“Then you saved her life.” The man offered a small smile. “And I don’t say that to everyone who brings a friend into the ER.”
Cheyenne’s mouth quirked. “Okay, listen. I saw what that bullet did to her. Where it came right back out. It looked close to her spine.”
Dr. Andrews bit his lower lip and nodded, glancing at Ember, but he offered nothing else.
Sighing, Cheyenne clenched her eyes shut and pulled the other earbud out so she could focus on being polite. “What’s she gonna wake up to?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t—”
“Please.” The sting of oncoming tears burned in Cheyenne’s nose, and she blinked. You can cry later. Get him to talk first. “If she’s not gonna be able to walk again after this, please just tell me. It’s not like I have anywhere to broadcast it or anything.”
The doctor’s eyes widened, and he tucked the laptop under his arm again before rubbing his hairless chin. “It’s easy to forget that people without a medical degree can put two and two together and nail the issue right on the head.”
Turning away from the doctor, Cheyenne stared at Ember’s light brown and blonde hair matted on the pillow. That was as close as she could get to looking at her friend’s face. “I was right.”
Dr. Andrews cleared his throat and cast her a sidelong glance. “I hope you understand I can’t share any more than that with you.”
“Yeah, I get it. It’s enough just to hear what I already knew.” She turned away from the bed and nodded at him. “Thank you.”
“She’ll be thanking both of us when she wakes up. And we won’t be able to gauge the full extent of the damage until then. Whatever happens, it will take time. If you’re the only person she has close by, she’ll need you.”
“I know.” Cheyenne stuck her earbuds in her pocket and scratched the corner of her mouth, trying to keep from losing it in front of the doctor who’d not quite but almost broken a confidentiality oath. “Do you need to look at anything else? I can get out of the way.”
“Nope. All good. You came to visit your friend, and I’ll let you get to it.” The man paused like he was about to say something else, then went to the door and stepped into the hall.
Cheyenne’s lower lip trembled. She walked around the bed and picked up the stiff, uncomfortable-looking armchair from beside the window. She positioned it beside the hospital bed and studied Ember’s face. “I’m so sorry, Em.”
The only reply was the rhythmic rise and fall of Ember’s breath and the repetitive blinking from the monitors. The half-drow lowered herself into the chair and stared at her friend’s limp hand. She reached out, hesitated, then grabbed Ember’s hand and cradled it in both of hers. It was surprisingly warm. “This is my fault. We’ve been friends for a long time, and I should’ve listened to you. Believed you when you said you needed me.”
The hospital room felt way too quiet, but Cheyenne couldn’t just get up and leave. Not yet. “I don’t even know if it would be different. You know, if you knew why I didn’t want to get involved. Why I’m still trying to hide who I am.”
Her thumb passed over the back of Ember’s hand, and she stared at her own fingers as she sought the words to tell her friend what she’d told no one else. “But you deserve to know because my issues got you into this mess. I, uh, I know I haven’t told you much about my mom or where I grew up. There are already enough people out there talking about her, so I don’t like to add to it. But, you know, she told me the same thing you did. More than once. That I won’t be able to hide forever.”
A wry chuckle escaped her, and Cheyenne hung her head between her outstretched arms. “Except my mom was trying to hide me for as long as possible. Raised me in our own private wildlife preserve—a halfling in her natural habitat. I mean, I could’ve started college when I was fifteen, but Bianca Summerlin doesn’t budge an inch when she’s decided something. I enjoyed being away from the city and so many people and all the noise. And I had tutors. Jiu-jitsu instructor. My mom was born mingling with the Washington elite. That didn’t change when she grew up. I got to sit in on the random consultations she had with whatever senator or political figurehead wanted her advice enough to come all the way out to the middle of nowhere just to talk to her. And it was easier to be whoever I wanted when it was just us. So…”
Cheyenne grimaced and sucked her teeth. “I feel like I’m rambling.”
She looked at Ember’s hand, still limp in hers, then glanced at her friend’s face. “Okay, Em. The point is, I’ve spent my whole life knowing what I am. Knowing there are others out there, kind of like me, but never having met them. Well, maybe not halflings, but magicals. I didn’t have anyone to talk to about how to be a drow. Or halfling, or whatever. I don’t know who my dad is, and if my mom knows, she hasn’t unlocked that door yet. Instead, she drilled into me what I am will only make things worse for me. That no one else can see it, because no one else knows. Bianca Summerlin’s little secret. But that’s…that’s not what I wanna be.”
After sighing, Cheyenne patted Ember’s hand. Her vision blurred with new tears. “I promise you, Em, I won’t keep hiding. Not the way I have been. I won’t let this happen to anyone else, and if I could go back and make sure it didn’t happen to you—”
She swallowed a sob and sniffed, turning her head to wipe away the tears with her
