Page 57 of Dark Destiny: The Fates' Bargain

Tomek didn't argue.

She closed the door to her room and accepted the call.

"Yaaf?"

"It's me."

It was his voice, in her ear, low and close, as if he were standing just behind her shoulder, invisible like he had used to be in the enclosure's yard when he had come to visit her.

Her eyes filled with tears. "Yaaf." She pressed her free hand against her chest. "You weren't in my list of contacts and now you are, and you are calling me. How did that happen?"

"They gave us phones tonight. I've been standing in a corridor holding this phone and trying to think of what to say, but I don't remember any of the words I planned on saying."

"I don't remember how to breathe, so you're doing better than I am." She took a deep breath. "How are you doing? Did the scientists make the medicine for you?"

"We are well. Dimitri had the compound ready the first night, before we had even showered. He gave us the doses closer together than usual, so we are mostly back to normal."

"I'm glad. I was so worried for you." She let out another long breath. "Tell me everything. Where are you? What is it like? Are they treating you well? Is it terrible?"

"It's not terrible. We have rooms. Beds, showers, televisions. Today, the Guardians showed us the gym."

"The what?"

"Gymnasium. It is a room full of machines built for exercise. There are weights, and bags for punching that are reinforced so immortals cannot break them, and machines called treadmills, which have moving floors that you run on without going anywhere."

"Why would anyone run without going anywhere?"

"I asked the same question. The answer is convenience and privacy. This is not a private island. It's a very big city, and humans are not supposed to see immortals running at speeds exceeding seventy kilometers an hour."

That made sense, but then the number he'd said registered.

"You can run that fast?"

"We can."

"Wow. That's fast. I wish I could see you run."

"You will. When you come visit tomorrow, I can take you to the gym and show you. There is also a movie theater, and Dimitri has declared that we will all watch a film together tonight. It's about a submarine crew who defects from their country to the enemy side, and the enemy cannot decide whether to trust them." He chuckled. "Dimitri is not being subtle."

"He's not."

"The Guardians are friendly. They eat and talk with us as if they have already accepted us into their community. They heard from the Guardians who participated in the mission about how helpful we were, and they view us positively. It is still a cage, but it's guarded by people who seem embarrassed that it must be this way."

She pressed the phone to her ear, as if that would bring him closer. "I'm glad. I was afraid you were not being treated well."

"Bowen told me that you have a whole house to yourself and he visited you, and I have to admit that I was jealous. I wish I could be there to see it. To see you in it. Tell me about it."

She settled back against the pillows, opened the store of everything she had been saving to tell him, and it poured out of her.

She told him about the bus windows going blind and the tunnel and the elevator big enough to lift a whole bus. She told him about the glass pavilion, and Kian, who was beautiful and awkward and nothing like the cold single letter she'd first known him as, and his wife, Syssi, who was warm and welcoming. Shetold him about the square that looked like an illustration from a book, the ponds and the playground Tomek had spotted in the first ten seconds. She told him about meeting the harem ladies in the café. It was a confirmation of what he'd already guessed on the island, that the clan had freed them all.

She told him about the house. Three bedrooms, one for each of them, and the closet larger than her old room, and the four pairs of shoes.

"Four," she repeated. "New ones. Never worn by anyone. I keep opening the closet to check that they haven't disappeared."

He laughed. "Have they?"

"Not yet. I'm watching them closely." She curled onto her side, phone tucked against her ear. "Someone went to a lot of trouble to fill the closets with clothes for all of us and to fill Tomek's room with toys. I don't know who it was, but when I find out, I will thank them from the bottom of my heart. I stood in front of the mirror today in a beautiful, brand new green dress, and I didn't recognize myself, and I thought, I wish Yaaf could see me. I kept a list, you know. Every beautiful or strange thing I saw, I put on the list. To tell you. The list got so long I was afraid I'd forget half of it."