I grinned. “A helluva lot more sexy than Pukey McBarferini.”

“No doubt.”

After a few more jokes, she seemed at ease…but my heart twisted in my chest when, after the nurse re-entered and explained the process, she inserted the IV into the port in Emilia’s chest. I pretended not to notice when Emilia quietly pulled the stuffed dog from behind her back and cuddled it next to her.

Instead I got up and went to the window, stuffed my hands in my pockets and tried to disguise the worry, fear and heartbreak in my own features before I turned back to her again.

Chapter Nine

Mia

“Not All Secrets Stay That Way Forever”— Posted on the blog of Girl Geek on January 19, 2014

Ever have a secret you were dying to tell but knew you’d be in big, big trouble if you did? What is it about the weight of a secret that makes unburdening oneself of it so satisfying?

Well…I’ve got a secret. It may just have something to do with that secret. You know the one.

And it’s not Victoria’s Secret, although the chainmail bikini armor sure looks like she could have designed it. Sometimes I expect my character to come strutting down a catwalk with angel wings pasted to her back, all covered in mandrool.

It’s not the Secret to Everybody from the Legend of Zelda.

And it’s not the secret cow level in Diablo.

And no, I wasn’t teasing you. I’ve got a secret. A secret from Dragon Epoch. That secret.

But unlike the hack sites who prefer to use crowdsourcing to solve an intricate and long-hidden quest in hours, I will act as your guide instead of your guru.

Have you scoured every inch of the Golden Mountains, killed every computer-generated monster a zillion times, examined every single last bit of loot, questioned every non-player character that lives in that zone and every zone adjacent?

Well, no wonder you are frustrated. You are looking in the wrong place.

Girl Geek’s first clue is to begin at the beginning.

Lest you don’t believe me, I’ll be posting a screenshot (with telling details blurred, of course) that proves that I have unlocked the secret quest.

Now if you’ll pardon me, I have a princess to save.

***

I think it was day two AC (after chemo) that I finally came to in the dark of my bedroom at Heath’s condo. I had no real way of ascertaining the date. It might have been day three or five or ten, for all I knew. But I did know that I was dog thirsty. I could have lapped up a lake, but the water bottle by my bedside was empty.

So I ventured outside of my tiny shelter of a room. My joints ached and the skin on my hands and feet felt like it was too tight. Classic signs of water retention. I was likely about to start sloshing around like a whale before I peed it all out.

And that didn’t even touch on the blazing heat in my chest or the pounding headache. At this moment I didn’t know which was worse, the cancer or the medication to fight it. Chemo was making me wish for quick death. And I almost wanted to sob at the thought of eleven more rounds.

I fumbled toward the kitchen, my water bottle in hand. I was halfway there before I had to pause from exhaustion. The apartment was dead quiet and dim but for the light coming from the living room. Heath must have gone out. Good for him…and here was my chance to prove that I didn’t need to be babysat like a toddler.

I straightened after a few minutes, took a few more steps before I bumped up against the cabinet door in the hallway. Suddenly someone was standing beside me.

I opened my mouth to begin a rant about how I hated life, this world and everything in it, including the air I was currently breathing. “Heath—”

My vision swam as I turned my head, registering the figure next to me—not quite as tall as Heath and with dark hair instead of blond.

“You need more water? I didn’t hear you come out of your room,” Adam said, reaching for my metal water bottle. “I should have checked your water but you were sleeping and I didn’t want to wake you.”

I pulled the water bottle away from him when he reached for it. “What are you doing here?”

He straightened. “Giving Heath the night off. I told him I’d camp out here in case you needed anything overnight. Heath’s out with Connor at a movie.”

“I was going to fill this up myself…”

“But that’s what I’m here for.”

I suspected he’d been here all weekend and wasn’t just staying over tonight to give Heath a break.

He pulled the water bottle out of my hands, which I released with only a little resistance. “You want ice?”