Timepiece

Chapter 49

“I can’t feel her.”

Ava and I sat in a corner of the emergency room, which was blessedly empty. She’d insisted on taking me to the hospital.

“That doesn’t have to mean the worst.”

“I put her in this situation. Nothing can happen.” My voice broke, and I stared at a framed print of Monet’s water lilies on the wall until I regained control. Lilies. “It’s been three hours. The sun is coming up, her grandmother is home, and she’ll know Lily’s missing.”

“Are you sure you’ve told us everything?” Ava asked. “It’s going to be easier to find her if we know every detail, especially if you have to wait for X-rays and a cast and we have to go looking by ourselves.”

Ava looked toward the sliding double doors of the emergency entrance. Dune and Nate walked in, holding four cups of coffee.

“Fracture?” Nate asked, looking at my arm.

“Don’t know yet.”

I doubted Dune would ever forgive me for breaking into his room and stealing the Skroll. Even so, he asked, “Are you okay?”

“I can’t feel Lily. Has anyone heard from Emerson or Michael?”

Nate stared up at the red exit sign, blinking as if he was holding back tears. The fact that he was serious scared me as much as anything could.

“No,” Dune said. “Thomas has the cops on it. He freaked when Em didn’t come home last night.”

Almost everyone I loved was in danger, and I was in a hospital waiting for stitches and an X-ray.

“I don’t know who has Lily.” The possibility that it was Poe sent ice down my spine. Jack wasn’t any better. He’d keep her alive long enough to use her ability to find the one thing he wanted, and then he’d discard her. “I need to get out of here. My arm can wait.”

“Ballard?” A young, smiling nurse with pink scrubs, red hair, and white shoes called my name. She had a clipboard in her hands and a pen stuck in her bun.

“No,” Ava argued. “Your arm is all bendy. You can’t leave without seeing a doctor.”

“I’ll be fine. Let’s just go.” I stood up.

“Dude,” Nate said. “You’ll be useless if you don’t get that arm fixed. Trust us to look for Lily. We want her found, too.”

He waited for me to read him. Loyalty, fear, conviction. The same feelings came from Dune and Ava.

“Ballard?” The nurse had removed the pen from her hair and was now tapping it on her clipboard, looking at us pointedly, but still smiling.

“Thank you.” I could only whisper.

“Go,” Ava said. “You’ll know you the second we find anything.”

The nurse, Mary Ellen, forced me to put on a hospital gown, and then she started an IV.

“Seriously? At worst, I need an ACE bandage, not an IV. Why do I need a hospital gown?” It wasn’t wide enough for my shoulders, so no matter what I did, it wouldn’t close in the back. The nurse kept averting her eyes. “Can’t you just slap on a Band-Aid and send me on my way?”

“Don’t be so grumpy. Let us take care of you. The IV will keep you hydrated.” Mary Ellen slid the needle under my skin quickly and almost painlessly. “No eating or drinking. We need to keep your stomach clear, in case that’s a break, specifically a compound fracture, and requires surgery.”

“Surgery? I can’t have surgery. I don’t have time. I have to…” In that second, everything in the room softened around the edges. I forgot what I was mad about. “What did you just do?”

“I gave you a little something for the pain, and to calm you down. You’re rather… agitated.” She frowned and took a step back before leaving the room completely.

“Agitated? You haven’t seen agitated.” Panic couldn’t eclipse the meds rushing through my system. Drugs that strong could have the same numbing effect as alcohol. I wouldn’t be able to feel anyone’s emotions, not even my own.

Not Lily’s.

I struggled to sit up, to keep my eyes open, but the nurse must have given me enough of the painkiller to take down a horse.

I don’t know how, but that’s when the wall between Lily and me tumbled down.

I’d known we were connected, but the pain I felt now was so sharp I could’ve been in her skin. Every emotion was amplified. She was pissed off and scared and worried. The pissed-off part made me hopeful for one brief second, and then my muscles spasmed as if I’d been running for days. My stomach twisted in knots.

She wasn’t okay.

Fear. Desperation. Fear. Desperation.

I fought against both as I fell into a deep sleep.