Page 3 of Ashes

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe.

I tried screaming again, but I couldn’t even hear myself.

Something wet trickled from my ears and my back was really, really warm.

I thought I heard a noise, but everything was muffled, like when I was underwater because of the annoying ringing in my ears.

Then, I finally heard a voice through all the muddiness.

“Nina…Ayoub…Jamal! Make noise if you can hear me.”

Uncle Noah?

I tried to open my mouth to answer him but couldn’t. It was too much effort and I just wanted to sleep.

I let my eyes close, hoping the horrific sight of our home burning changed back into the nice dream I was having.

I felt the pressure of strong hands gripping my body and heard the echo of my name being called over and over again, but I was stillsotired. I didn’t have enough energy to open my eyes to see who it was.

I let the warmth at my back and in my insides lull me back to where everything felt better.

Maybe this was just a really bad nightmare and Baba would wake me up tomorrow like he always did on Tuesday mornings.

CHAPTER 1

SIENNA

TWENTY YEARS LATER

“Time of death: 19:26,”I announced to the now quiet room.

After a moment of silence, I heard the staff move around me, but I tuned them out, my gaze fixed on the unending flatline on the cardiac monitor.

When you grew up dreaming of being a doctor, you always imagined how great it would be to help people, the rush you would get working as an emergency medicine resident, the thrill of stepping onto the floor and not knowing what lay ahead.

But rarely did you imagine what it would be like to face the other part of the job. How numbing losing a patient was despite doing everything right.

Those days were rare and far in between, but when they happened?

They were devastating.

Shake it off, Sienna, you still have work to do.

I gripped the edge of the bed, my knuckles turning white, and pulled myself out of my thoughts. I stared down at my patient’s closed eyes, the intubation tube now hanging limp on his pale face.

Craig was just sixty years old. I’d cleared him and he was being discharged today, but when the nurse started her rounds, she’d found him unresponsive.

He was supposed to go home.

But now, he wasgone. Just like that.

We’d done everything we could, but it wasn’t enough.

I swallowed the knot in my throat and quickly thanked everyone in the room. I turned around to find one of the senior nurses, Leena, staring at me, her expression grim.

We’d been working together for the past two years and, ironically enough, we’d met under similar circumstances on my first day here.

I gave her a small nod, hoping it would be enough to reassure her that I was okay. After that, I walked out and headed down the hall, straight for the family room where Craig’s family was waiting for his discharge.