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His eyebrows hike up when he sees Elara standing there, then quickly drop to waggle at her. Elara pushes away from the wall, spins, and quickly walks away. She’s far from interested.
Life’s way too complicated as it is.
She hurries down the corridor, also not wanting to intrude on the moment Laith learns his mother’s jetting off to Europe rather than visiting her son while he lies in hospital, recovering from an animal attack. All the more reason he needs a friend.
Hopefully one who wasn’t responsible for putting him there.
Elara’s just exited the doors to the hospital when an ambulance pulls into the emergency bay. She ducks as the sirens feel like they’re piercing her eardrums, now walking faster. She wants to go home. Away from overwhelming sights and sounds and smells.
Away from guilt and confusion.
She ducks her head even more as she acknowledges she won’t be escaping the last two.
There’s a clatter and a groan as a gurney’s unloaded from the back of the ambulance. A doctor rushes out, lifting their stethoscope from around their neck. “What have we got?”
“Male, mid-30s,” the paramedic reports. “Found unconscious at the edge of the forest. Deep lacerations to his torso and arms, likely from a large animal. He's conscious but in a lot of pain. Blood pressure is sixty over forty, signs of shock.”
Elara’s suddenly frozen. Not another person. She couldn’t have…
She turns, wishing the coppery scent of blood didn’t just hit the back of her throat. The doctor’s leaning over a man on the gurney. He lifts the sheet covering the man’s torso and although he’s blocking Elara’s view, she doesn’t miss the way his shoulders tense. “What kind of animal would make those sorts of wounds?”
Her stomach plummets even further.
The paramedic adjusts the drip that’s already connected to the man’s arm. “Patient claims it was an elk.”
The doctor reels back. “A what?”
“An elk stag.” The paramedic shrugs. “I suppose those horns can be pretty dangerous.”
Suddenly, the patient’s hand whips out to grab the doctor’s arm. He tries to sit up, but groans in pain and falls back onto the gurney. Garbled, whispered words tumble past his lips. A moment later, his head flops to the side as he falls unconscious.
The doctor gently places the man’s hand back under the sheet. “What did he say?”
The paramedic shrugs. “No idea. He’s been mumbling the same thing since we found him.”
“Examination room seven,” the doctor says, looking like he’s still trying to wrap his head around what he’s about to treat. “We’ll need comprehensive bloods. Including for all the usual recreational drugs.”
The patient’s wheeled inside the hospital, leaving Elara reeling. It was an elk attack. Although that’s even more unusual than the wolf that attacked her, she’s pretty sure this has nothing to do with her memory lapse last night. She should be relieved.
Except…
She hunches her shoulders, wondering if this is going to be her new way of walking everywhere. Like she’s trying to protect herself from reality.
Because that’s the terrifying part about all of this. It’s real. She glances back at the hospital, wishing this could be relegated to the world of fantasy or imagination.
But she can’t. Not when she heard the man’s words.
And for some reason, they’re on a loop in her mind, as if they’re familiar. Like a nursery rhyme she knew as a child or a song she used to know but has forgotten.
Even though they make as much sense as everything else that’s happening around her. Still, she finds herself mouthing them as she climbs into her car and drives home.
In realms above, where shadows play,
The sword endures both night and day.
14
Elara
