She opened the other two in order. The first one said, “Kit—Were you in the explosion? If you went straight home, you must have been. I cannot have visitors for another few days, but send me a note to reassure me.” Ah, that sounded alarmed; that was, for Jex, a tone of unreasonable concern. The second, written two days later, was actually calmer: “I have heard that you were harmed but alive. Gulden doctors spread that news to my friends. What a relief! If you are not too hurt, write me.”

She had not written, of course, and he had become worried enough to write her a third time, to ask after her health yet again. And he wanted to see her. Today. In five hours’ time.

She should not go. Wracked with doubt and horror as she was, terrified at the thought that he might have planned the explosion—convinced as she was that he was capable of it, whether he was responsible for this one or not—how could she consider going to him, how could she long, so suddenly and so violently, for one more moment in the catastrophic sun of his presence? But the brief words of invitation woke an irresistible, primitive desire in her muscles and bones. She could feel the magnetic drag of his presence like gravity or a vacuum. It was unopposable; her body bent in his direction no matter how she placed her feet or clung to an iron support. If he called her name in the middle of a crowded night, while cacophony raged above her head and voices vied with each other for volume, she would hear him; she would go to him; she would fight demons real and imagined to run to his side.

And so she would see him at three o’clock on this very afternoon, and she would learn if there was a reason to go on living.

*   *   *

The limo deposited her at the door of the Complex, but there were still many, many steps to take on a damaged ankle. She glided across the marble floors in the lower corridors, then stood panting in the closed elevator, willing the pain to subside. Her headaches were completely gone by now, and her wrist only required a simple, tightly wrapped bandage, but it seemed likely her ankle would never recover. She should have brought a cane.

The guard was new and did not seem interested in her arrival. A clock somewhere in the building was just chiming the hour as he unlocked the door, and she stepped into the apartment and into Jex’s arms.