Page 186 of Seven Oars
Then she realized he couldn’t see.
Tears spilled despite her resolve not to cry over what was already done.
“I’m tied to the body,” she explained.
He pushed off the floor and sat up slowly.“You must’ve given me a lot. I feel better.”
“Better” was a relative term. He could barely sit unassisted. His eyes looked like raw red meat and leaked bloody tears. He groaned when he heaved himself upright, and it wasn’t very upright at that.
Seeing him like this broke Rosamma’s heart.
“Here. Lay down.”
He caught her hand.“Stop. No more energy.”
“Are you daft?”
“You’re fading.”
“You can’t know that.”
“I don’t need to see you to know.”
She wouldn’t admit it to him, but he was right. Father Zha-Ikkel was losing potency. She guessed a dead body could only go so far… so to speak.
She waited until Fincros fell into stasis again before she snuck more energy into his eyes.
By then, the cold had gotten to her. She couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering and her fingers were losing feeling. She had to leave the Meat Locker or risk hypothermia.
She opened the door and drew up short. Thilza was waiting on the other side.
“He’s still alive?”
For the first time since she’d known him, Thilza’s attention felt sharp. She guessed he was as sober as he could ever stay.
She nodded.
“Does he need anything?”
“New eyes?” Rosamma said sharply.
Though Thilza’s features remained flat, the wave of pain flaring from him was like lightning at midnight, there and gone.
It stunned her, this sudden raw emotion. She felt a flicker of regret for snapping at him.
“I think he’ll recover,” she said slowly.“I don’t know if he can get his vision back. Do you want to see him?”
Thilza took a step back.“No.”
A strange guy, this Thilza.
“Will you tell him something from me?” he asked.
“What is it?”
“Tell him… I harbor no ill will toward him for what he did. I never have. The shadows I fight are my own, never his.”
It gave Rosamma pause.“What does it mean?”
