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“Somewhat luckily again, when the bullet entered his brain, it only bounced around twice before exiting right back out the same eye.” He winced. “His left eye is completely gone. All that’s left is his eye socket.”
Tears welled.
Never again would I see both of those beautiful eyes stare into my own.
But he had one.
He had fucking one!
“Okay, what else?” I asked.
“We repaired what damage we could. But some of it is going to have to heal from the outside in.” He looked worried for a few seconds. “Some of the areas affected by that round bouncing around in his head were right here,” he pointed to his head, right at the base of his skull. “That’s going to be his vision. Which’ll already be affected as it is with his missing eye,” he continued to point out points on his head. “This one is smell. It’s possible he won’t smell anything or be able to say what it smells like anymore.”
On and on he went.
“But, as of right now, what we’re really concerned with is brain swelling,” he continued as if he hadn’t just given me a whole laundry list of concerns. “The first twenty-four hours are critical right now. If he makes it that far, there’s a higher than likely chance that he’ll make it completely through and recover.”
I closed my eyes as I felt the weight of worry settling onto my shoulders. “Can I see him?”
The doctor frowned at me for a few long moments. “Normally, there are no visitors allowed in the ICU, especially with someone so critical.” He looked at me, and me only. “You are allowed to come in, but I mean this with my whole heart, do not be surprised if things go south. If they do, you are to leave the room immediately. Do I have your agreement?”
I liked this guy and his no-bullshitting attitude.
“Yes,” I promised.
But he wouldn’t need the promise.
I knew in my heart that Kobe would make it through the night.
He’d make it through all of them.
I didn’t know how I knew it—maybe it was Val’s own palm reading to me all those months ago when I first showed up at the circus—but I just knew that this would all work out.
It may not be pretty.
It may not be easy.
But nothing in life ever was, was it?
CHAPTER 21
I don’t age. I just level up.
-Text from Folsom to Kobe
FOLSOM
He not only made it through the night, but the swelling on his brain was absolutely minimal when the doctor rounded on him the next morning.
“I have to say,” he said. “This is slightly a miracle in and of itself. The fact that there’s no swelling at all, and his responses are as good as they are…I’m impressed. I don’t usually say this with so much certainty, but I believe he’s going to make it.”
I smiled. “I know.”
He turned, leaned against the cabinet that he’d just washed his hands beside and asked me, “How did you know?”
I wondered whether to tell him or not. Then decided…fuck it.
“For the past ten years, I’ve done nothing but run for mine and my daughter’s lives,” I started, then went on to tell him the entire story from beginning to end. “When I first arrived at the circus, there was a fortune-teller there, her name was Val, short for Valhalla.”
