"I'm fine," he said.

"Hardly."

Circling around the table, she pulled out a chair on the opposite side and sat, folding her hands on the scarred painted surface. "So you know your name."

He nodded.

"Amnesia is a fascinating condition," she went on. "Not to you, I'm sure, but it's odd what the brain might pick and choose in terms of recollection. I'm thinking in the most severe cases, you wouldn't be able to walk or communicate or even pick up that gla.s.s, but I could be wrong."

Mulling over her words as he took several sips from the gla.s.s, he welcomed the slightly acidic burn in his throat. He set the gla.s.s down. "So you're saying I'm not too bad off, even though I can't remember a single G.o.dd.a.m.n thing except my name?"

"But that's not exactly true, is it?" Her gaze held his until she rose and stepped away from the table, leaving to answer a distant knock on another door. He clutched the gla.s.s of juice in both hands on the tabletop, staring past to a series of lines scratched into the table's wooden surface. Not random, but seeming to spell out a word, a word he couldn't focus on as he thought about what she had said. How did she know? How did she know about the jumble of thoughts he held inside this fragile bubble in his mind?

"Caleb Hunter?" a deep voice said. "I'm Dr. Redecker, and I hear you may need my help."

Caleb spun on the chair to face the man standing between him and the interior kitchen door with a vague hope the man's face would be familiar. The gray hair, heavy countenance, and steady blue gaze meant nothing to him. This total lack of recollection made him understand something else, something he hadn't understood earlier. When looking into the eyes of the woman in whose kitchen he sat, he didn't see a stranger.

Books by Celia Ashley.

Dark Tides Series.

Dark Tides.

Storm Surge.

Comes the Dark.