YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

The hospital was fucking chaos.Functioning, yeah—lights on, equipment beeping, heat blasting through the vents. Butchaos.

Darien followed Roman into the ER, the area so crowded the sliding glass doors barely shut behind them. The line-up—if you could even call it that—of people leading to the triage desk was so long, he figured it would take at least an hour before they reached the front, and gods knew how long after that before a Healer would be available to see him.

“Fuck this shit,” Darien muttered, his bruised face aching, mouth still tasting of blood. “I’ll get Arthur to deal with it?—”

“Darien, your hand is amess,”Roman hissed. Well aware of the people surrounding them, who would sure-as-shit take notice of the Devil and the Shadowmaster in their vicinity sooner than later, he added in a quieter volume, “And so is your face.”

Darien snickered—then grimaced, the act of forcing a smile causing his battered cheeks and jaw to scream in agony. “Thanks.”

“We’re not leaving here until you at least getthat—”He pointed at the mangled hand Darien cradled against his stomach. “—fixed.”

Darien swore under his breath, but he didn’t budge from his spot in line. Not even when the doors squealed open behind them, cold air blasting his back, and more people squeezed in, crowding him and Roman against those who stood in front of them.

Fuck, this really was shit. This night—day, whatever—was shit, and now they had to waste time standing here like tinned sardines.

But his handwasfucked… Roman wasn’t wrong about that.

Running into that house was a stupid mistake, and he’d almost paid for it with his life. When he’d woken up on the floor to a panicking Roman shaking him into reality, he had barely been able to stand, but he’d somehow dredged up enough will to walk the short distance here. He still wasn’t entirely surehow.His hand was in such excruciating, searing pain, it was a miracle he was even coherent. The cold air had numbed it somewhat, making it a bit more manageable, but now that he was inside and warming up, he knew it would only get worse. It already was.

As they waited, Darien scanned the hundreds of people in the area, searching for anyone they knew.

Searching for a head of blonde hair, eyes the shade of a tropical ocean, and the prettiest face he had ever seen.

But she wasn’t here, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He hoped it meant she was out of the line of fire and on her way back to Angelthene, but he refused to relax until he knew with absolute certainty that she was safe.

About thirty minutes—better than an hour, but still too long—went by before they made it to the triage desk.

“Last name,” the venefican receptionist demanded, fingers poised on her keyboard.

“Cassel,” Darien replied, keeping his voice down. But his efforts made no difference—people were already staring. They’dbeen staring and whispering this whole time, turning this experience into an even bigger pile of horse shit.

Thanks, Don,Darien thought. He and Roman hadn’t said much about what transpired in that house, but Roman knew that his dad was involved—knew that his dad was the one who’d broken Darien’s hand. As for all those other details… The glimpse into the past, to the night Elsie had, according to the police, jumped to her death…

He wasn’t looking forward to reliving those details when it came time to finally explain them.

“Spell it for me,” the woman said.

“C-A-S-S-E-L.”

“First name?”

“Darien. With an E.”

“Address?”

He gave a fake one—the same one he’d rattled off the last time he was here.

“What brings you in today?”

Darien lifted his hand in response—swollen, bruised, and throbbing like mad. “Broken hand.”

“We don’t have an estimated wait time.” Keys clacked as she recited the same speech she’d likely given all these other people, most of them human or half. “More urgent cases may be taken back before you. Stay in the area, and we’ll call your name when a doctor is ready to see you.”

“More urgent cases?” Roman echoed with a scoff. “This man’s hand is fucked!”

“I understand that.” She sounded bored to tears, and she looked it, too. “You’ll have to wait your turn like everyone else.”

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