this trip,” he went on, his voice dropping deeper still, “I doubt any of this would’ve happened. I wouldn’t have found Clyderly base, or the graveyard… I wouldn’t know my name.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to all of this that wouldn’t sound painfully cheesy, and inadequate, to express how much I had actually ended up enjoying caring for him—despite the obstacles we’d faced. I just found myself leaning forward, closer to him, and planting a kiss on his pale cheek.

“You’re welcome,” I whispered.

A cute blush crept to his cheeks, and his eyes shone. I felt an unexpected urge to hug him and so, inching a little closer… I did. I wrapped an arm around him and rested my head against his shoulder. He tensed at first, then relaxed, his right hand settling over the small of my back.

I moved my ear above his heart and listened to the sound of it beating. Slow, but steady. I hoped that his eating would be back to normal soon. He had consumed a worryingly small amount these past few days. Since he wasn’t fully human, he could get away with eating less, but there was only so long he could go before Shayla would need to step in… perhaps start feeding him intravenously.

I shook the thought away. I needed to stay positive. For me and for Lawrence.

I had witnessed the effect on his overall mood the remembrance of his name had brought about. If he discovered more about himself tomorrow when we returned to the graveyard, perhaps his mood would lift further. If his mental wellbeing continued to improve, perhaps his appetite would follow… then we just needed the rest of him to get better, somehow…

My thoughts were interrupted by Lawrence’s lips brushing against my forehead. A soft, quick kiss. Then his fingers began to trail through my hair, gently, absentmindedly, and I couldn’t think of much else after that. My stomach churned with butterflies… Butterflies. The last time I’d felt them had been with Heath.

As I remained lying in Lawrence’s arms deep into the night, I wondered what, exactly, I was falling into here… What I might have already fallen into.

The only thing that I knew for certain, as I glanced up into Lawrence’s brown eyes, was that I had abandoned any and all pretenses of being a “professional”.

Bastien

I had lost all sense of how long I had been swimming for. It could’ve been days, maybe even weeks. I was sure that I had swallowed too much of this salty water as I drifted. My mind was not its sharpest.

I had swum too far away from The Woodlands in my escape from Brucella. I’d been trying to swim back, but I’d lost my way. I could no longer even see The Woodlands’ familiar outline in the distance. But if I kept swimming, I assured myself, I would spy land eventually. I just needed to keep pushing on. Keep moving. In spite of how drained my body was beginning to feel. In spite of how hunger and thirst clawed at my insides. In spite of the dizziness overtaking my brain.

I might have lost everything else, but I still had my home country. It was my family. My friend. My constant companion ever since I had been born. And it needed me. The Woodlands needs me.