"That, Laney, is my Oracle," he said. "Watch her for a bit while we go back and clean up what's left of Czerno's goons."
Laney's eyebrows shot up, and he looked at the unconscious, blood-spattered woman.
"Yes, ikir," he murmured and knelt, lifting Sofia off the ground. "I'll take care of her."
*****
She stared at the sunbeams moving across the ceiling, not remembering where she was or how she arrived. Her memories wiggled their way out of the mud of her mind, and she sat upright. She was alive! She touched her face, her arms, her body. At the memory of the pain, she began to shake.
It's over!
Yet the sensation of fire creeping through her remained. She suddenly realized the curtains were open, and the sun streaming into her window didn't hurt her eyes. Her memories overshadowed, she threw open the curtains. She shoved the cracked balcony door all the way open. She bathed in the midmorning sun. Morning air had never tasted so wonderful! She didn't have to wear sunglasses indoors anymore, didn't have to hide from moonlight!
"You look good."
She whirled, heart leaping at the sound. Han sat in the corner of her room nearest the door.
"I can go outside!" she exclaimed. "I'm cured!"
"More or less," he said. She looked again at the sunlit courtyard beyond her window.
"I'm here again," she murmured, troubled, and faced Han. "I'm … transformed?"
Han nodded grimly.
"Isn't that good?" she prodded. "Isn't it what you all wanted?"
"It is," he confirmed.
"You don't look happy."
"It all turned out well, I guess," he said at last. "As long as you're okay?"
"I am. I can go outside again." She sat to pull on shoes and saw the scars around her wrists, evidence of her fight against the bindings Jilian used to strap her onto the table. "Han, what happened to me?"
"It's better you don't remember."
"I do remember. At least, part of it I remember. Jilian injected me with something to kill me," she paused, shuddering at the flash of residual pain from the memories. "Did he succeed?"
"Yes."
"So I died?"
"You did."
"What happened then?" Her eyes closed at the bizarre news. How many people lived to hear they'd died?
"Ask Damian."
She shuddered, afraid to face him after ditching him as she had before. No doubt he'd had to do some terrible things to free her from Czerno.
"Is Jilian dead?"
"Damn straight."
"I told him so," she said softly, disturbed. "Is Damian okay?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you upset?"
"We lost Jake." Jake's death flashed through her thoughts.
"Jilian killed him," she said.