In between the dreams, Sterling slowly pieced himself back together. Memories of who he was and what Casimer had made him into started to separate themselves. His identity was revealing itself to him, although not always in chronological order, making things harder to keep straight.

Every now and then, a pleading voice would draw him, but reaching for it brought too much pain, and he was still missing too much. But now, the voice he knew belonged to the girl with those mesmerizing eyes, was crying. It was filled with so much anguish, he couldn’t ignore it.

He could remember little of anything, and make sense of even less, but one thing he knew–he was responsible for the girl, Larkspur. His whole being was devoted to her protection. After his failure long ago, he had made a promise.

He couldn’t recall how, but he had lost her. He had lost himself. But here was a second chance. He would not waste it. He was supposed to have been her solid foundation. But instead, she had found him and brought him back to his sanity. Whatever they had been to each other before, he owed her his life. And he would spend the rest of it trying to repay her.

Sterling became conscious of pressure on his hand.

Taking a moment before attempting to open his eyes, he tried to reign in his overloaded senses. He was lying on a comfortable bed with soft sheets covering him. He could hear the soft whirring of machines nearby. A strong smell of disinfectants.

After a short battle to lift his eyelids, he had to blink away the tears that sprang forth from the assault of light on his pupils that had remained covered for...he couldn’t even guess how long. He hoped Lark was near since he was burning with questions. But the first thing his tired eyes focused on was the startled gaze of an unfamiliar young man.

Wait. He looked familiar. Tall, muscular, with short, dark blond hair and blue eyes wide with shock. Before he could figure out why he knew this man, there was a slight shift in the pressure on his hand, causing both males to turn toward the sleeping Lark.

Sterling’s breath caught.

Here she was! His anchor, finally within reach. Now if he could just move his hand. Concentrating all his energy on the action, he reached gaunt fingers to brush a strand of hair from her cheek. He and the blond man glanced at each other before their attention was again diverted to Larkspur, who was stirring awake.

“Mmm…is it time…” Lark’s sentence hung in midair as she and Sterling locked onto each other. Time seemed frozen as a thousand questions and emotions passed unspoken between them.

Unfortunately, the monumental effort of bringing himself into focus had taken its toll. Try as he might, he couldn’t keep Lark’s face from blurring.

“No, no, Sterling, stay with me!”

Sterling felt terrible about it, but he simply could not stay awake any longer.

I’ll be back. Just wait for me, was his last thought before slipping into a delicious sleep that was actually restful.

He couldn’t remember ever feeling this tranquil and whole.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Lark wailed.

Conan lunged forward and grabbed her before she could shake poor Steele. No, Sterling. “He needs rest, Lark! Think!”

“But he was awake!” She staggered back into his arms. “And all I could do was look stupidly at him. I didn’t even say hello! I’ve imagined this moment over and over, and that was not it!”

Conan liked the feel of her in his arms, but he pushed her away so he could look her in the eye. “Larkspur!” He was worried. Lark didn’t often completely panic. She blinked rapidly a few times before her eyes finally focused on him. “What’s done is done. We can’t change that. There’s no use lamenting it. Pull yourself together. Us blubbering around will not help him at all. First off, we need to call the doc.”

“Right!” She brightened. “He woke up, Conan! He woke up!” She gripped his arms so tightly, he winced. “Vid-call or vo-call? Oh, who cares?”

Then she was off like a shot pulling out her VPhone.

He heard her voice fade down the hallway before he could point out the uselessness of her meeting the doctor along the way. It wouldn’t get anyone here faster. But he figured she was too excited to sit still.

Conan stayed by the bed. He had been so surprised to see Sterling’s gray eyes open. Too shocked to move. They were not the eyes he had been expecting–the eyes of a mad man yearning for peace. Instead they held questions, but also hope. His gaze was so full when focused on Lark. Full of love, of memories. So different from the look he threw at Conan afterward.

That look had burned. Sterling was defiant, protective, challenging.

What surprised Conan even more were his own feelings about this man waking up. The friend in him should be thrilled that Lark’s brother had survived something as horrible as Hypno-Slaving. But Sterling posed a problem. How had he been near their landing point with a small army last month? Was any of the Hypno-Slave still in effect? What other threats were they not aware of yet?

Lark came barreling back into the room, Raphael and Josh in tow. She impatiently watched the doctor check Sterling’s condition.

“At the moment, all I can say is he seems stable, even if he is unconscious again.” Raphael didn’t give anything away behind his poker face. “I have to go study the data from the last half hour.”

“May I join you?” Josh asked. “I’m curious about the brain wave scans.”

Raphael nodded. “Certainly.”

“But he seems to be okay for the moment, right?” Lark asked.

“As far as I can tell,” Raphael said rather noncommittally. “And before you ask, no, I do not know when he will wake up again,” he added as he left the room.

“I’m very happy for you.” Joshua gave Lark a quick hug before following the doctor.

“This is a good sign, right, Conan?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Thankfully, Lark didn’t seem to notice his conflicting emotions.

“You’ll come back to me,” she said, resuming her watchful position with more energy than he had seen in her for a long time. “You remember me,” she added happily. “I saw it in your eyes. Yes, you’ll come back to me.”

“He remembered her. I saw it in his eyes!” Conan insisted. “I don’t know why or how, but that man’s mind is working just fine.”

He and Josh were updating Avi and their father in the king’s office.

“I’m not sure if this is good or bad,” Harold admitted. “Of course, I’m excited it’s possible to survive something like Hypno-Slaving, but what do we do with him?”

Avi frowned thoughtfully. “You’re right. We don’t know if he’s completely free of the Hypno-Slaving. But he is officially my son,” he added in an imperious tone. “He will be given due respect, and we will do everything in our power to make sure he can live prosperously here.”

“Have you been able to ascertain where his cloak came from?” Harold asked Josh.

“It seems to be an improved version of the prototype we came up with several years ago,” Josh said. “We temporarily put it aside to focus on the bio-bots. We hadn’t even gotten the camouflage to work yet.”

“Someone obviously did,” Conan pointed out.

“Yes,” Josh mused. “I don’t know who yet, unfortunately. But they did a brilliant job. Once the cloak covers you, it will even erase your heat signature!”

“If Sterling can actually remember things correctly, he could be an invaluable resource,” Harold said. “Aside from knowing who is capable of inventing this type of device, we need to know how our technology is being stolen. We’ll also start an investigation to see how far the leak goes.”

Conan listened quietly to everyone debate the pros and cons of Steele–Sterling–making a miraculous recovery. “I don’t think Sterling will ever listen to anyone other than Lark,” he finally interjected.

Avi and his father turned inquisitive gazes at him.

“Think about it,” Josh piped up. “He’s like Lark. A man out of time. And if he can remember everything that happened to him, well…if I were him, I wouldn’t trust any of us.”

“Perhaps he will eventually, once he sees Larkspur trusts us,” Avi suggested after a pause.

“Are you sure she does?” Conan asked quietly.

No one broke the tense silence that followed.

Sterling heard soft voices. Opening his eyes was much easier this time. He was still on a comfortable bed. The large room felt a little crowded with a group of four young adults chatting. Two men, two women.

His gaze zeroed in on a familiar profile.

“Little Larkie?” Everyone jumped at his hoarse voice. It was disconcerting to be stared at by three strangers and your baby sister. “What happened to your eyes?” Sterling furrowed his brow.

Tears filled those jewel-like eyes as she came forward to hold his hand. Her skin felt weird. Not scaly, but hard?

“Are you Larkspur?” he asked. Her face looked like it, but some things were not adding up.

“Yes!” she sobbed. “It’s me, Sterling. I can’t believe we’re talking right now.” She beamed at him.

Ah. Yes, that was Lark’s smile.

“How are you feeling?” She stroked his cheek. “Do you need anything? Water? Food? Wait, can he have food?” She turned toward the silent group.

“I’m not sure,” the tall, lean blond said. “Shamira, will you call the doctor?”

The red-haired woman disappeared from view.

Sterling looked at Larkspur again. “What happened to you?”

“That’s…a little difficult…”

“There will be plenty of time for that.” The red-haired woman rejoined the men at the foot of his bed.

“Who are you?” Sterling asked coldly.

“Oh, sorry.” Lark smacked her forehead lightly. “These are my friends–Shamira, Conan and Joshua.” She motioned to the redhead, the familiar muscular blond, and then the lean blond.

Sterling gave a small smile, but stayed silent.

Joshua nodded at him. “We should give you two a moment.”

“Thank you,” Lark called as they left the room.

Seconds stretched into a minute as brother and sister stared silently at each other. A yawning emptiness grew between them.

“What do you remember?” she finally said.

He searched his memories. “I’m not exactly sure what’s true and what isn’t.”

Lark nodded. “Then I’ll tell you what I remember. A lot has happened. But basically, I lost you and Alex two years ago. You were on an Army mission–”

“A rescue mission!” he said. Fuzzy, disjointed memories seemed to organize themselves in his mind. “Al’s team got tagged for a rescue mission.”

Their oldest brother had joined the Army at eighteen. Sixteen-year-old Sterling and eight-year-old Lark absolutely idolized Alexander. Despite Alex saying he should do something else, Sterling insisted on following in his footsteps two years later. Sterling was thrilled to eventually be assigned as a survival specialist for Alex’s rescue unit.

On the day in question, Al’s team needed an extra member, and Sterling volunteered.

“All I could find out was that your team got ambushed at some point,” Lark continued. “Your bodies were never found.”

He shook his head. “I can’t remember any of that.”

“That’s all right,” she said quietly. “Don’t strain yourself. You’ve been through a lot.”

He nodded, but there was something tugging at the edges of his brain. He felt like he was missing something important. He closed his eyes, thinking.

After volunteering for the mission, what was the next thing he remembered?

Pain, needles, distorted images. Casimer Talbot. Beck Jones.

His gray eyes flew open.

“Lark!” He clutched at her. “Alex is alive!”

Lark’s breath caught in her throat. She felt dizzy. Was that relief? Hope?

“Y-you’re sure?” her voice was breathy.

“Yes, but Lark,” Sterling winced in pain, “something…something happened to us. I don’t know–”

Lark’s eyes widened. “Is Alex a Hypno, too?”

He wrinkled his nose in confusion. “What’s a Hypno?”

“Uh, it’s complicated. And honestly, I don’t completely understand. Some sort of hypnosis, possibly combined with magic? Basically, your heads were messed with.”

“Yes!” He relaxed back onto his bed. “Our heads…”

“Who did this to you?” Lark felt fury burning inside her.

“Casimer Talbot,” he said with angry conviction.

She nodded. “That’s what we thought, but I wanted to be sure I hunted down the right person.”

“You know him?” He looked surprised.

“Yeah, well, we haven’t technically met. But I’m pretty sure he hates me.”

“Oh, he does,” he agreed immediately.

That didn’t make her feel any better.

“He hates the princess with a passion. Wait.” Sterling grimaced, holding his head. “Princess? Casimer? You’re…oh, I’m so confused.”

Join the club

“Hang on, careful!” Lark pulled his arms back down. “You’ve still got IVs in.”

“We need to save him, Larkie!” Sterling looked haunted.

Her heart squeezed. She turned toward the door. Voices and footsteps were coming down the hallway.

“Of course we’re going to save him.” Lark’s voice hardened. “But you rest now. We need you to heal and remember.”

There was a knock.

She turned toward the door. “Come in.”

Wait for us, Alexander. We’re coming for you!

THE END