“Are you going to give me that same promise that you’re going to sleep?” Jacqueline asked, a trace of weary amusement in her voice as the door clicked shut behind Marin and Neve.
Phelan let his eyes slide shut as he sank against his pillows with a slight shiver. His back ached bone-deep, the wounds throbbing with each heartbeat. “Would you believe me if I did?”
“I might,” she said softly, smoothing his sweat-damp hair back from his face as she reached down to adjust his blankets. “I’d like to sleep myself sometime tonight, but I’m not going to leave you until you’ve rested and someone relieves me.”
“You should sleep, too,” he murmured. “You were long on the road with the others.” With me, probably sleeping even less than they did on the road, if any of you slept at all. He didn’t really remember much of what had happened after Cameron and Jacqueline had suddenly showed up at his camp and after the Dirae had raked him. It must have been days on the road before they made it back home again. “Someone else can sit with me.”
“I don’t want someone else to sit with you right now,” she said. She turned down the lamp to its very dimmest flame. “If I was okay with that, I’d have let J.T. send me to bed. He tried. You were still asleep. I told him I’d take the first watch until someone came to relieve me. I imagine it’ll be Kel or Matt or someone in a few hours, then I’ll crawl into my bunk and sleep for a few hours—that is if I can sleep without worrying that you’ll somehow get worse if I’m not here.”
“You and J.T. did more than you needed to if you’re worried about me surviving the night,” Phelan said quietly, shifting on the bunk. “I can feel it Wounds the Dirae leave make you soul-sick, but I can tell that Jay did something to help with that—or you did. It’s hard to tell which.” Maybe it was both, each in their own way. His eyelids were heavy. Sleep was coming whether he wanted to surrender to it or not. “I’ll survive the night,” he said around a thickening tongue. “And I’ll see you in the morning.”
Her lips brushed his temple. “Sweet dreams, Phelan.”
He tried to wish her the same, but sleep took him before the words could cross his lips.
Everyone needs some down time. This is one hard place to survive.
Thanks for the post. Stay warm.