Page 166 of Forged Absolution (Fates of the Bound 4)

She made up the tea and brought the kettle and mugs into the den. He’d just put in a movie, something with cartoon animals that seemed vaguely familiar.

“Come on, it’ll be like the old days.” He finally took his heart medication with a last swig of wine.

Lila sat before the screen and poured the tea, then curled her legs underneath her as she settled in beside her father. They listened to the boings and whistles and trills of the cartoon animals as the group marched off to rescue their friends in a land far away. A land she vaguely remembered.

“Oh my gods!” She gasped. “How do I remember this?”

“Because you used to watch it all the time,” he said, yawning. “I think you watched it a hundred times one week. You used to make me watch it too. I’d read through upcoming legislation while this movie played, waiting for you to fall asleep so I could mute it.”

Lila elbowed him in the side. “It looks like you’re the one who might fall asleep tonight.”

“Not for a while yet.” He patted his knee. “Come on, Lila girl. You look tired.”

Lila wasn’t tired, but sitting up for so long had done her no favors. Holding her side, she sprawled over the couch and put her head on her father’s knee, just as she done when she was young. Her father laid his head back on the couch and watched the screen. One hand stroked the boomerang, the other played with her hair.

“You shouldn’t have eaten so much,” she said. “You’ll pay for it tomorrow.”

“No, I won’t

,” he mumbled sleepily. “I’m really happy that you’re here with me tonight, Lila girl. I didn’t want to be alone. Maybe that makes me selfish. No, it does make me selfish, but you always land on your feet. You always know what to do.”

Lila rolled toward him, wincing as her wound protested the movement.

“This is the best part.” He pointed at the screen with his boomerang, his hand lilting to the side drunkenly. “Do you remember how it ends?”

“Vaguely. How much Sangre did you drink tonight?”

“Just watch, Lila girl. Just turn around and watch.”

Lila did as he bid. Predictably, as had happened so often as a child, her father’s hand stilled on her hair. She nearly laughed, for she remembered how much her father snored when he fell asleep. Sometimes he snored so loud that he woke himself up.

But this time he didn’t. He dozed quietly on amid the trills and whistles and songs.

She tugged on his fingers as the cartoon animals approached the monster in the tower, too sore to turn. “Father, you’re going to miss the end.”

He did not answer.

Lila swiveled her head. Her father had grown pale and still.

She sat up with a start, not caring as her side called out in pain.

The cartoon characters sang a merry song behind her as they triumphed over their foes and reunited with their friends.

Lila ignored them. She shook her father’s shoulder, but he didn’t wake. Instead his head fell back, his body heavy.

With shaking fingers, Lila pressed against his neck.

No pulse.

The boomerang fell to the floor as she reached for her palm. She quickly called the front desk of Falcon Home. “Call Dr. Booth. The prime minister has had a heart attack. Have someone bring an AED.”

She put the line on speaker and pushed her father down on the couch.

Ripping open his shirt, she crouched above him and began CPR.

Chapter 32

Lila gripped her side as she peeked through the window of the emergency room suite, her wound aching after five minutes of compressions, a swift ride in a jostling cart, and another forty minutes of peering at Dr. Booth and his team as they worked. Booth and another doctor had continued pressing upon her father’s chest, shocking him with paddles, and inserting needles and tubes into his body. Several nurses flitted in and out of the room, jumping as the doctors barked orders.

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