Page 56 of The Shape of my Scar
Then he pulled the trigger while Theodora peeped at her from behind him.
The crack of it tore through her skull…
And then she woke.
It wasn’t peace that greeted her. It was pain. A stabbing, unrelenting pressure on her left side. A fire blooming between her ribs every time she tried to breathe.
Someone was calling her name.
“Faolan.”
She couldn’t speak. Something blocked her throat. Panic fluttered in her chest.
Her eyes were covered. She tried to move, but her body refused.
Then there were hands—gentle ones—a cloth wiping her forehead.
Then light, too bright.
A warm voice said, “There you are, sweetheart.”
A brown, kind face came into view, framed by a surgical cap and soft brown eyes. “I’m Mary. I’ve been looking after you. You gave us quite the scare.”
They asked her to nod or blink when they asked her questions. She tried, but she was so tired.
She drifted in and out of consciousness.
Faolan blinked slowly, trying to focus.
“We have someone here to see you,” Mary said with a soft smile.
And then he was there.
Callum.
He looked older than she remembered. Tired. Frayed with new lines around his eyes and mouth and new grey in his hair. His voice caught in his throat as he said her name like a prayer.
“Faolan.”
She wanted to tell him she was okay. That she was glad he was here. But the tube down her throat made everything ache.
“They’re going to see if they can take it out soon, okay?” he said gently. “Cormac’s here, too.”
She turned her head slightly.
Cormac stood behind Callum. His shoulders were broad as ever, but he looked like he hadn’t slept in years. His eyes—so like hers, so like Callum’s—glinted with tears he wouldn’t let fall. He didn’t speak. Couldn’t.
Callum took her hand.
He told her what had happened. Bits and pieces—her injuries, how her heart had stopped beating before they got her back, how long she’d been asleep, how they were all there.
Then, his voice dropped, hesitant. “Dad wants to come in, but there’s…someone else who really wants to see you.”
She blinked.
“Thane,” he added softly. “He hasn’t left the hospital since you were brought in. He’s been waiting. I know you probably don’t want to deal with that right now, but…do you think you’re up to seeing him?”
The question lingered in the air between them.
