“In the event…” Giulio leans back and stretches his arms over his head. “Well. Pretty fucked. That was public as hell. Even I have the good sense not to blow up entire buildings, Bouchard.”
Frowning makes my face feel weird. “I didn’t plan the explosion. Somebody else did that.”
“Okay, so you planned what? A big public gathering with the who’s-who of your Chaos alums? And then… profit?” Giulio leans forward, a strangely sudden movement. “What was the goal here?”
The goal was to prove to my dad that I wouldn’t be pushed around anymore.
It was to put everyone in their place.
But above all else, it was to get John Allers to come out of his high-security home and make him a much, much easier target.
“Pandora wanted a murder theater,” I answer quietly. “So I gave it to her.”
Giulio doesn’t say anything for a few long seconds.
Then he sighs and sits back. “What the fuck? Are you playing me? Just saying shit you know I want to hear?”
“No? It’s the truth.” I finally raise the water bottle up, and my movements are so uncoordinated I knock the straw against my lips before managing to take a proper sip.
“Did you have a clean-up plan at all?” Giulio asks. “Not that I think you needed one, because it’s really funny this way, but…” His phone suddenly rings, obnoxiously loud. He sighs and taps the button to answer the call.
“Giulio? What room are you in?” a deep voice asks.
I can’t believe he set it to speaker. We’re in a hospital.
“Papa! Don’t kill Blaze!” Pandora’s voice adds in the background. “He saved me!”
Giulio winks at me. “He’s still alive, Frog. Did you need him to have both eyes though? Because from his charts, it seems one of them was completely ruined. Squish-sploosh, destroyed.”
Wait.
Wait.
What?
I reach up, and I realize I didn’t see the hand.
I place my hand over my eye. Rough bandages bulge over where my eye should be.
Oh.
That’s why the world felt small. I literally can’t see half of it.
My hands tremble, and I stare down at the water bottle. I couldn’t reach it at first because my depth perception was fucked, not because my hands are numb.
My breathing gets faster, and I know that panicking isn’t going to help but what the fuck?
My eye isgone?
Completely gone? Did they leave any part of it in there, or is it an empty socket now? I look around—and I have to turn my head so fucking much to see the entire room—until I spot the call-nurse button. I reach for it, but Giulio grabs my hand to stop me.
“We’re in room 524. I think Blaze didn’t notice he was missing an eye. How do you not notice? Is it like losing a finger?”
Is that a joke? Is it supposed to be funny?
I’m not laughing.
I want to struggle against Giulio and get a nurse or a doctor orsomebodyin here, but his grip is a lot stronger than my tired, drugged up one.
