He still tried not to think about that day—the day that they all should have died, the day that Marin’s vision had come true in a way none of them had ever expected. J.T. glanced at him, brows knitting. Thom took a deep breath and tried to draw himself up a little straighter.
“You know the university that was north of here?”
“I’m aware of it,” the woman said, a wary note to her voice. “I figured that it’d be pretty damned empty around this time of year.”
“It was,” Thom admitted. “Not a ton of us there, especially on a Sunday, but there were some and we made it through the end of everything alive.” Barely alive, but still alive. His jaw tightened. “We’ve pulled through the winter and decided it was time to start looking for allies, for trading partners. That’s why we’re here. We want to trade with you.”
She sniffed. “It’s possible you mean that.”
“We do mean that,” Cameron said. Her laser-eyed gaze homed in on him.
“You can keep saying that you mean it, that doesn’t mean I’m going to be more inclined to believe it.” Her gaze drifted to Seamus, who kept his peace for the moment, and then shifted back to Thom. “How many?”
“I can’t tell you that,” he said. “I made a promise.”
“To who?” she asked, an edge to her voice. Thom swallowed, his eyes fluttering shut.
“My wife,” he whispered. “I promised my wife.”
You also promised you’d come home safe. Are you going to manage that?
Thom cursed the small voice in his head and suppressed all sign of the shiver that crept down his spine. He opened his eyes. “And she’s the one person I don’t dare break a promise to ever again. Not after everything. Not after that day.”
