Ether was still pacing.

  She’d barely slept last night, which meant that I’d barely slept last night. The closer it got to time to wake up, the faster she paced. It was times like this that I wished I knew that sleep spell that Gesai had used to knock me out a few weeks ago.

  “Hey.” I got up and grabbed her hands, stopping her frantic circle. “It’s going to be okay. I’m here. Rix is here.” I looked over at the redhead. The golden woman hadn’t slept much last night either, but somehow I felt that she’d slept her normal amount. I’d only seen her sleeping a few times and that was only while I’d been awake in the middle of the night.

  Fray, on the other hand, had finally fallen asleep just after midnight. The nervous green woman had fed off of Ether’s nervous energy. I’d given up on believing that my touching her would calm her down a long time ago, but I still tried small touches and hugs. It wasn’t like she didn’t want to be close to people. She’d even initiate it occasionally. But whatever had messed her up would resurface and she’d pull away every time.

  “And I’m sure that Fray will be nervous with you.”

  That at least got a chuckle out of her.

  “There she is.” I pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “It’s going to be fine.”

  “But they… I…”

  I felt tears on my shoulder.

  “Hey…” I slowly ran my fingers through her shoulder length hair as I guided us both to the floor.

  It didn’t take long before her breathing slowed. I should have looked at my CB, but Ether was sitting on my left arm and I didn’t want to know bad enough to risk waking her up. I could just ask Rix later. That woman had an internal clock and compass that was scarily accurate.

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  “Atlas. Door.” Rix slid off of her cot. If our skill weren’t being blocked, I had a feeling that she would have gone invisible at this point. We were supposed to be in the middle of a friendly stronghold, but she was still expecting trouble.

  The woman who stepped out of the elevator wasn’t wearing red armor. She had on civilian clothes, a regular dark shirt and regular dark pants. She was shorter than I’d expected. Ether was about two inches taller than the average woman, but the woman I was looking at was barely five feet tall. Other than that, she looked like a slightly younger version of Klix, at least from what I could see in the dark.

  Our guest covered her mouth with both hands and I heard her sniffle as she walked towards me.

  Rix was in between us in moments. There was no way that she could win against a Scarlet. Kara had been in the fifties and she was the lowest level one. This woman could probably take on Trent if I had to guess.

  “Shh.” Rix held her finger to her lips. “She just fell asleep.”

  The short woman stopped in front of Rix and slowly pointed at the woman I was holding. “It is her. That’s my baby?”

  “You’re Miel?” I tried to keep my voice low. Ether was a fairly sound sleeper, but right now, I didn’t want to risk it.

  Miel couldn’t speak, she just nodded.

  “Yeah. This is Ether.”

  The Scarlet dropped to her knees and slowly shuffled past Rix. I tried not to tense up as she stopped in front of me. She slowly reached out her hand and touched Ether’s back with a single finger, then pulled it back quickly as if she hadn’t expected Ether to be real.

  She shuffled over to my right and gave me a side hug. “Thank you.” She slowly reached over and started rubbing Ether’s back while still holding onto me. I could feel her tears on my other shoulder as I sat in almost the middle of the room, holding both of them in what for me had become a very awkward hug.

  Rix just shook her head and went back to her cot.

  It was going to be a long morning.

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