Now’s as good a time as any and I’m determined to make things right between us. At least she’s stopped giving me the cold shoulder. Things are almost normal again, despite the fact that we’re running for our lives. We sleep under the cover of the forest canopy with the summer breeze dancing around us, keeping us warm. I’m snuggled up cozy beside Iofiel, his arm around my shoulders, my forehead pressed into the crook of his neck. I breathe in his scent with every breath I take and it’s wonderful. We wake before dawn and set off at a quick clip, rejuvenated. Iofiel pins his useless arm to his chest with his free hand and I can tell it’s bothering him. At the next town, we buy a set of fabric bandages. I wrap his cyborg arm up and create a makeshift sling around his neck, so that his arm is cradled close to his body. “I don’t like this,” he says quietly, running his finger along the metal plates of his arm. “I can’t change to my hound form with my cybernetics down.
