***
When I came around, someone was lifting my eyelids and flashing light on and off into my eyes. I tried to protest, but I couldn’t speak. I tried to sit up, but something held me down. I was trapped. Voices filtered through my foggy head, and once again, I strained to hear.
“CT scan… hematoma… broken ribs…”
A sob followed. Mom. I wanted to reassure her, but I kept slipping in and out of consciousness. Voices came and went—Mom, Torin, Eirik, Cora. They urged me to wake up, told me they loved me. Then there were the three women. I wasn’t sure who they were or what they wanted, but they hovered in the background, silent, watching, waiting. It was impossible to see their features. They kept changing, hazy one minute, transparent the next. At times they looked ancient, other times young like regular teens. Something about them was familiar, but I couldn’t tell what.
It was dark when I woke up again. My neck was stiff, and my chest and head throbbed. At least the pain was dull. I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn’t and panicked. A beeping sound went off.
“Shh, it’s okay,” a familiar voice said in the void. Torin.
I managed to open my eyes, turned my head to find him, and winced when a spasm of pain radiated across my chest. A bright light drew my attention to the corner of the room. The light came from the glowing runes on Torin’s face and body. He got up, the light from his body bathing Mom, who was asleep on a chair by my bed. No, not my bed. A hospital bed. I tried to remember how I got to the hospital, but I couldn’t recall anything that happened after Maliina hit me. Now beeping machines monitored my vitals, and my body felt like I’d been run over by a truck.
A nurse entered the room and fussed over me and the machines. She checked my vitals, flashing light into my eyes, asking if I knew my name and my pain level. She adjusted the IV and fed me ice cubes from a cup. My throat was dry and painful, and the ice felt nice, but I wanted her gone so I could be alone with Torin.
“Thank you,” I managed to say.
As soon as she left the room, my eyes found Torin again. The glow from the runes made his blue eyes hypnotic. He moved closer, scooped up an ice cube from the cup, and fed it to me.
“Why am I here?” I whispered hoarsely.
He frowned. “Maliina attacked you, but I pulled her off before she seriously hurt you.” He fed me another ice cube. “I shouldn’t have trusted Andris to watch over you. He’s completely useless.”
Memories of the events at the party trickled in. “No, he took care of me, Torin. He carried me from your place, but Maliina appeared out of nowhere and attacked.” I glanced around the room. There were flowers and ‘Get Well Soon’ balloons. “How long have I been here?”
“About thirty hours.”
“The gas leak at your place, was anyone hurt?”
He smiled. “No, but we cut things short. Actually, quite a number of students followed the ambulance here and camped in the waiting room until you left the operating room.”
“I had surgery? Where?”
“Your brain.” He stroked my forehead, but my skin felt weird. I tried to lift my hand to find out why, but Torin pressed my hand down. “Don’t. You’ve broken several ribs and mustn’t move too much. Do you want more ice?”
I searched his face. “I don’t understand. You said I wasn’t seriously hurt, yet I had surgery and broke my ribs. Why didn’t you just heal me?”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asked instead of answering.
“Maliina attacking me. I don’t know what happened afterwards, until I woke up just now.” Panic surged to the surface. “What happened? Why can’t I remember?”
“You had bleeding in your brain, which caused you to lose consciousness. The doctor stopped the bleeding and told your mom you’ll be okay, but some of your recent memories may be affected.”
He tried to feed me more ice, but I turned my head away, my mind racing. I couldn’t remember anything that happened after the attack, yet something about Torin and Eirik teased my mind.
“Was Eirik there?” I asked.
“Yes. He and Cora were here until a couple of hours ago when your mother insisted they go home. They have school tomorrow.”
I glanced at Mom. She was usually a light sleeper. She must have been up the last thirty hours to be so tired. Who was taking care of her?
“Don’t worry about her,” Torin said as though reading my thoughts. “She’s a lot stronger than you think. Go back to sleep, Freckles. I’ll be here when you wake up.” He put the cup of ice down and covered my hand.
He fell asleep before I did, his head resting on the bed beside my hip. I stroked his hair, happy despite my banged up body and missing memories. As the pain meds worked their magic, I relived every moment Torin and I had spent together just before Maliina attacked. The kiss, so beautiful and perfect. The feeling of completeness. He hadn’t said he loved me, but he’d claimed me as his. I planned to claim him too as soon as I broke off things with Eirik.
Thoughts of Eirik filled me with sadness. He loved me, but my love for him was not enough. It wasn’t comparable to my feelings for Torin. Maybe there was someone out there for him, someone who’d love him like he deserved. I was still thinking about how I’d break up with him when sleep tugged at my senses and I closed my eyes.