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Jack?

She dropped the cookie to the floor, heart pounding as Jack smiled at her from around the bathroom door, his blond hair tousled and his stubble thick the way she liked it His tie was loosened and his white dress shirt was a brilliant bloodred at his s you’re not going to like the answers to, Peri Questions are bad for your asthma"

She blinked, hand clenched on the bare needle She didn’t even ree as she stared at the bathroo at her over his phone as if she had lobsters co out of her ears Clearly he hadn’t seen Jack She was hallucinating

Oh God, I’ so trau to recover it If she couldn’t get a clean defrag, the hallucinations would get worse until she couldn’t tell reality fro? How long until I can’t function?

Silas retrieved the cookie, setting it doith an accusing snap "Thirty-second rule"

"Thank you" Hands shaking, she s thean appraising "mmmm," Silas settled across fro for souile to be referring to her knitting Great I think he knows "Fine" Peri pulled out another row, her fear growing as the two colors tangled "I’ to decide how to access my apartment," she adlibbed "Unless I et locked out" Don’t look at the bathroo "What’s the weather supposed to be tomorrow?"

Silas set his phone to vibrate and put it on the table "How bad are the hallucinations?"

She lifted her chin, refusing to look at the bathroom "Hallucination, not hallucinations There is no plural"

"I thought so" A thick hand scrubbed his clean-shaven face "We have a probleaze held pity when he looked up "They’re going to get worse"

Hating her flush, she ly "I’ll deal with it"

"Peri, I can help Let "

Worried, she looked at the yarn in her lap as if the answer lay tangled there "No," she whispered The last time he’d been in her head, she’d remeo," he said as he leaned across the table, eyes showing his shared worry "I know you don’t want to remeh this, it will … i to say it would drive her crazy, because if she didn’t find a way to deal with it, it would "No," she said firmly, then, "Yes No" Her eyes closed

"What if you have a vision tonight of so that’s not there and le any "

Meht, but she was scared, and she stiffened when he stood and erous," she said, juhtly on her shoulders

Silas chuckled, leaning to put his face inches fronore them Now, tell me this isn’t better," he said as he pressed his thuood "Better," she whispered, her eyes closing as her head dropped forward over the spilled yarn "I don’t want to reth in his hands eased, and she cracked an eye

"You’re so full of psychiatric bull"

He laughed, the sound relaxing her ers His pressure on her was fa, and utterly professional Her body re over to what it needed to do, taking her mind with it whether she wanted it to or not "Please don’ther thoughts

"I won’t I prohed as he found every knot of stress and eased it away Peri tensed when Jack’s pale face flashed into her upper thoughts, then exhaled when she felt Silas dip into her ment it, he set it aside I hieneration Why he’d left Opti was a mystery

"Find your safe spot," he whispered, and she drowsed, re this before "You can sleep there" Sleep would be a blessing, and knowing that her "safe spot" would be free of Jack, of Opti, of everything, she turned her thoughts to her grandparents’ farh in her tree, the wind s of bees and sun in her hair…

Until she realized it inter and the leaves were gone She reached for a dead branch; her fingers were stained with blood Frightened, she looked down to see Jack lying below her in the yellow fields, the long, sparse grass waving to touch his face creased in pain A scarf she had knitted added up and pressed to his abdoazes decorated it Panic stirred