Nik looked my way, and when his eyes met mine, when I saw the sad smile curving his lips, my heart seized up. He nodded infinitesimally, and I had the oddest impression that he was saying goodbye.

Shaken, I faced forward and continued onward, heading into the decontamination space everyone had to pass through on their way in and out of the quarantine zone. A quick spray of some high-intensity disinfectant cascaded over me in a fine mist, and I continued through the next plastic flap.

Garth was sitting at a folding card table alone, his back to me, a half-played game of solitaire laid out before him. Neffe, Aset, and Constance were in the far corner of the room. Aset seemed to be explaining to Constance what sorts of changes to expect after the procedure.

I took a deep breath, then plastered a smile on my face and headed for Garth. “Hey, stranger.”

He spun in his seat, looking too big for the folding chair, his fingers gripping the chair back. The second his rich brown eyes locked with mine, my heart warmed and my smile softened, becoming genuine. He looked exhausted; his skin was too pale, emphasizing the dark circles under his eyes, but he still filled the space around himself with a sense of calmness. Of peace.

“So, I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news,” I told him as I drew nearer.

His eyebrows rose. “What’s the good news?”

“This disease isn’t going to kill you.”

He started to stand, but I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “You found a cure?” he asked.

I shrugged one shoulder, pulling out the chair adjacent to his and turning it around to sit on it backwards, cool-kid style. “Something like that,” I said, resting my forearms on the back of the chair.

He frowned. “And the bad news?”

I smirked, tilting my head to the side. “You’re going to have to put up with my ass forever.”

“I don’t—” His brow furrowed, and he shook his head. And then his eyes widened. “My forever, or yours?”

I grinned. “Mine.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Sitting on a piece of driftwood, I stared out at the endless gray mass of salt water. Wind made the surface of the Puget Sound choppy, a clutter of white peaks forming only to fade away under the rolling swells seconds later. Dark clouds coated the sky from horizon to horizon, but the rain was the barest of drizzles. It looked more like five o’clock than one, but a glance at my borrowed watch assured me it was still barely after noon.

Off to the left, across the choppy Agate Passage, I could just make out the shoreline of Port Madison through the mist. Garth’s family was there, waiting for word of his condition. His ancestors had been living on that reservation for generations, safeguarding the secret of my people’s existence. Now Garth—one of them—was also one of us. I just didn’t know how much the Nejeret he would become over the coming days would resemble the human he’d been. How much would that tiny sliver of Heru’s ba change him—not just what he is, but who he is? There was no way to know until he woke, and Mari wasn’t even sure how long it would be until that happened.