He put his arms around her. He’d never imagined such a thing could feel so horrible and harrowing. The horribleness didn’t even have anything to do with his injuries, that every point of contact hurt. It wasn’t his body that hurt.

Rain stared off into space, feeling much like he imagined the shell-shocked in war-zones to feel.

He thought of Cradle’s reaching out for help, people stumbling past him, knocking his hand away.

⊙

“Hello? Mrs. Yamada speaking.”

“It’s Rain. I’m—I’m really not doing great. Can we talk?”

“I thought you might call. Victoria and Sveta reached out to me. I’d planned to call you this afternoon to check on you. Listen, I’m expecting a patient shortly, and I can’t adjust that. We can talk for a few minutes, or, if it’s not an emergency, I can call you in an hour and a half, and I can give you a lot more time.”

“Please,” Rain said. “The second one.”

“Be easy on yourself, Rain. I’ll call you in an hour and a half.”

Rain hung up.

He’d reached out and there was a reach back.

He had that.

Erin was asleep on the other end of the room, on a makeshift bed, Rain’s spare change of clothes piled atop her as a kind of blanket. Her hand was under her pillow and her gun was in her hand. He wasn’t sure if she knew he’d seen her do it.

Cradle had described him as a monster. He wasn’t sure if he was, but as he sat at his work table, trying to work quietly, he imagined he was willing to become a little more monstrous if it meant saving the likes of Erin from becoming a lost soul like Lachlan.

His tinkering might have been limited, but he had other skills. He’d survived in places more rustic than this for a time. He could make blades. He could make traps and snares. His scrap with his uncle had taught him he couldn’t win a fair fight against even the unpowered, not with his powers being what they were.

He’d draw on every resource he had to keep it from coming down to a fair fight. When he went back to the group tomorrow, it would be with a different mindset.

Shade 4.6

“Help me understand how this makes any sense at all,” Natalie said.

We were outside of a bagel place, close to the station nearest the Wardens’ headquarters. Natalie had bought a salad with chicken bits in it. I’d never liked eating cold chicken, so I’d picked up a salad without the extras, and a toasted bagel sandwich with fish, black olives, tomatoes and cream cheese. We sat at a table outside.