Daniel did come back in the afternoon. He seemed a bit apologetic in his own, very vague way.
"Aren't you busy?" Mariana asked.
"We need to talk," he said.
A cold, dark lump of dread sank into her belly.
"I don't want to talk."
"But you need to." He sat down on the edge of the bed and grabbed her chin.
"Are you still bitter about the surgery?"
That was not the question she had been expecting.
"If I think about it, yes," she said.
"Don't be. I could have healed you if something medical had gone wrong."
She stared at him, bewildered.
"Why did you not tell me about it sooner?" she asked.
"I didn't want to tell you that I am a demon." He shook his head. "It would have been a disaster to do that…in the situation we were in back then."
She nodded. "I see."
"Is it good now?"
She looked into his eyes and saw red sparkles twinkling in the middle of his blue irises.
She breathed in his scent.
"It is," she said quietly.