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That night, the entire pride piled into my oversized bed. Hisashi and I curled around either side of Oisin, with Con snuggled in behind me and Kai spooning Hisashi's lanky form, petting him like a scared animal.
We all managed to keep a hand on Oisin, hoping he could draw from our magic. Even Con reached across me to plant a hand on the fae's stomach, with a whispered "just on the off chance."
I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep until Oisin was awake and with us again. But I was wrong. Surrounded by the auras of my pride, all of which seemed to have gotten stronger, I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow and slept like the dead.
The next morning, Oisin was still dead asleep and everyone else was quiet and subdued. It helped a little bit to know about that fae coma thing Halstad had mentioned. But it was still maddening, watching my fae lie there like a corpse. Especially since he'd nearly been a corpse.
I wanted to do something more, but we couldn’t take him to a human hospital, and Kai and Hisashi told me what I already knew...a supe healer couldn’t fix what was wrong with him. It wasn’t physical.
We took turns sitting by Oisin's side, as if he might be able to sense us near him and come back to us. I was tempted to take every shift myself. But I knew I wasn't the only one who loved the little snark.
The sun was setting on our first full day back home, and it was my turn to sit with Oisin. I flopped into the overstuffed chair by the bedside and picked up the trashy novel Kai had left in here, skimming through it for the good parts. Soft footsteps pulled me out of a scene with way too many ripped bodices and throbbing members and I looked up to find Con's warm brown eyes watching me.
I set the book aside and took the steaming mug he held out to me. "Seriously?" I groused. "Again?"
Con had been force-feeding us all—teas, soup, herb-infused biscuits. The human nodded, his eyes sad, but one corner of his mouth lifting in a smile at my complaining. "I promise, this is the last one for you and Kai. How do you think I feel? Your leg and cuts are are all knitted back together, and her broken ribs were fine this morning. But my weak human carcass is still covered in bruises."
I sighed. "Yes, daddy."
He rolled his eyes. "Just drink the tea. You might be physically healed, but we're all still a little...depleted."
"Fine," I said mutinously.
Con kissed me on the top of my head and left, probably off to torture Hisashi next. The fox hadn't been physically harmed, but Con was trying to supplement something to do with energy pathways. It was all magic-user mumbo-jumbo to me.
I lifted the cup and drank my fucking herbs, scalding my tongue in the process. Swearing, I glanced at Oisin, wishing the fae was himself so he could magic my drink to a tolerable temperature.
I froze when I found emerald green eyes staring back at me.
"Oisin!" I hurried to set the cup aside, sloshing it on my fingers in my rush. "You're awake!"
I pushed up out of my chair and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to stroke his cheek. He was still pale and had dark smudges under his eyes and in the hallows of his cheeks.
He licked his lips and I swore again. "Sorry! Water. I'll get you water."
Gods knew I wasn’t giving him my nasty tea. That was no way to wake up. And besides, Con made them special for each of us. I didn’t know if my tonic would mix with fae physiology. I rushed to the bathroom and filled a Dixie cup, then hurried back to Oisin. My fae. He was awake. He was okay!
His green eyes followed my movements with a sort of detached curiosity. I set the cup on the bedside table and slipped an arm under his slender shoulders, lifting him and stuffing several pillows under him to prop him up so he could drink. "There you go." I handed him the water, feeling awkward and chattery under that gem-like gaze.
I held out the water. "Do you need help with this? I'll get you something else in just a second. Probably one of Con's awful fucking teas."
Oisin lifted a shaky hand, the wide sleeve of his silk pajamas falling back over his bony wrist. I put the little paper cup in his hand, then helped support it just in case. He took a sip of water, then another, his green eyes never leaving my face.
Finally, he pushed the cup into my hand and shoved it away. He hadn't had much, but I wasn't too worried—Gods knew Con would have him swimming in magic herbs and “hearty, sustaining food” in no time.
Oisin kept staring at me, and I stared back. He looked so foreign to me without his long, lush hair. His pointed ears stood out against his shaved head, emphasizing his faeness...and his vulnerability.
"Are you okay?" I asked after a long time of mutual staring.
He tilted his head, and his silken voice was hardly more than a whisper, like the breeze through the trees in the forest where we'd run in our animal forms. "You're...the gryphon," he said firmly. "I remember your name, I think...it's Gesa?"
He held out a delicate hand to me and I took it, dread washing over me, drowning out all the relief I'd felt just seconds before. "Oisin? What...." I couldn't finish the sentence. It sounded...Gods, it sounded like he didn't fucking know who I was.
He wrinkled his brow, as if trying really hard to recall something. "Where is the man with the white hair?"
I swallowed hard, fighting the warring urges to scream or cry. "White hair...Hisashi? Do you want me to get Hisashi?"
He tilted his head and I could see the pulse fluttering in the long, thin column of his throat. "Hisashi?"
I cleared my throat. "Uh...yeah. He has white hair. And...a tattoo on the side of his head?"
Oisin nodded. "Yes. I see. Hisashi."
He closed his eyes. "Gesa. Hisashi. The man with the brown skin and the kind eyes. The woman with eyes like the sea." He squeezed my hand weakly. "I can't...I...don’t know their names. But I remember I love them. I love them all and they love me."
He curled onto his side, his eyes still closed, and I moved some of the pillows so he could lie down again as he burrowed under the covers, those beautiful green eyes still closed, hidden from me.
I stroked his fuzzy, shaved head and tried not to sob. What the fuck had Oisin's father done to him? What had he taken from me? From us all?
Oisin sighed and his body went soft as he started to drift off to sleep. "I love them," he whispered. "I remember the love. You can take everything else, you bastard. You can take everything...but you can't take that."
I did cry then, hunched over in my chair, wracked with silent sobs as tears scorched my cheeks, swamped with all the things I'd been holding at bay since this beautiful fucking chunk of my heart was stolen from me.