I was so tightly wound that I shrieked in terror; I was so terrified that my shriek was only a breathless little squeal.

“Sorry!” Jared’s arm went around my shoulders, comforting. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“What are you doing here?” I demanded, still breathless.

“Following you. I’ve been following you all night.”

“Well, stop it now.”

There was a hesitation in the dark, and his arm didn’t move. I shrugged out from under it, but he caught my wrist. His grip was firm; I wouldn’t be able to shake free easily.

“You’re going to see Doc?” he asked, and there was no confusion in the question. It was obvious that he wasn’t talking about a social visit.

“Of course I am.” I hissed the words so that he wouldn’t hear the panic in my voice. “What else can I do after today? It’s not going to get any better. And this isn’t Jeb’s decision to make.”

“I know. I’m on your side.”

It made me angry that these words still had the power to hurt me, to bring tears stinging into my eyes. I tried to hold on to the thought of Ian—he was the anchor, as Kyle somehow had been for Sunny—but it was hard with Jared’s hand touching me, with the smell of him in my nose. Like trying to make out the song of one violin when the entire percussion section was bashing away…

“Then let me go, Jared. Go away. I want to be alone.” The words came out fierce and fast and hard. It was easy to hear that they weren’t lies.

“I should come with you.”

“You’ll have Melanie back soon enough,” I snapped. “I’m only asking for a few minutes, Jared. Give me that much.”

Another pause; his hand didn’t loosen.

“Wanda, I would come to be with you.”

The tears spilled over. I was grateful for the darkness.

“It wouldn’t feel that way,” I whispered. “So there’s no point.”

Of course Jared could not be allowed to be there. Only Doc could be trusted. Only he had promised me. And I wasn’t leaving this planet. I wasn’t going to go live as a Dolphin or a Flower, always grieving for the loves I’d left behind me, all dead by the time I opened my eyes again—if I even had eyes. This was my planet, and they wouldn’t make me leave. I would stay in the dirt, in the dark grotto with my friends. A human grave for the human I had become.

“But Wanda, I… There’s so much that I need to say to you.”

“I don’t want your gratitude, Jared. Trust me on that.”

“What do you want?” he whispered, his voice strained and choked. “I would give you anything.”