Page 105 of An Enchanted Spring

Her left shoulder blade burned. She tried to move, but the pain was too intense. She let out a moan.

“Emma. Emma, can you hear me?”

“Aidan?” she tried to say, but her throat was too dry. A straw was placed at her lips, and she greedily drank the cool, crisp water. She couldn’t remember anything tasting so good.

“Emma, you’re in the hospital. Just rest. There will be plenty of time later for talking,” Reilly’s voice said from somewhere near her.

Another voice—a woman’s. Irish accent, English language. “I’ll give her some more pain medication. She’s due for her next dose, anyway.”

“Where’s Aidan?” she tried again, but her tongue felt thick and foreign. Why couldn’t she open her eyes?

“You’re safe here. Sleep, Emmaline.”

She couldn’t do anything but comply with Reilly’s softly spoken command.

Beep.Beep. Beep.

Emma’s eyes felt as though they were made of sandpaper. She blinked, working through the grit, until she could focus on something.

A fluorescent light, switched off, on a drop ceiling.

Her fuzzy brain couldn’t grasp that, so she carefully turned her head to the left and found the source of the incessant beeping. A blue machine with green digital numbers stared at her. Every few beeps, a piece of paper dropped from it, landing in a wire basket.

She moved her eyes from the machine, and realized she was in a bed. The white blanket was tucked around her tightly, and she noticed the safety bar alongside her leg.

Colin sat nearby in a black plastic chair, with his elbows resting on his knees. His folded hands propped his head.

She swallowed, and before she could even attempt speech, he placed a straw against her lips. She drank, savoring the water, and when she finished she gave him a smile of gratitude.

“Aidan?”

Her voice was scratchy from disuse, her throat raw.

Colin placed the pink plastic cup on the side table. “How are you feeling?”

She tried to sit up, but her back screamed in protest. She gasped, and Colin helped her to readjust.

“Emma, don’t try to move. You were shot, and they had to do some serious digging to get all of the bullet pieces out of your shoulder.”

“Shot?”

“Yes. Relax. Reilly’s talking to the nurse now; he’ll be back in a moment. You had us worried for a while there.”

“Aidan?” Emma asked again.

Colin’s eyes looked so deep, as though they held secrets a normal human couldn’t possibly understand. And so sad, as though his heart were breaking right alongside hers.

“You made it home, Emma…but Aidan didn’t.”

Her world stopped. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she tried to form words, but nothing came out. Her monitor started beeping rapidly, and she let out a sob, ignoring the pain ripping through her at the movement.

She had one coherent thought slamming through her brain: She didn’t care if he didn’t love her. She didn’t want to live, if it wasn’t with Aidan.

She gratefully slid back into oblivion.

Six weeks later,Emma sat in a very stuffy office. The lettering on the door read FINN O’ROURKE, ESQ., ATTY AT LAW.

She still didn’t know why she’d been asked to come.

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