Page 20 of Gray Dawn
Another buzz and a louder whirr, and the call dropped, leaving me clutching a blank screen.
“I thought…” I sucked in air. “I don’t know what I thought.”
Yes, I did. That I had lost her. Forever.
“Colby is clever and resourceful. She’s a survivor.” Asa drew me across my seat, until my hip bumped the console, and guided my head onto his shoulder. “I’m not surprised she’s fighting her way back to you.”
“Do you think Clay…?” I clenched my eyes shut. “He couldn’t have helped her, even if he wanted to.”
As hard as I wished this was proof my best friend was still in there, I had never seen any evidence to support he was aware while functioning in this altered state.
Burying my face in Asa’s neck, I couldn’t hold back the sobs any longer as my heart cracked wider and fickle hope teased the ragged edges with a promise I would soon be whole again.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Golem
Moth gone.Flew down pipe.
Away from the golem.
Away from Master.
The golem watched her. Saw her in the mirror.
He should have. Stopped her. Caught her. Given her to Master.
So.
Much.
Power.
But he heard her. Talk to Clay. Tell him she…
…loved him.
No one loved the golem.
But this moth. She loved Clay. And the golem…
…he was Clay sometimes.
Wasn’t he?
CHAPTER NINE
With two hours before Colby’s flight landed, I fought the urge to shirk my duties and sit in the airport with my nose pressed against the glass while I waited on her plane to land. But I had to deal with Londis.
Easier said than done when the message from Colby plagued me.
How had she called? Had Clay let her? Had she escaped him? How was she getting on a plane?
Clay didn’t fly. There was too much of him. Four hundred pounds’ worth.
The director was borderline agoraphobic. I doubted he would climb into a metal tube full of strangers, breathe their air, and listen to their chatter of his own free will. It would be torture, and he was a man who preferred his creature comforts.
So then, how was Colby getting here? Was she acting alone? Or was she still in Clay’s custody?