Page 9 of The Villain

I deserved what came next.

Her eyes fluttered and then finally pulled open, and I held my breath. She looked straight at me—straight into my eyes, and it felt like all the way into the broken shards of my soul.And then she blinked, and her body tensed like she’d been physically shocked.

“What happened?” her voice rasped, unsteady but determined. “What is this—where am I?” She jerked her hand back and reached for her face.

Shit.

“You’re safe?—”

“What’s going on?” she repeated, the pitch of her voice rising in panic as her fingers felt her forehead and pressed to her eyes.“Who are you?”

My mouth snapped shut, my instincts immediately on alert. Something was wrong. She knew me—she should recognize me.Scars and all.But she didn’t.

Rorik stepped to the other side of the bed. “Ms. Holman, I’m Dr. Nilsen?—”

“What’s wrong with me? Why is it dark?” She completely ignored him—didn’t even look at him as she pressed her hands to her cheeks and then to her eyes—she rubbed on the sides of them, over them, wiped at them like there was something irritating them. “Oh my god.” Her head started to shake. And then her shoulders. But it was the way she kept rubbing her eyes that worried me.

“Athena—” I forcibly took her wrists, but then her whole body started to shake.“You’re okay?—”

“I can’t see—” she whimpered, her chest starting to heave.

What?My head snapped to Rorik, and when I saw surprise on his face, I knew this wasn’t good.

“I can’t see. Oh, my god.I’m blind—” She started to hyperventilate. “Where am I? Why can’t I see? What happened?”

“I’m Dr. Nilsen, Ms. Holman. You have to calm down, please.” He tried, but she wasn’t hearing him because she was fighting me—shaking and pulling herself away even though I was only trying to reassure her.

“Calm down, Angel,” I begged. “It’s okay—” She wasn’t hearing me. She was panicking, and I couldn’t stop it.“You have a concussion—” It was of no use. She pushed back into the bed, her head whipping side to side.

“No! What happened to me? Who are…” Suddenly, all the energy went out of her, and she slumped down, her eyes drifting shut.No!My heart cracked against my chest, fearing the worst and looking to Rorik to resuscitate her.

And then I realized he was responsible, and I growled at him like an animal.

“I had to sedate her,” he said firmly, pulling the syringe out of her IV line. “She couldn’t stay that agitated. Not with her concussion. She would’ve done more damage.”

Fuck.

For a second, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything but process the look on her face when she’d come to—the pure panic and fear that consumed her. I should’ve just told her who I was.It wouldn’t have mattered,a voice inside my head responded, forcing me to accept that Rorik had introduced himself as a doctor, and she still couldn’t process it. I knew—I understood. I’d been around plenty of people who survived explosions and came to with a consuming kind of panic.

“What the hell was that?” I rasped and carefully straightened, balling my arms to my chest as Rorik leaned forward and peeledher eyelids open. He ignored my question, examining her eyes with a small light before letting them close again.

“You said she was fine—that her scans were fine?—”

“And they are.” He cut me off, his cold stare daring me to question his expertise.I wasn’t, but fuck me, she wasn’t fine, and that was all I could think about. “Her scans are clear; her pupils respond normally to light?—”

“Then why is she fucking blind?” I growled.

“I can’t see.”Her panicked cry still haunted the room.

He shoved his little flashlight back into his scrub pocket and folded his arms. “I believe she has what’s called cortical visual impairment—used to be called cortical blindness.”

My brother made a low noise and nodded.

“You know what that is?”

“Used that to describe what happened to soldiers who were shot or had other injuries to the back part of the brain,” he said with a grunt.

Rorik nodded and further explained, “Basically, her eyes are fine but the part of her brain that processes information from the ocular complex is injured.”

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