Page 139 of Fall of a Kingdom

My eyes slowly opened.

The singing stopped.

“Barrett?”

I heard the chair scrape across the floor as he stood up and suddenly, he was in my line of sight. His face was covered in stubble and his blue eyes were blood shot.

“You’re here,” I whispered.

“Of course I’m here.”

I blinked, but my lids were sluggish.

“Where are the kids?” I asked, panic crawling up my throat.

“Easy. They’re at Ash and Duncan’s. Everyone is fine.”

Relief swam through me. “Where am I?”

He paused for a moment and then he explained, “You’re at the hospital. You’ve been in and out of it for a few hours. I’m glad you’re finally awake.”

“The hospital?” I repeated. I remembered the night of the fire and fleeing the house. The memory of collapsing into the sand rushed back to me.

“How did I get here?”

Flynn’s blue eyes were steady as they stared at me. “Jules called the fire department and told them you were on the beach near the house. They found you and brought you to the hospital.”

“Oh.” My brow wrinkled as I tried to make sense of time and space. “We fought. That night.”

“Aye.”

“Hawk told you…about my brain tumor,” I recalled.

He took my hand and waited. “He did.”

“You were on your way home, weren’t you?”

“I was, aye.”

I exhaled. “I was going to tell you the night I came to The Rex, but the bomb…”

“Easy, hen. Don’t work yourself up.”

“I don’t want to have the surgery. The tumor is in the part of my brain that could affect my personality, and even if it’s successful, I have a slim chance of living past the year mark.”

Flynn peered at me and remained silent.

“Say something,” I demanded. “Please say something. Even if you yell at me. I should have told you first. I shouldn’t have waited. I—”

“Hen,” he said slowly. “You’ve already had the surgery.”

His words took a moment to puncture the thick fog of emotion that had washed over me. “Love, you’ve been in the hospital for two weeks. They removed your breathing tube a few days ago and they’ve been weaning you off the sedatives to try and wake you up.”

“Weeks?” I whispered. “I’ve been here for weeks, and I’ve already had brain surgery?”

“Aye.”

“But—but I don’t understand! How? Didn’t Ash tell you I didn’t want the surgery? Didn’t she make it clear that I—”