Her father was whispering, and her mahmen was looking into the eyes of her hellren, the connection, the love between them, so tangible, it was as if there were another person in the room with everybody.

And then her mahmen searched out Therese.

Tears formed and rolled out onto the pillow, the frail hand lifting its fingertips from the white bedsheet.

Therese surged forward, mirroring her father’s sprawl. “I’m right here.”

Those pale lips moved, but Therese sniffled and shook her head. “Don’t try to speak. Not yet. Just know that we’re all here, and we’re not going anywhere.” She turned and motioned to her brother. As he came over, she smiled at her mahmen. “See? Everyone’s here.”

“Mahmen,” Gareth said in a choked voice. “You’re back.”

“Wait, and there’s one more.” Therese reached out her hand. “Meet my… friend… Trez.”

There was a pause, as Trez stared at them all from just inside the room. His face was remote, his eyes opaque, his body super still. For a split second, Therese had the sense he was going to leave. But then he pinned a smile to his face and stepped forward.

“Madam,” he said, “it’s my pleasure to meet you.”

As he stood at the foot of the bed, his towering height and incredible strength seemed to dwarf the room.

Larisse lifted her hand again. And waved ever so slightly.

Therese wanted to hug Trez with all her might. Yes, this was a totally awkward situation—but he had more than risen to the occasion. As was his way, she was learning.

This is all going to be okay, she thought. Absolutely okay.

Strange… she didn’t feel like she was reassuring herself just about her mahmen in that statement.

“Okay, folks,” the nurse said. “We’re going to do an examination on her, and I think some privacy is warranted.”

Trez raised his hand. “I’ll step out.”

“I’ll stay,” Rosen said.

Gareth glanced around. “Would anyone be offended if I go back and eat? I’m starved.”

Therese smiled, but felt like she had to force it as Trez stepped back. Even though he was still with them, she had the feeling he’d left.

“You can have my portion,” she said to her brother. “I’m full.”

“Good deal.” Gareth patted their mahmen’s knee through the sheets. “I’ll just be next door, Mahmen. And then I’ll be back.”

Larisse nodded ever so slightly.

“Me, too, Mahmen.” Therese smiled and stroked Larisse’s thin arm. “I’ll be right back, too.”

There was a quick discussion about the breathing tube—in which no promises were made, considering the workup hadn’t been done yet—and then Therese walked out with Trez. There was a pause when he and Gareth said something back and forth, and that was when she learned Trez was leaving. Going back to town. But would be available by phone if anyone needed him. Numbers were exchanged between the males—at which point she made a joke about her being bad about answering messages about family crises.

“Too soon?” she said as her brother gave her a dry look.

Finally, she and Trez were alone.

“I’ll walk you out?” she said.

“Just to the elevator. You’re needed here.”

When he offered her his arm, she took it with some relief, but she was pretty sure it was a reflexive gesture on his part. As they passed by the glass doors of the patient rooms, she did not look into any of them. She didn’t want to be reminded of how easy it would be to lose the ground they’d so unexpectedly gained with her mahmen. And there were other things she didn’t want to think about.

How ironic to get back her family and lose him in the same night.

“Trez?” she said as they passed by the nursing station and left the unit.

“Yes?”

They stopped and turned to each other at the same time. Abruptly, her heart skipped a couple of beats and her palms got sweaty.

“I know this is weird.” She brushed her hair back and figured it was a mess. Or maybe it wasn’t her hair that was tangled up and knotted. Maybe it was her brain. “I mean, this has gotten really intense, hasn’t it. So it’s got to be weird.”

Please let it just be the drama-weird that’s going on here, she thought.

“No, it’s fine. I mean—” He shook his head. “It’s great that your mahmen came back—”

“Where are you. And be honest. I’m too wrung out to sift through lies, even if they come from kindness.”

Trez opened his mouth, like he was ready to go straight up platitude on her. But then he broke off and paced around. When the double doors of the unit broke open, she braced herself for the nurse coming back to get her with a report that things had been misinterpreted. Or that a crash cart was needed. But no. It was an orderly with a load of bed linens.

When he was out of range, Therese couldn’t stand the waiting any longer. Her nerves were shot, she was exhausted, and all of iAm’s amazing Italian food had formed a cement block spiced with oregano and basil in the pit of her stomach.

“I know I told you I was willing to be patient,” she said. “But I think I may have overstated that virtue—”

Trez stopped abruptly and looked her right in the eye. “My shellan died. Badly. And like, recently. Very recently.”

Therese exhaled the breath she had been holding. She didn’t like the sad news, but she wasn’t surprised, and at least this was nothing she needed to take personally.

“I’m so sorry.” She nodded back at the doors. “So it must be really hard to see all that. Be around it—”

“Watching your father reunited with his beloved?” He held up a hand. “Not that I begrudge him her return. I hope your mahmen makes a full recovery. I really do. I totally do. But I didn’t get that—and, listen, I didn’t mean to lead you on. I really didn’t.”

Annnnnnnnd cue her not being able to breathe again. Which was what happened when you swerved off course into a tree. Him missing his shellan and being triggered by her mahmen and her father’s tearful reunion at the bedside? That was tragic, but she could work with it. Talk to him. Help him in some way. “I didn’t mean to lead you on,” though? That was an exit sign over a doorway she was not going to be allowed to go through.

Trez shook his head slowly, regret tightening his features. But before he could go any further, she cut him off.

“It’s okay. I know it’s got to be… too soon,” she heard herself say. “I understand.”

Even though she didn’t. Well, she did in the sense that a loss like that would make it impossible to fall in love with someone else for a while. A very long while. And who was she kidding? Love was what she wanted from him. Because it was what she had… for him.

Shit, she thought. She was in so much deeper than she’d been aware of.

How had she fallen in love with him over such a short time?

Trez came across and put his hands on her shoulders. His voice was low and intense, his black eyes grave, his muscular body still. “I don’t want to hurt you. You have to know that. You have to believe it. I never meant… I don’t want to hurt you.”

So this is really happening, she thought. They were breaking up. Even though she wasn’t sure exactly what they had to break up.

“I know you didn’t do this on purpose, Trez.” You wanted to be independent, right? she said to herself. “And… I’ll be fine.” She forced herself to smile tightly at him. “I’m totally going to be fine. I mean, I’ll make sure of it. I have my family and—”

“I’m so sorry,” he said as he brushed her face with his fingertip. “And I didn’t want to do this here or now. I didn’t.”

She thought back to him weeping the night before and knew this made so much sense. All of that pain was still inside of him—locked down at the moment, but never far below the surface. It was going to be a long, long while before he was in any condition to love anybody, and she didn’t question that he cared for her. He’d taken her hand as they’d rushed in to see her mahmen. And he had only ever tried to take care of her, with the house rental, with the financial arrangements, with… well, sexually, of course.

“I know you must still be in love with her,” Therese whispered. “And I know she must have taken part of you with her unto the Fade. So this isn’t… it’s not about me. I mean…”

“No,” he said. “It’s not you. I swear to it.”

* * *

This is the right thing to do, Trez told himself.

In spite of the pain in Therese’s eyes, the tension in her body, and the determined way she was keeping herself together… it was the right thing to do.

This was what iAm had warned him about. Therese was bearing the pain of something that should never have been started.

“You deserve,” Trez said roughly, “to be loved for you, and you alone. Not because you’re taking the place of someone else. Not because you’re a tool for someone to try to save themselves with. This is all on me. Just because you looked like her, I should never—”

Therese frowned. “What?”

He tried to replay what had been coming out of his mouth, but he was caught up in his own emotions, so it was hard to recall. Instead, he just wanted to repair some of the damage he’d done—even though that was like trying to put a burned room back together with duct tape and twist ties.

“You’re amazing,” he said. “You’re an incredible female who’s beautiful and smart and funny—”

She stepped back. “No. About what I look like. What did you say?”

As he traced her face, her hair, her body, with his eyes, all he saw was Selena, and he allowed himself to linger on the comparison one last time. After this, it was unlikely he and Therese were going to see each other again because he knew, without asking, that she was going to go back with her family.