Why can’t I move?
What happened?
What—
I heard beeping, and when I heard that, I also felt pain. My body hurt.
“Relax.”
Ethan? I felt his hands brush my face gently.
“Relax, la mia anima, it’s the meds,” he said.
And I tried to think, but everything was foggy. Slowly I opened my eyes, and even though everything was a blur, those green eyes of Ethan’s were as sharp as ever.
“That’s it,” he said, still stroking my face. “You are all right.”
I didn’t feel all right. Soon though, it became easier to see him, everything coming into focus. I was sure there was another person in the room, a woman over his shoulder. My eyes strained, and slowly, the vision of her become clearer. Who was the woman with the brown eyes and dark hair with a gray-white highlight at the front standing behind him, looking down at me?
“Am…I….in…hell?” My voice was low and hoarse, even to me.
“No. You are alive and getting better,” Ethan replied directly, which was comforting.
I nodded as best I could before asking, “Then…your…mother’s…ghost?” I didn’t have the energy to speak.
He chuckled, lifting my hand to kiss it. “She’s haunting, but not dead.”
I smiled as Melody’s nostrils flared in annoyance. Breathing in, it slowly came back to me. The governor’s ball, the ambush…killing my father. I’d killed him.
“I…killed him…right?”
“Fiorello?”
I nodded.
“His brain matter may forever stain that bathroom floor,” he said, and I grinned wide.
I had really killed him.
“One down…one to go.”
“You can’t go anywhere until you are better,” he said to me.
I frowned at that. “How…long?”
“Patience.”
I was tired of being patient. But I knew Ethan was ready. I didn’t know what was going on, but I was so tired, and everything was confusing. Where were we? This wasn’t one of the hospital rooms I had worked on. Why were his parents so close? Melody had shot me, hadn’t she? I had so many questions, but it was all too confusing right now. And that was the least of my worries at this point. I shifted my head over and glanced around. But I didn’t see her, and panic filled me, which everyone heard thanks to that damn heart rate monitor.
“Gigi? You…have…to get Gigi,” I said, trying to sit up. I told him if I fell, he had to make sure she was with him at all times.
“She’s fine. She’s resting.”
He grabbed me to force me back down.
But I didn’t believe him. I shook my head. “Bring…her.”
“It’s been a long day for her—”