Page 17 of Synodic

“No, but my date left me, and he—”

“He left you?” he growled in disbelief. “In this state?”

“He didn’t know this would happen!” I clamored back, not sure why I was defending Harlan. He should have at least checked his phone by now and seen my missed calls, but I wasn’t about to admit I was completely helpless just yet. “And besides, he can go where he pleases, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I managed to make it to a room where I can wait this out. So you are free to go back to whatever scary ax-wielding thing you were doing.”

I barely got the drunken words out before another wave of nausea hit me like a swirling undercurrent, and this time I was sure I was going to be sick. I dropped my head between my knees and rocked back and forth, hoping it would neutralize the spinning.

“I’m not leaving you. Not like this. I know someone who can help.” He motioned to help lift me, almost landing a palm on me, but stopped short. “Can you walk?” he asked, lowering his hand to his side.

It was taking everything within me just to hold myself upright, but somehow I managed an unbecoming snort at his ridiculous proposal. Where was he going to take me? He and this other imaginary friend he mentioned couldn’t help. Not really. They were only in my head and nothing more. “Definitely not. But really, I’ll be okay. You can go.”

He crouched down in front of me, holding my gaze. “We’re waiting this out. Together.” His command was final, but something about the way he said it made me think he knew what it was to suffer alone and would never wish that on anyone. And I had to admit, no matter how strange this was, it was comforting having him here with me while I experienced this waking nightmare.

“Tell me about where you’re from,” he said, and I tried to focus my spinning world on his full lips.

“You’re trying to distract me.”

“Is it working?”

My speech was slurring more and more by the minute, but he had a point; anything to keep me from passing out was sure to help. “It’s noisy, crowded, all cement, mortar, and media, and…and nothing feels real anymore.”

“What do you do to keep from going mad?” he asked, seeming genuinely curious.

I scoffed, nearly losing my balance again. “That ship has long sailed, my friend, but running, running helps. But lately I’ve been…busy.”

“Busy with what?”

“Tripping through darkness.”

Rowen’s nostrils flared on an exhale and he placed his hand on the tree that was tethering me to earth, his graphite-smudged fingers resting an inch from my own hand. He still made it a deliberate point not to touch me, even though it seemed like he wanted to, to reach out and comfort me, but didn’t dare push himself beyond a very specific point of control.

He’d touched me once before and it had been electrifying. For me, at least. I wondered if he had felt it too.

I contemplated just reaching out to touch him, to hold onto the wide birth of corded shoulders. He looked more steadying than anything else I was experiencing at the moment, but within another blink of an eye, I was back in the low-lit lounge of Prism.

I scanned the room in a haze, my eyes snagging on three large silhouettes lurking on the other side of the crystal curtain. Their boisterous laughter and stocky frames pinned them as the men I had run into earlier.

I hoped they weren’t looking for me, but the chances of them coincidently lingering outside the very alcove I was utterly indisposed in were slim. Either way, if they found me in my current state it wouldn’t be a good thing. I could barely keep my eyes open and head up.

“I think she’s in here,” said the man with overly gelled hair, confirming my fears.

I accidentally let my head lull, and when I snapped it back up, I was staring into murderous green eyes. “What?” Rowen demanded, reading the change in my demeanor.

“It’s some men I bumped into earlier. I…I think they are about to bother me,” I said, unable to hide the tremor in my voice.

Rowen’s eyes widened in sick realization before darting all over my body, clearly adding up all the ways this did not look good. “Keira, listen to me. You need to get out of there. Now.”

He tried to grab me but I was already gone, and his voice trailed away, swallowed by a dark, endless hallway.

It would be so easy to close my eyes and sleep through this, but my mind jolted in self-preserving panic.

Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake.

Stout fingers ran across the beaded doorway in taunting strokes before finally latching on to open the curtain. All three men stepped through the threshold, smiling as if they’d just won the lottery, and I cursed myself for having picked such an isolated area.

“There you are, doll. We’ve come to check on you,” said Gel Hair, apparently the ringleader of the group.

“Yeah, you don’t seem so good,” said Yellow Teeth as they all sauntered towards me. “Would you like to come with us to a more comfortable place? Or we could stay in here and have some fun.”

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