Page 213 of Seer Prophet
After tugging on my arm a few times to test the chain, I closed my eyes, briefly thankful I didn’t have to go to the bathroom. I noted the next time I blinked that Revik left me water in a container on the table by the bed, along with a note I didn’t bother to read, since I knew he’d be back and that I didn’t need to know where he was until then.
I didn’t want to know.
I didn’t want to find out later it had been a lie.
Pushing everything from my mind, I snuggled deeper into the covers Revik must have pulled around me at some point, since we’d lain on top of the comforter the last time I’d been conscious enough to know where I was.
I felt myself breathe, my heart beat.
The last thing I did was sigh.
Before the sigh ended, I slid back into unconsciousness.
* * *
The next timeI opened my eyes, Revik was unlocking my wrist from the wall.
I felt what might have been a flicker of discomfort on him.
More than that, I felt something closer to defiance.
Whatever it was I felt, he didn’t meet my gaze as he opened the organic metal band. Once he had it undone, he reconfigured the wall to get the chain to retract. It occurred to me only then, in watching his face, that he hadn’t locked me up as some kind of erotic thing, not that time.
He’d actually done it so I wouldn’t leave.
I was still looking up at him, when something else crossed my mind.
I’d missed his birthday.
His birthday had been the day after we met Kali on that beach.
I’d planned things for him, just like I had the year before, when I missed his birthday because I got kidnapped by Cass. This time we were going to have a party up on the deck. Maygar was going to help me cook something. We’d joked about making him curry-flavored cake, with bourbon in the batter.
I had presents for him.
I had Balidor and Yumi grab books for me, from the casino hotel at Macau––Russian novels if they could find them, or anything that looked decent if they couldn’t. I’d also painted something for him. I’d been working on it for weeks, mostly when he was locked up in here.
Reaching up, I touched his face.
His jaw hardened as I traced it with my fingertips, right before he turned. He studied me as closely as I studied him, but still without fully meeting my gaze. I saw tiredness in his expression, but also lingering nerves, what verged on fear.
“Forget it,” he said, giving me a taut smile. “We’ll do it next year.”
I clicked at him reproachfully.
He cut me off before I could speak.
“…We’re still a few days away from the staging area,” he said, gruff.
Still watching his face, I nodded, knowing what he meant.
He was talking about Dubai.
“Do they need me up there today?” I asked.
There was a silence.
He shook his head, once.
