Darling hissed as Syn gave him a shot in his hip. “Damn it, warn me before you hit the trigger!”

But at least it didn’t take long for the drug to settle his stomach.

Syn gripped his shoulder. “All right, we’re going to roll you back. Slowly.”

As they turned him, the room spun so badly, Darling had to close his eyes to keep from being sick again. Once he was flat on his back, he let out a long breath as he tried to will his eyes to normal.

It was useless. They continued to violently shake and disorient him.

“What happened?” Darling asked.

Syn’s voice was a fierce growl. “Some asshole launched a rocket full of Fledon into your office.”

Darling slowly remembered the details of the attack as Zarya took his hand into hers. “I was locked in.”

“Yeah,” Hauk said irritably from Darling’s blind side. “We know. You’re lucky your girlfriend’s trained. She saved your ass, boy. You owe her.”

Darling tightened his hand around Zarya’s. That was the one thing about her, in a fight, she was always levelheaded and resourceful. “Thank you.”

She kissed him on the cheek. “Anytime, sweetie.”

Darling opened his mouth to speak, then went into a horrible round of coughing.

Zarya let go of his hand as he struggled to expel all the poison out of his body. In between the coughs, he cursed at the pain it caused him. She hated seeing him like this. But she was so grateful she’d been able to resuscitate him that his coughing was music to her ears.

Syn put the oxygen mask back over his face. “Just breathe. Slow and easy.”

Darling went completely limp.

As she panicked in concern for Darling, Syn held his hand up to her. “It’s all right. I knocked him out again. He doesn’t need to be coughing like that right now. He’s likely to do more damage.”

Hauk glared from his post on the opposite side of the room. “I want the balls of the cowardly bastard responsible for this.”

“You?” Zarya asked, meeting his bloodlust head on. “I want them for earrings.”

The Andarion smiled at her. “I really like you.”

“Thanks.” But her smile faded as she met Syn’s grimace. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m just wondering which of us is going to be the one to tell Darling that you’re the reason he was attacked.”

A pall covered Zarya all day as Syn and Hauk came and went from Darling’s room while she and Maris watched over him. Syn’s words hung heavy in her heart, and by the way Syn tended Darling, she could tell that Darling was in a lot worse shape than Syn was letting them know.

Please don’t die. The one thing all of this had taught her was how much Darling meant to her. The thought of living without him…

How could she have forgotten how agonizing those weeks of not knowing where Kere was had been?

And now that she really knew him… his face, his past… it was so much worse. He was no longer her mythical, larger than life lover. Now he was human, and he’d carved an even deeper place into her heart.