The Book of Time

Chapter 4

Thomas was woken up in the middle of the night by the beeping of his bracelet. His finger found the button in the darkness.

"What is it Nina?" he asked. "Can't this wait until morning?"

"Shay's temperature has dropped too low."

"Impossible. I made sure the bed and the blanket were at the highest temperature." He'd gone back to her room to do their usual nighttime routine but Shay had been too engrossed in her movie to even give him a second glance. He couldn't tell if she had gotten over it or if she was still bothered by their kiss. He'd just made sure that the bed was hot enough and then left.

"It could have stopped working. Check it out. We don't want her to go into hibernation again," Nina said. That had happened once before shortly after he'd started working for her, and just weeks after she'd gotten her ability. The bed had shorted out during the night. When they'd gone in the next morning, the entire room had been frozen, she was barely breathing and her BPM had been one. Even after putting her in a new bed and with him heating it up even hotter, it had still taken her two days to wake up.

"You check on her," he said.

"I'm not the one with the fire ability."

Thomas groaned and sat up. "Fine. I'll go."

He grabbed the t-shirt he'd thrown over the back of the chair and pulled it on. He didn't even care anymore that someone was watching him all the time. Shay had made sure to equip his room with AC and fans and pillows that were supposed to stay cool but he still got hot occasionally, especially when something was annoying him. She hadn't just installed things to make him cooler. About two weeks after he'd started working for her, some men had come in and tailored the room to his liking. He didn't even know how she'd guessed what he liked.

Everything in his room was in dark, earthy colors. The bed was longer than a regular one (he'd always found them too short) and there was a recliner in the corner near a stereo and a shelf that held the music she'd given him. A desk and chair was in the other corner. A dart board was on the far wall. She'd had his closet stocked with new clothes and a box containing a pair of leather gloves, sunglasses and a few pairs of new earrings had been lying on his bed. She'd said they were gifts and that he could change whatever he wanted in the room. He hadn't bothered to do that, leaving everything as it was and just adding a bedside table and lamp, a Buddhist shrine and a mat on the floor for when he was meditating, which he'd been doing more and more often. His room at his father's house had been bare. This one was comfortable.

He took out a protein shake from the fridge that Shay had had installed as well before he went to her room. Thomas had to eat often or his blood sugar dropped too low. Another side-effect of his fire ability. That wouldn't be a problem for most fire users but he'd gotten four times the amount of the drug than most persons, and his body burned through calories like they were nothing.

Shay's room was cold but when he checked the temperature of her bed it was the same as he'd set it. He felt her neck. She was definitely too cold but her pulse was still beating strongly. He sighed. He was going to have to heat up the bed.

Sometimes, Thomas forgot who she was and the job she did. Assassinations mainly, but also finding people and extracting information without it linking back to the King. Brutal work that he knew she hated. Every time she came back from a job, she would be silent for hours just sitting at her desk and starring into space. The movies and the music helped her to forget.

He brushed her cheek with the fingers of his left hand. If he hadn't known about her reputation he would have never guessed who she was. A gentle soul turned into a perfect killer by the very family that was supposed to keep her safe. It was a story he was well acquainted with.