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But I felt his light. I knew he was there.

He stood at the door for a long time, and I felt him arguing with Angie, trying to get her to let him in. I felt him tell her that she wasn’t helping me, that none of them were helping me, whatever they thought, and whatever I told them. I felt him threaten to force his way in. I felt him say at least one of the seers had to see me, that they had to let at leastoneof the high-ranked seers in to check me out, to make sure I was all right.

I felt him say it didn’t have to be him.

Jaden heard or felt something, too, because he frowned, looking at me.

He sat on a different couch in the same room, across from where I sat.

Not long after, Jaden went to the door.

He slammed it in the end, and locked it, but before that, I heard voices raised. I heard Revik’s voice that time, loud, angrier than maybe I’d ever heard it, but I also felt his fear.

I didn’t care. I closed my eyes through most of that, and willed him to go away.

Eventually, he did.

Truthfully, I was surprised none of them had forced their way in by now.

I’d been expecting one of them to.

I was relieved beyond words that they didn’t.

Angie stayed with me most of that night, and Sasquatch, although he didn’t say much. Frankie sat on the floor and laughed and complained about men being jerks and told me I should let Revik stew until he figured out he couldn’t be such an asshole and get away with it. Jaden played video games with Sasquatch when Frankie wasn’t playing, and did things on a hand-held and talked to Dante on the comm about things to do with Displacement Lists.

I felt him watching me through most of it, staring at me sometimes, aware of me even when he wasn’t looking at me with his eyes. I felt his attention on me, and after a while, I struggled to deal with that, too.

Mostly, I fought to ignore it.

The night passed slowly into day that way.

Sasquatch handed me a blunt somewhere in that, and I smoked it, unthinking, then coughed because my lungs hated it––hated the smoke, hated the taste of it––and then I worried I might fall asleep.

I didn’t fall asleep, though.

A few more hours must have passed, another interval, another period of time on the clock where they freed Revik from his cage.

He came back and pounded on the door again, but no one answered that time. I told them it wouldn’t do any good, that he could unlock it with his mind, which seemed to make all of them nervous, maybe even scared, but he didn’t open the door that way, either.

I felt grief on him. I felt him trying to talk to me.

I don’t think I was angry, even.

I just wanted him to leave me alone.

I wanted silence, and in this room, even with Frankie chatting mindlessly about the guy she had a crush on from down the hall and the explosions and music from the monitor as Sasquatch kept playing video games and the sound of Jaden talking to Dante on the comm––even with all that, it felt quiet here.

It felt weirdly peaceful, maybe just from the mundanity of it all.

I knew it wouldn’t last, this vacation from reality.

After Revik went away the second time, though, he stayed away longer.

Another night came. Then another day.

Kali came by, somewhere in that, but I told them not to answer the door for her, either, and eventually, she went away, too.

I still hadn’t slept, but I was getting more and more tired.