Page 239 of The Storm Boys Series Collection

“It’s a heart condition, brought on by an extremely sudden stress, where the heart’s lower left ventricle changes shape and enlarges.” He shook his head. “Honestly, we can’t say exactly what brought this on. Could have even been from the tachycardia episode on top of the thirty million volts he took in the lightning strike. From the markings on his chest, it looks like it hit him on the left side of the ribs, directly near the heart. He’s very lucky to be alive at all.”

“Sorry, doc,” I said, still trying to get my head around any of what he’d just said. “Is it bad? The tako... thing? That’s different to the tachycardia?” I was so confused.

He gave a nod. “Yes. Two different conditions. The tachycardia—the irregular heartbeat—has been corrected, for now. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, the enlarged ventricle, is a temporary condition and should heal in a few months. It’s not likely he’ll require surgery. He’s been administered medication, but with a healthy lifestyle and proper rest, it is completely manageable.”

“That’s good, yes?” I asked.

The doctor gave a nod. “All things considered, yes.” He looked at us all in turn, his gaze returning to me. “His heart rate is regular, but—”

But it was good last night too, I thought.

“He’s very weak and tired. He’ll need complete rest.”

“And his recovery?” Mum asked. “Do we need a recovery plan? What do we do now?”

The doctor paused, his gaze meeting Mum’s with a smile. Like he appreciated that one of us was keeping up. “There will be a recovery plan, yes. As for the full recovery... We can’t answer that definitively. People who survive lightning injuries may suffer side effects for weeks or even years afterwards. Some never fully recover.”

“I know. He knows,” I added. “It’s not the first time he’s been hit.”

The doctor stared at me.

Shit.

“He was two years old. It wasn’t recent. He... he studies lightning. He’s a fulminologist. A meteorologist. He’s a doctor...” I felt every second of the sleep I’d missed. “Can I see him? Please? I just really need to see him.”

He had a nurse lead me through the very quiet, very horrible ICU. The doctor stayed back to talk to my family, no doubt asking all about what I’d just said. And they could tell him everything—about Jeremiah’s mother, about him being the meteorologist who saved lives during Cyclone Hazer, about him going viral for almost getting struck by lightning when he saved Casey and Presley, about any of it—I didn’t care.

I just needed to see him.

He was lying back at a slight incline, his eyes closed. There were more machines now. But the blankets were only up to his waist, shirtless with white monitor pads stuck all over his chest.

But holy shit...

His chest and up his neck were covered in a red vein-like pattern that I’d read about but never seen. It looked like lightning but on his skin.

Lichtenburg figures.

Spreading out from his left side, they crawled outward, like macabre capillaries. Like lightning had painted itself on his skin.

It was a phenomenon common in lightning injuries, and I knew they weren’t painful, but they were very confronting proof that the lightning had touched him. What it had done to his circulatory system. What it had done to his heart.

Proof of how close he’d come to dying.

I took his hand, and he slowly opened his eyes. He saw me, slow-blinked, and his lips pulled upward in a smile. “Hey.”

My nose burned and my eyes welled with tears. “Hey. You gotta stop tryin’ to die on me, okay?”

He smiled a little more. “Okay.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Better now. Heart not so jittery,” he said. “Good drugs.”

I laughed despite my tears. He did seem a little drowsy. “We need to look after your heart, you hear?”

He slow-blinked again, his gaze fixed on mine. “Yeah.”

“You’ve got some pretty cool Lichtenburg figures all over your chest.”

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