Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“You won’t ever have to.”
The adrenaline of tonight still pumped through my veins and wrestled with the exhaustion that tried to settle into my bones.
“I’m also being serious about you not needing to apologize for anything.” He dropped his joking demeanor. “Guilt isn’t anything productive or useful. And it’s all projected. There are a hundred different things that could have happened tonight that resulted in Emmy getting hurt, who’s to say it falls on you? No one, except for you. You’re the only one saying that, giving it power. So don’t.”
Those words did somehow break through the roar of the storm drifting around in my skull. I sat with them for a moment, trying to internalize what he was really saying and in turn trying to let go of some of my guilt. Not just for tonight, but for everything. For my mom—I’d hope she’d understand. That she’d be proud of the man I’d become. That she’d been watching me and cheering me on and telling me the same thing Dyl was saying.
I sighed. The exhale felt as if it carried with it the dark gray storm clouds that had been inside me. There was more work to be done on myself, but I felt like Dylan had just handed me a key to understanding how to let go. “Thank you, baby.” I leaned in and kissed him. “I needed to hear that.”
He offered me a warm smile. His bright eyes caught in the headlights of a car pulling into the parking spot next to us. It was Chris, and he’d come with Gabe, Eli, and Soren. They were all getting out of the car before Chris even had a chance to turn it off.
“Let’s go,” I said. “They should have him in a room already.”
We got out and joined the guys, all of them worried, scared, unsure of what or how this happened. There’d be time later for more explanations. Right now, I braced myself for the news that awaited us inside the hospital.
Chapter Thirty-One
Long Night
DYLAN
The hospital could have passed for any other if someone wasn’t paying attention to the details. It had the same fluorescent lighting, employees in the same kind of scrubs, the same frantic energy between nurses and doctors working together to try and save lives. Some people here likely didn’t even realize they were being treated by beings who could control natural energies to enhance some of the treatments. At least not on the first floor, which was where the general intake happened. We spoke to the nurse at the front desk and were then escorted through a side hallway and into an elevator bay that had a security guard posted at the front.
Raquel and Yuni ran up to us as we waited. Raquel must have rolled right out of bed, still wearing her pink silk pajamas, tears wetting her cheek where makeup would have been any other day. “Is he okay? What happened?” She was breathless and scared. Chris wrapped her in a tight hug.
Yuni came to us. She wore a black T-shirt and sweats, also seemingly having just woken up. “Are you two okay?” She looked us over, concern in her brown eyes. I was used to seeing her with her hair up, how she typically liked to wear it, but tonight it fell in a jet-black curtain down to her shoulders.
“Yes, we’re okay,” I answered. I could hardly believe it. Tonight all felt so horribly unreal. I couldn’t really process it. My therapist was going to need to work overtime in the next couple of months.
Yuni rubbed my elbow and then hugged me. She wasn’t a hugger. This felt different, and also really comforting.
The elevator dinged open and the security guard keyed us up to the second floor. The doors opened again on a scene that was quite different than the first. Up here, the hallway felt warmer and more inviting, cozy almost. It was narrower and had warm lighting, but instead of the pale white walls with the medical notices and pamphlets pinned on cork boards, there were rows of shelving that held different plants and herbs. The fragrance was intense at first but much preferable to the antiseptic scent used just below us. The nurses up here wore scrubs that looked more like tunics, in shades of soft browns and greens. The entire ceiling was a skylight that allowed sunlight during the day and moonlight during times like these.
A nurse with large glasses came to greet us. He explained that Emmy had been taken into surgery but that one of the doctors would come out shortly to explain what was going on. He walked us over to a comfortable waiting area with comfy black chairs and couches and a huge bookshelf stretching across the entire back wall. At a glance, the books looked like a mix of popular reads and some more obscure ones with potted ivy and flowers as bookends and spacers.