Page 110 of The Phantom's Vice

Kain reassured me that Lillith was a gifted trauma surgeon—and had even saved his life back when she was just starting her residency—but the amount of blood he lost… the way his body looked like a limp rag doll as Kain and Orion hoisted him onto the table…

I fight the bile rising in my throat as the images swarm my mind, trying and failing to blink them away. I don’t know how anyone could survive such a thing. And from the look on Kain and Orion’s faces, they don’t seem to have high hopes.

An eternity later, the door creaks open, and Lillith emerges, dark bags under her eyes and enough blood on her scrubs to make me sick all over again.

“Is he…” My words get caught in my throat, and I know I’m not brave enough to ask the question I need to.Is he dead?

Lilith peels the mask from her face to reveal hermouth set in a deep grimace. “He’s alive. But…” I sit up straighter, wanting to strangle the rest out of her.Butis never a good thing.Butcould mean anything from he lost his leg to he’s now a vegetable.

“Butwhat?” I demand, dutifully ignoring the murderous look Kain throws my way. “Just… tell me.”

“He’s in a coma,” she whispers, reaching a hand up to tug at the golden locket dangling below her collarbone. “I’m so sorry, Brett… I did everything I could, but he’s just not responsive.”

My fist tightens at my side as I try to ignore the screaming inside my own head.Coma. Ghost is in a coma.“Will he… will he ever wake up?” I ask, not knowing if I’m brave enough to hear the answer.

Lillith looks at Kain, who gives her a small nod. Taking a deep breath, she simply shrugs. “I don’t know. The brain is a strange thing. He could wake up in the next couple of hours, weeks, or never again. Idothink he needs to go to an actual hospital, though,” she adds, placing her hands on her hips when Kain opens his mouth to disagree. “I’m not even an attending yet, Kain. He needs to see a specialist or atleastsomeone with an actuallicense.”

Kain sighs, raking a tattooed hand through hisdark hair. “I know, flower. But we can’t. They’ll lock him away for good.”

“Better that and he has a chance of recovering than staying like this!” Lillith whisper-yells, shooting an awkward glance at where I’m crouched on the floor, my head in my hands. “Kain, this is too much for her. She’s going into shock—I’ve seen it a thousand times.”

“I’m fine,” I say, raising my head to give them both a hard stare. “And Lillith is right. Ghostneedsto go to a real hospital.” I straighten, looking at Kain this time. “No one knows what Ghost really looks like—plus, for all the bureau knows, they still have the real Phantom in custody. Lillith and Orion can take him in, and as long as I vouch for you, the police shouldn’t give you any problems.”

Kain studies my face for a long moment, seeming to think over my plan. “Okay,” he relents, turning and taking Lillith’s face in his palm. “If anything happens, you call me and?—”

“And you’ll be parked around the corner ready to murder anyone who tries to get in my way? I know.” She grins, pressing on the balls of her feet to plant a lingering kiss against his lips.

While they have their moment, I go into the room where Ghost lies motionless on an operatingtable, a thin blue sheet covering his torso and legs. A thick plastic tube protrudes from his throat, breathing air into his lungs because he’s not even able to do that on his own. Seeing so many wires protruding from his already tortured skin breaks my heart, and when I reach up to touch my cheek, I realize I’ve been crying.

“Oh, Ghost,” I murmur, stepping closer and brushing his arm with my fingertips. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. I wish—” I choke on whatever I was going to say as ugly, heaving sobs wrack my shoulders.

What I want to say is that I wish the world wasn’t so cruel. That I wish there wasn’t so much misery, and that I didn’t have to hold on so tightly to those rare, golden seconds of happiness. That I wish life was what was promised—that there was somegoodleft in the world—or at the least, something more to live for.

And there was.My heart cries.There is. He’s right there—reach out and touch it. This little gift, this strange, unfathomable thread tying your souls together.

Yet the longer I stand here, the more that bond weakens. Vanishes to a puff of white smoke before my eyes, carried off by the breeze as the next moment replaces the last.

“Are you ready to go?” Lillith asks, breaking me from my thoughts. She rests a wary hand on my elbow, and I have to hold my breath to stop the tears from flowing. I nod, letting Orion lead me outside as Lillith calls one of her coworkers to help transfer Ghost to the hospital.

I stop in the middle of the clearing, squinting as my eyes adjust despite the clouds covering the majority of the sun. I look up at the dark gray skies, listening to the wrens sing their morning song, welcoming a new day despite the state of the world.

It’s a dark, gloomy morning, and it tugs strangely at my insides, wrenching my chest open like an invitation for those happy birds to feast on my barely beating heart.

I watch as a cloud the shape of a phoenix forms in the vast gray. It sails across the sky, forming into a misshapen lump before long, causing my heart to sink for some inexplicable reason.

“Isn’t it strange?” I ask.

Orion toes a patch of grass with his sneaker, not paying much attention to what I’m saying.

“Huh?”

“It’s strange…” I repeat, reaching a hand up to my heart to cover the source of pain. “I did everything I could. I did everything I was supposed to, yet it’s still raining. Why—why is it always raining?”

Orion meets my eyes, his worried blue pools mirroring the weight resting on my soul. Such a deep, haunting color that resonates my deepest, most kept fears.

“I don’t know,” he says, simply. “I really, truly, don’t know.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

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