And damn it. My skin was glowing brighter, and I had to make it stop.

The stupid drugs really must not be out of my system yet if I was still dreaming about him.

“Maité?” Ahiga asked.

I swallowed hard. So much for visualizing a happy place. “Did you hear anything?”

“Besides you breathing weird? No.”

Which meant I’d hallucinated. Fantastic. “Sorry.”

The cold, hard floor was nice against my sweaty skin. There was more than enough space for me to lie comfortably between the cryo chambers, and I was going to stay there until I got my shit together.

I focused on the wins. I made it to Abaddon in one piece and with my sanity mostly intact. I was still breathing, and that meant that I was surviving. One day at a time.

I stared up at the gray ceiling as I focused again on the breathing that Declan had taught me. After a few minutes, my skin was back to normal, and I was pretty sure I could sit up, but I couldn’t walk. That didn’t matter though. Without Ahiga, I didn’t have any idea where to go. So I’d wait. At least I was out of the chamber.

The nurse strode in and scoffed when she saw me lying on the floor. “If you’d told me you were claustrophobic, I would’ve added a relaxant to your wake-up.”

Ahiga let out a low laugh. “That’s what I said.”

“I’m not…” I started to say, but the nurse was already walking out again.

It took an hour for me to gain full use of my body, but Ahiga had been good to go ten minutes after coming out of stasis. He watched me very carefully while he waited for me to be able to move, bit by bit. When I finally stood up, his sigh was audible.

“I’m a survivor.” And a di Aetes never gives up.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

Ahiga didn’t ask me any questions, but he knew something had gone wrong with my stasis. The guarded way he was watching me told me that clearly enough. There was nothing he could do about it now, but I was never, ever going to try deep space travel the human way again.

My first few steps felt like I was walking on feet made of jelly-filled plastic bags. I started to stumble, but Ahiga grabbed me before I face-planted.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” He hooked his arm under my shoulders and helped me stay upright as we walked through the ship. At first, we moved slower than when I’d guided Ahiga across the catwalks, but after a few minutes, my feet started to get more feeling in them. Every step was a little stronger than the one before it. When we got to the exit, he was barely holding my weight anymore.