The Fix

by Mia Sheridan

And that’s when she knew for certain she was still alive. But it would have been better had she died.

And she suddenly felt . . . seen, as though she’d been living as a blurry shadow of herself, and she’d just now come into focus and by the most unexpected of people at the most unlikely of times.

She simplified her reactions, and her opinions, and most expressions of her intellect. She did so because it was easier to fit in that way. At least with the crowd she was in.

There was a scar through the end of his right eyebrow, and he had a mole just beneath his left ear.

So yeah, that insult was laughable, but it still stung. Because it was the pure meanness that hurt him more than the names, and the fact that they’d been hurled at him by someone who was supposed to be on his side. Someone who’d been meant to build him up, not tear him down.

He knew what happened when you waited around for someone to save you. It was better to save yourself. And Cyrus had decided he’d rather take his chances with a bear than with the bad men on the way.

I think it’s right and . . . good that we have no idea when we’re experiencing a last. The beauty is in the oblivion and in the ordinary.”

Yes, he would have slayed a dragon for her once upon a time, but now he’d slay a thunder of them.

In the morning when she woke, Cami felt changed. Brand new. Somewhere in the night, she’d claimed complete triumph over her past. And wonderful, patient, and strong Rex Lowe had helped that happen.

Grief was so odd that way, sneaking up when you least expected it and 289knocking you sideways.