Shifting Destiny

Chapter Twelve

Feyre POV

Someone is working on the fence outside when I wake. Metal strikes metal twice, then stops. Alis told me last night that Kael found the stretch opposite my room, even after they closed the ward windows. She offered to move me. I asked to stay where I know the door and the call button, as long as someone watches the outside route.

The repair sounds start again while I eat breakfast. I keep glancing toward the closed window, though I can't see the fence from the bed. Alis knocks before coming in with a cup of water.

"The bracket is being replaced," she says when she sees where I'm looking. "There are two staff members outside. Kael moved back toward the trees before they began."

"And Kayla?" I set my spoon on the tray. "You said she could visit if my temperature stayed down."

"It has. She can come in for half an hour." Alis sets the water beside me. "I'll check you afterward. If you feel faint before then, end the visit and call me."

I want to ask if Kael will be able to hear us. Alis follows my glance to the window and tells me the glass is shut and Kayla will use the interior hall. I take a drink while she leaves to bring her in.

Kayla enters with my phone and a canvas bag pressed against her chest. She stops after two steps, her smile fading as she takes in my face.

"Your eyes." Kayla sets the bag on the chair and comes closer. "Are those contacts?"

"No." I push my hair behind one ear. There are more pale strands near my face than I saw yesterday, though most of it is still blonde. "They changed while I was sick. Alis is keeping an eye on them." I let my hair fall over my shoulder and wait for her to ask about that too.

Kayla looks as if she wants to ask more, but she sits beside the bed. "You should've heard yourself on the phone. I thought you were about to pass out while we talked."

"I nearly did afterward." I reach for the canvas bag. She lets me look inside instead of unpacking it for me. My jeans are folded beneath a soft sweater, my phone charger, and the socks she promised. "You brought the ugly ones."

"They're the warm ones." Kayla moves the chair closer so I can set the bag on the bed. "Your landlord called me back. I told him you'd call. He'll wait until Friday, but he wants to know when he'll get the money."

I turn on my phone and wait for the messages to load. There are two from him, three from coworkers, and more from Kayla than I can count without scrolling. My stomach tightens at the rent amount. "I'll call today. I can pay some of it now. If I still have a job, I'll cover the rest after my next shift."

"You do." Kayla watches me open the work messages. "I told our supervisor you're being treated here. She took you off this week's schedule. Call her when Alis clears you."

"Thank you." I don't want Kayla to know I've been stretching meals until payday, and she doesn't need to hear me calculate what the missed shifts will cost. I lock the phone and put it beside the water. "I hate that you had to handle all of this."

"I made two calls and picked up socks." Kayla's mouth twists. "Save the guilt for when I start rearranging your apartment."

I want to laugh, but I have spent two days wondering whether I'll ever walk out of this room without claws. I reach across the bed for her hand. Kayla holds mine carefully, avoiding the nails she has noticed are longer. She doesn't comment on them.

"You can tell me if you're scared," Kayla says, rubbing her thumb over my knuckles. "You don't have to make this sound easy for me."

"I am." I look at the shut window while she holds on to my hand. "I don't know what next week looks like, and I miss my own bed." Kayla pulls the blanket over my bare feet with her free hand. I had been too warm to want it before she arrived.

Alis knocks and waits for me to invite her in. She has brought a copy of the entry she corrected yesterday, with the rest of my chart covered. It says plainly that I can't remember the minutes before Levi caught me. I read it again while Kayla loosens her grip so I can turn the paper.

"Who can see this?" I ask Alis. "I know the people who brought the wolf here will want updates. I don't want them reading my medical notes."

"I can, and so can the people caring for you," Alis says, pointing to the entry. "The office sees what it needs for billing and scheduling. They don't get your chart. If there's a safety reason to share something, you'll hear it from me first."

"Can I find out who's already read it?" I hold the page by its edges. Working with the sanctuary's records has taught me how often a question gets passed along before the person on the form ever hears it.

"I'll pull the access record for you," Alis answers. "Keep that copy."

Kayla glances between us. "Do you think someone's looking at it who shouldn't?"

"I don't know. That's why I want the names." I put the page beside my phone. It feels good to ask a question I know how to follow up. "There's something else. Do I still have access to intake paperwork while I'm off the schedule?"

"I can show you his arrival entry," Alis says. "I'll cover the other patients' details. What do you need?"

I think of the wolf coming into isolation while Kayla carried admissions to my office. I have replayed that morning often enough to remember the noise in the corridor and the forms spread across my desk. "I want to know when the black wolf arrived."

Alis goes to the ward desk and comes back with a single printed sheet. She sits on the other side of the bed. The other arrivals and the transport source are covered; she points out the black wolf's line. It shows an intake time of 11:06 a.m. I read it twice. At Crescent Moon, that field is supposed to record when an animal is received, not when someone opens a blank form.

"That's too early," Kayla says. She leans over my shoulder but doesn't touch the page. "I helped get his crate off the truck after lunch. We hadn't even taken him inside yet."

"Are you certain?" Alis asks Kayla. She has her pen ready, but she hasn't written Kayla's account down yet.

"I was there," Kayla says, sitting back. "I took the forms to Feyre while Alis and the handlers were still getting him into isolation."

I remember Kayla leaving with her pen tucked behind her ear and Alis coming to get me after the wolf had been sedated. I can't place a time on either memory. "Could that be when someone started his paperwork?" I ask Alis, tapping the time without covering it.

"It shouldn't be." Alis keeps her finger beside the time. "I'll check the transport notes and see where this time came from."

Kayla looks at me. "I might still have the handoff copy in the office folder. I can check when I go back."

"Don't take anything you aren't allowed to," I tell her. I want the answer, but I don't want her blamed for helping me. "Ask Alis before you bring it here."

"I will." Kayla stands when a knock sounds from the hall. Her half hour has gone quickly. She reaches for the canvas bag, then leaves it on my bed. "Call your landlord. Then call me when you're done, even if you just want to complain about him."

I promise I will. Alis checks my temperature before walking Kayla out. Once I'm alone, I put the chart page beside Kael's arrival sheet. One records what happened to me; the other is supposed to say when he came here. Kayla might be wrong about the hour, and I don't have a time of my own to compare. If she's right, someone entered a time before the wolf was brought inside, and I need to know why.