Page 30 of Dangerous Exile
Talen laughed. “Seems appropriate. Funny, though.”
“Was it? Of anything, toads in my shoes? They are infinitely worse than frogs in one’s slippers.”
“What’s wrong with toads?” His attention stayed downward on her arm as he finished sliding the new splint into place. “They aren’t slimy. Just kind of lumpy.”
“Which is exactly their folly. One’s toes sink deeper into the slippers, because there isn’t the instant reaction to the frog slime. It isn’t until the flesh of the toad squishes against your toes that you realize.” She shuddered. “Infinitely worse.”
He chuckled as he picked up the fresh bandage and lifted her wrist and the splint to start the wrapping. “Whoever that boy was—he was devilishly conniving.”
“That boy was you, Talen.”
His hands paused and he looked up at her sharply, though he should have known she wouldn’t leave it be. What she thought the past was, and what the truth of it was, were very different things.
“That boy wasn’t me.” His words spat out, clipped. “And I’ll not have you keep up this farce of how you know me. I’m helping you, Ness. You know that. You don’t have to pretend that you once knew me in order to gain my assistance.”
His attention went back to wrapping her arm tight against the new splint.
She puffed a sigh. “Then tell me—tell me who you were when you were six. When you were eight. When you were ten.”
“No.”
Her left fingers twitched. “I can’t feel my fingers.”
Too damn tight. He stifled a growl and reversed course on the wrapping, loosening it until he was back at her wrist again. He started around her arm, looser this time. Or as much as the suddenly vexed blood pumping through his veins allowed.
“Tell me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
He shook his head. “Because I can’t. I don’t remember that time, but I sure as hell don’t have any memories of toads.”
“You don’t remember?” Sudden excitement made her words vibrate. “Well, what memories do you have?”
His mouth clamped closed.
“Tell me. What memories do you have?”
He looked up at her, his voice a growl. “None before the ship.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You have no memories before being on the ship?”
“Don’t look at me like that.”
The excitement had crept from her voice into her eyes, making them glow. “But that just proves it.”
“It proves nothing.”
Her right hand lifted in exasperation. “It proves it’s a possibility. A possibility that you are Conner. Don’t you see? Why can’t you remember?”
His jaw tightened, his words seething. “I am not your dead friend, Ness. And I’ll not go through this with you again.”
His head ducked and he finished wrapping her arm to the splint, tying it off. At least she was smart enough to keep her mouth shut.
A knock echoed into the room and the door opened.
“Tal. A word.” Declan’s face was serious. Deadly serious.