9
DAWN
“Still waiting by the window, my love?” Silas squeezes my shoulder, and I straighten, but my back responds by creaking — my bones ache. But I still can’t take my eyes from the window.
It’s only been two days, but my world feels as if it’s been stretched out along a wire of taut nerves and smarting shoulders, all the more pronounced in Draynor’s absence. Does my back always hurt this much, and I just don’t notice because being near Draynor’s like having a constant dose of painkillers in my veins? The pain itself isn’t new; I used to see the sore back, the sharply stretched tendons, as a byproduct of being a nurse. But maybe it’s more a product of age. One day, you’re running pain-free on an hour’s sleep and a pint of Red Bull, and suddenly you’re in your mid-thirties with gainful
