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Everyone’s thoughts fell silent Molly looked through the glass at the alluring bands of colors waving in the desert heat Reaching up, she touched the bandages adhered to her face She would absorb as much fluid as she could and then set off in search of Cole

"We are sorry--"

Molly grabbed her red band and tossed it off in disgust She seized her IV canister and rose to fix a glass of water and search for solid food

The two Drenards stared at each other as she ruh the pantry She didn’t care what they were thinking She grabbed some protein bars and juice pouches, both wrapped up in reflective foil and likely meant for initiates to take out on their rite She slae of covering her face and crying--or throwing soe and sadness, filled her with one brand of energy while it drained away another

She left the rations on the counter and turned toward the preparation rooear Before she went, she spun on the Drenards, wanting theer on her face

But it evaporated like sweat on boiling stone

A shape could be seen beyond the glass, fra colors in the sky

Hunched over and shuffling, it stunized him even as a dot on the horizon

Cole

She dropped the IV canister, ripped the needle out of her arm and moved as fast as she could around the counter and toward the door The Drenard guard hurried over to stop her, but the official shot up and grabbed his ar him back

Molly exploded out of the shelter

The two Drenards turned their backs, not wanting to know if any rules were violated, and willing to swear before the Circle if they had known: that none were

••••

It was the longest fifty h her tunic and the cold stone shocked her feet, but she didn’t care In the soft glow of light radiating out of the shelter lobby, she could see Cole--and a mixture of heartbreak and joy overwhelmed her senses She couldn’t even hear the winds or the distant groans fro from his shoulders as she approached, then practically fell into her arth to catch him--but she did

He slad to feel his war over and over again It was the third or fourth utterance before she even heard it, before she recognized her own voice, if not the words:

"I love you I love you I love you"

He pressed his cracked and dry lips to her neck, resting thehto talk To whisper soh, his mouth too dry

Molly didn’t care She knehat he was saying

She wrapped hith, a power she didn’t know she had

••••

When she realized how stupid she’d been to not bring a juice pouch to hi him away from the medical care he needed, Molly broke free and reached for the thing he’d dropped

Cole stopped her Gave her a look

She understood

He grabbed one end of the object and Molly recognized it as a larger version of her Wadi Much larger She felt a wave of panic and fear at the sight of the beast, at the sudden knowledge that Cole had fought with it The eood, but they tortured her anyway, useless fear cheh her bloodstreaue

Turning to the shelter, she led the way, breaking the wind in two for hilass, she could see the Drenards with their backs to the s, ignoring her and Cole Molly forced aside a neave of anger and jerked open the door, holding it as Cole staggered across the threshold and fell forward into the lobby, crashing against the carpet

Molly hurried inside to help hi his vanquished foe up his body, its tail crossing the doorway just as the glass barrier slammed shut

I out with loud, soothing sounds

Another guard ca quarters, and several pairs of hands--huroup, they took him to the first-aid room and placed him on the same table Molly had recently vacated What was left of his heatsuit and underbarrier were cut off, his arm swabbed cleaned for a needle Molly held his other hand and brushed his brown hair back from his handsome face Gried across rough stone

His lips parted; his tongueover the open splits He looked up at Molly and smiled, whichlike a Drenard as several blue hands tended to his wounds

It took almost an hour to clean and dress his myriad scrapes Several ointashes in his thighs and across his chest needed stitching The dae to his forearm required special attention Molly had to look away as they opened it up and flushed it ater Nored flesh, but there was so that this flesh was his

By the time they were done, Cole was fast asleep--whether due to the drugs in the IV, the pain, or the exhaustion--Molly couldn’t tell She pulled a chair close to the bed and held his hand, stroking the back of it as fluids dripped into his systeuard acted as if he would stay, but a look froe barrier, articulate in a thousand tongues

The couple was left alone while Cole slept and Molly thought Thought about what they had gotten theht about how much Dani had known of the politics involved About whether Edison could be alive out there and the best way to find hi on the buttes, and using the loudhailer to call for hi, but she didn’t care

Cole slept a long tier picture Her supposed mother was still trapped in a computer, her father in need of rescue And a pointless war needed to end Less serious but still troubling: her old night on Drenard, and they would likely plague her until she returned to the ship or found her family

Then there was her own Navy, who erous; by now theyeverywhere for Parsona

It seealaxy was safe

In a very short period of time, she had visited places that feould ever see, and they all looked the saard Everyone seemed to be out for themselves and she and her friends were just in the way

Molly found herself growing sleepy; she began dwelling on how nice it must be to not care How much easier if only she didn’t feel the iht by others It would be such a simple life

Simple and lonely

16

Molly awoke in the first aid rooe chair, alone Both ht Cole’s return had been a dream, then noticed the rens of heavy bandaging strewn across one of the tables