Page 79 of Uncharted

I opened my eyes again.

“You fucker!” I heard someone gasp beside me, and suddenly Mika was there, clutching the rails of the bed as if it were the only thing keeping him upright as he stared down at me. The dark bags were heavy under his eyes, and his skin looked overly stretched and way too thin as he stared, no, glared at me. “You fucking son of a bitch, I swear to God!”

“Hi,” I croaked, then stiffened. “Jake? Jake!”

“Start by lookin’ over here,” I heard his voice and my head snapped over.

Relief so unbelievably thick rolled through me, and my eyes stung as I took in the sight of him in a hospital bed a handful of feet from mine. A blanket covered him to his chest, and there was a fresh cast on his left arm. But his face, oh, it hurt to see the bandage over the left side of his face, and the bloody wound on his head stapled all over again.

But he was alive, he was so very alive, and that…oh, that was everything, and worth anything.

Even bloody dreams and a deep dread I couldn’t explain.

Clumsy hands tried to be gentle as they gripped my shoulder, sweaty fingers sliding along my cheeks, and I turned toward the ghostly mirror of my face. Mika’s eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed. His lip trembled, and he swore again. I smiled at him, reaching to take his hand before he accidentally clawed at my face.

“Hi,” I repeated. “Sorry.”

“Sorry,” he choked out. “Like, once wasn’t enough? Jesus fucking Christ, I wish I’d been an only child. I wish I’d fucking absorbed you in the womb. I wish…fuck you, goddammit, fuck you so hard.”

“I know,” I said, looking up as someone moved behind Mika and placed a hand on my brother’s back. I couldn’t hear what Aidan said when he bent down to whisper something in Mika’s ear, but my brother gave a ragged gasp and spun around. He wrapped himself around Aidan and clung to him, pressing his face into his neck and giving a soft gasp.

My brother was…not an emotional man, at least not around most people, but I knew there was a deeply buried kernel of earnest emotions and a gentler heart than he realized. I couldn’t blame him; I had got my ass handed to me not that long ago, and he’d nearly lost Aidan, and then I went and almost left the mortal plane again. It was a lot for him.

And yet, it was Aidan he clung to as he got himself together, and it was Aidan who hadn’t hesitated to be his anchor, to keep him safe while he worked through his feelings.

I turned and looked at Jake, who met my eye, and I raised a brow. Jake scowled at me. “Seriously?”

“Just saying,” I said with a shrug, and then grunted as the movement pulled my skin and made my side scream in pain. “Ahh, that…isn’t fun.”

“Ugh, fine,” Jake spat out. “I’ll try, okay?”

“That’s all I ask,” I said with a smile at his grumpy expression.

“What are you talking about?” Mika asked, turning around. His face was wet, but he seemed to have got himself under control again to be angry at me but not hysterical.

“I have this nagging feeling it’s about me,” Aidan muttered, and I snorted when he cast a nervous glance in Jake’s direction.

“Clever boy,” I winked.

“How are you so goddamn calm?” Mika snapped, sitting down in a chair and glaring at me over the bars on the bed as if afraid that if he got too close, he might strangle me. Which, to be fair, was probably incredibly tempting.

“I’m alive, he’s alive, the relief is winning over everything else at the moment,” I told him with a wince. “Sorry. I’ll try to be more serious.”

“Kinda my fault,” Jake muttered.

I eyed him. “You went and gave him the full story, didn’t you?”

“He was here when the cops showed up to ask questions,” Jake explained. “They’re gonna wanna talk to you too, by the way. And uh…Mika’s not the only one mad at us.”

“Xander?”

“Oh yeah. And Cait. We’re apparently only allowed to almost lose our lives once a year.”

“I don’t remember that being in the rules.”

“Yeah, uh…don’t say that to her.”

“I wouldn’t, who would…you didn’t.”