Into Taleria

Chapter Thirty

Kate surged upright with a gasp, blinking frantically in the blazing light, desperately reaching for something, anything to stop her fall, but there was nothing, Aduil wasn't—a clatter like a whole drawer full of cutlery crashing to the ground clanged to her right and she snapped her head to the sound.

What the—where...?

A petit woman slowly came into focus, wearing bright pink scrubs, with curly black hair tied back in a tight ponytail. She stared back at Kate with wide eyes, random medical-looking things scattered on the floor at her feet.

A hospital room? She was home?

"Holy hell, you 'bout gave me a heart attack!" the woman—nurse—exclaimed with a hand over her heart.

"No..." Kate moaned. "Why? Why would he do that?" She slumped over, covering her face with both hands. It didn't make sense. She'd thought he understood. It would have worked, they could've found another way, if he'd just listened, that stupid, stubborn elf!

"Oh, oh of course, I bet you're pretty confused right now, aren't you, honey. But it's okay. Just take a minute to breathe. Everything's okay."

A hand fell lightly on her shoulder, and she started, looking up into soft, brown eyes.

"I have to go back."

"Wha—?"

She flung the covers aside and scrambled out of bed, stopping short at a painful tugging at her arm and chest. She looked down to find cords snaking out of her hospital gown and sticking out of her wrist.

"Whoa, there, just wait a minute—"

She yanked at them even as the nurse grabbed her wrist.

"No, no, honey, you don't want to do that," the nurse softly cautioned, but Kate was having none of it.

"No, you don't understand, I have to go!" Slapping at the nurse's hand, she wrenched her arm back, but the woman had an iron grip. She was stronger than she looked.

"The only place you have to go is back to bed," she insisted.

"You don't understand, I have to—get off me, I have to get back to him! Let me go!" A thrashing kick punctuated the last word, sending the nurse stumbling back a few steps as Kate ripped the cords from her chest—and the heart monitor did not like that—and focused on the one in her arm.

"No, you don't," the nurse raised her voice over the high-pitched wail of the machine. Kate shot her foot out as the woman moved toward her again, but she stayed out of range, looking past Kate and lifting an arm to point. "He's right over there," she added.

"What?" Kate twisted to look behind her, impossible hope rising in her chest—but there was no one there. A sharp pain in her arm had her whirling back just in time to see the nurse pulling a needle out of her with a triumphant expression.

"What did you... you... do?" Kate slurred. Whatever she'd been stuck with, it worked fast, the room was already starting to spin and blur.

"There we go, hon, that's better." The mumbling tones fell over Kate as she felt herself being eased back onto the bed. Or lifted, or...something, it was hard to tell. "That's right, just relax honey, it'll all be better when you wake up, you'll see."

"No..." Kate whimpered, her eyes fluttering closed of their own accord. "It won't..."

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The next time Kate woke, her mom was at her bedside.

Sighing down at her phone, Mara Morgan was the very picture of a bedraggled mess—for her, anyway. Her short auburn hair, usually pulled back in a sleek, precise style, was in disarray, and her blouse, always crisp and clean even if it wasn't the latest fashion, was dribbled with coffee stains around the collar. She looked exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes, like she hadn't slept in weeks. It threw Kate, for a second—her mom had always been so strong and put together, she'd never seen her looking so rough; not even a stomach flu could bring her so low.