"Miss me?" The illusion of Maia rested a hand on my knee.
"P-please… go away… Maia… please…" I struck my head against the furniture. "Go away… enough…" I struck harder. I only wanted everything to end.
"What did you do to her?" Saymon frowned, crouched beside me, and held my head. His warmth cradled me.
I clung to his arms, crying. "M-Maia… Maia… she… I'm sorry." It was as though I owed him an apology. An apology for not being enough. I should have tried harder. Because if I had, perhaps Maia… The memory chained my mind and burned my heart, shattering what remained of me.
"Let's go." Saymon wrapped his arms around my waist and carried me out.
"SHE'S MINE!" Riki exploded with a loss of control I had never witnessed. "I PAID FOR THIS! I'll speak to the Matriarch, she…"
Saymon stopped and fixed him with a sinister gaze, cold enough to freeze the bones. "Find someone else to do this." Then he left.
I swayed in his arms, nearly unconscious, as we crossed a greenish corridor. My arms encircled his neck. I was afraid to look at him. The memories brought pains of regret and resentment. "S-Saymon, I'm sorry."
"Swallow this." He offered me a white pill.
I nodded. Swallowing it was difficult with what little saliva I had left.
We reached an icy parking garage. No glimpse of the outside. Moons had passed, and I had lost all sense of everything. I no longer hoped to see sunlight or moonlight again.
Saymon settled me into the passenger seat and sat behind the wheel.
"I-I'm sorry, Maia. I'm sorry, Saymon." I covered my face. Tears soaked my clothes. "I should have done something. I could have saved her."
Saymon held my wrist and drew my hands away from my face. His feral gaze pierced me. "You saved her. And not only her. You saved many lives that day. The blood transfusion you gave her reduced the risk of irreversible damage. She managed to deactivate the nanites and stop her own heart."
What was he saying? I narrowed my eyes. Tried to focus on his face.
His words reached me from far away, like echoes. "If Maia hadn't done that, everyone within a one-kilometer radius would have died."