Page 94 of Cage of Starlight
“I would prefer a fresh start without needles.”
“Not my call, sorry. Riese’s orders.”
Sena knows orders and the game of finding room to move between them.
It’s a small freedom, choosing which arm they wound, but he treasures it because it’s his. Better to keep his dominant arm unhindered. He offers his right arm.
“You and your good veins.” Helner leans in and casts a strained smile over his shoulder. She pulls a little table closer and swipes his arm with something cold and wet. “Arm on this. No sugarcoating it. This one’s gonna burn.”
Before Sena can respond, the needle plunges in.
Fire blisters along his nerve endings when she depresses the plunger. The hand stabilizing his arm holds tighter, and Helner pushes the rest of the injection into him quickly.
“See?” she says. “That wasn’t so bad.”
Regardless of allegiance, her bedside manner remains terrible. He tells her as much.
She slants a strange grin at him. “Didn’t know you were funny.”
He shrugs.
She shrugs. She gestures away, the moment broken. “Go on, then. Get out of here.”
Sena stands, lurching with the sudden motion.
Helner bolts to her feet to take his elbow. She gets a look in her eye, this flickering expression of doubt he can’t translate. “You’re not the best with drugs, are you?”
An understatement. “They don’t work sometimes, or, sometimes they work too well?”
“Is that a question or an answer?” She doesn’t let go of his elbow.
Sena thinks about it, but he finds he’s forgotten the question.
Speaking of forgetting. There’s something he’s supposed to be doing after Helner’s finished with him. Something . . . someone? To meet someone.
“This must be one of the ones that’s too effective. I’ll take you back to your tent to make sure you don’t fall over, huh?”
Sena blinks to clear the gauzy glow from his vision. “S’nice of you,” he says.
“Didn’t you know? I’m a nice person.” Helner snorts out a laugh. It’s an ugly, sad sound, and also kind of funny, because Dr. Helner is definitivelynota nice person.
All the way back to the tent, she supports him only where her hands are prevented from touching him by his clothing.
Iri! He remembers only when the young man passes by, shoulders hunched. Sena pulls Helner to a stop, stubborn when she tries to urge him on. Iri wanted to talk to him.
They stop. Iri stops. Silence in the air between them. He should say something.
“Sena?” Iri says, confused.
Helner sighs. “He’s a bit out of it. High as a bird. Onantibiotics.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Apparently it is!”
“Wanted to talk,” Sena says. He’s not out of it. He remembers.
“You wanted . . .? Oh!” Iri turns to Helner. “He’s right. I told him we’d—” He looks at his feet. “Riese just tracked me down to give me an earful aboutrisking everyone’s lives. Another time?”
