Page 124 of Even Robots Die
Florentine
It takes me a few seconds for every word uttered by Brice to permeate my mind and when it does, it’s like the dam I’ve been holding up inside of me shatters. Tears silently well up and then drench my cheeks and I can’t control it.
I hear Brice tell Charles to prepare the room. I vaguely hear that it should be ready in an hour and I’m ushered away to the section of the castle where my room is located. Brice doesn’t bring me there, though. He picks the door across from mine, and like in Notre Dame, I’m assaulted by the smell of him inside.
I don’t pay attention to the room or anything that is neatly organized there. All I see is a blurry version of the world as the tears keep falling endlessly.
I still can’t shake the feeling that I shouldn’t be the one falling apart, that I don’t have that right, and that I should suck it up, because that’s what I always do. But Brice whispers sweet nothings in my ear and all I can do is press myself a bit more against him.
My breathing is back to being erratic, and like he always does when I need to calm down, Brice holds my hand against his heart and even ifthe tears won’t stop and are drenching the fabric of his shirt, it calms me.
There are only whispers and quiet tears in his room and I have no idea how it happens, but Brice manages to tuck me against him while sitting on his bed without releasing me, even for a second. He sits me on his lap and tucks my head against his chest, one hand over the one at his heart and the other brushing my hair out of my face.
He doesn’t tell me to stop crying. He doesn’t walk away from me because my emotions are too much for him. No, he stays right here with me and he waits with me for the storm to pass.
It takes longer than I care to admit for the tears to dry, and I think I might have fallen asleep in the meantime.
So much for preventing me from sleeping. Those damn pills could do nothing against the weight of my emotions.
When I wake up, the sun is still high in the sky and Brice is still here holding me tightly to him and I don’t want this to end.
I still raise my head to look at Brice and meet his eyes.
“How are you feeling now?” he asks me tenderly as his hand slips from over mine to my back like he doesn’t want to let me go either.
“Better.”
And weirdly, I mean it.
He softly kisses my forehead and then my lips. I’m sure he can still taste my tears on them, but he doesn’t comment on it.
“Do you feel ready to change the world?” he asks me with the same soft tone.
“Do you mean your world?” I ask him cheekily. After all, we’re about to rewire his brain and bring him back to the way he was.
“You’ve already done that,” he tells me before kissing me again. “You turned my world upside down and changed it for the best the day you arrived in Blois.”
“Are you trying to make me cry again?” I ask him in mock outrage.
“It’s the truth,” he tells me as he tips my face up to kiss me deeper. “This is not a ploy to make you do anything. It’s just the truth, plain and simple.”
There is nothing simple to what he just said. There is nothing simple when I realize this is the first time I feel cherished and it comes from the man I’ve called an asshole for the past few weeks.
There is nothing simple to what we’re going through and still have to go through, but for the first time in my life, I’m not scared because I’m not doing it alone.
Brice kisses me one last time before we get up and walk back to the surgery room. I know we’re late and that it’s going to make the plan harder because of it, but Brice doesn’t seem to be worried—but until I got shot, I didn’t think he could actually get worried—so I’m trying to relax.
He trusts me.
And I need to trust myself a little more.
Sure, this time it’s about someone’s brain, and I feel a bit more worried because it feels like I’ll have his life in the palm of my hands, but it’s not like what I’ve been building until today hasn’t been a matter of life and death.
I just delivered the blueprints for automated wings that can cut through skin and bones, and to top it off, I added paralyzing darts that can be shot from just above their shoulders. Paralyzing shots that will be used against flying shifters that will surely make them fall to the ground.
I know shifters heal fast, I’ve seen that first-hand, but crashing to the ground will definitely be painful and it might cause some irreversible damage.
I’ve been dealing with life and death for years now by providingLibérationwith any weapon they need, but it’s only now that it hits me.
