EDGE OF DAY

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The pain was a fishhook. It caught her drifting mind and reeled it in to land and consciousness. She hazily remembered Amber injecting her with something after she'd collapsed over Will's box. The agony had melted away, and she'd fallen into soft feathers. But now she was awake, and the burning around her wrist was back.

She rolled onto her side. There was a bedside table with a glass of water on it and two white pills. Another single bed stood against the cabin's far wall. Above her, stars shone in the darkness of a porthole window.

She reached for the pills and caught sight of the metal band that had caused her to pass out. What was it? Some kind of locator? Was it sending out her whereabouts to the nearest police receptors?

She tried to dig under it, but it pulled at her skin. She would need surgery to remove it. She picked up the pills, threw them into her mouth and downed them with the water. The pills were preferable to passing out again.

Pushing hair from her eyes, Day sat up. Her heart squeezed when she saw Will. He sat cross-legged on the carpet, facing the door. She gazed at his back for a minute. There was an anxious fluttering in her chest. She wasn't just attracted to Will. It was more than that. The connection went deeper. Something she couldn't grasp and certainly couldn't put into words. But what would he think of her now he knew Monday had been an act to gain his confidence and betray him to the Veda?

She tidied back her hair and swung her legs around to the floor. She was about to clear her throat, say his name, when he spoke.

"You're awake." He turned. Their eyes met, and his face broke into a smile. It felt like sunshine after a long, frosty winter.

"I'm awake."

He sprung to his feet and moved to perch on the opposite bed. He bounced up and down to test the mattress. He was so easygoing. His positivity leeched across the space and soaked into her. And she needed it.

She cleared her throat. "I'm not Monday."

"I heard."

"Monday was a false identity to gain your trust."

He shrugged.

"The Veda wanted to capture you, Will. I'm sorry."

"You're forgetting one thing. None of this is really happening. Would you feel bad about something you did in a dream?"

"This isn't a dream, Will."

"You won't know until you wake up."

Day picked up her glass. The water's surface trembled. It was far more sensitive to the speed they were travelling at than her body. She took a sip, thinking her agitated mind was like the trembling liquid. She was afraid at some point it would all be too much and she'd break apart. As much as she liked Will, part of her thought he was crazy. And she was going crazy with him.

"Why were the Veda prepared to go to such lengths to capture you?" she asked.

"I threaten what they value most."

"What's that?"

"Preserving this world."

Day's head spun. In her mind it was twirling on her neck like a cartoon character that had just been whacked. Preserving this world. Will didn't want to preserve it? She thought of the shopping center bombing right after she'd been to Janus. She'd seen a black van. Just like Will's.