36. Arden
Arden
“What’s the verdict, Doc?” Mars asks, putting his hand on my shoulder and keeping me in the chair.
As if I’m going to get up and start running around or something. I feel like I’m going to faint still, and my heart hasn’t eased its frantic tattoo, though I guess it makes sense.
You don’t exactly get used to people trying to kidnap you.
At least this time I had plenty of men trying to protect me, though. And I saw the Saints coming before they got to the house, which meant I was able to run and lock the doors to keep them out.
None of which was good for my heart.
I look up at this Dr. James, wondering what he’s found.
When I told him about the Long QT, he just nodded and put his fingers to my pulse, then asked me a number of questions about how often these episodes come on and what sort of medication I was on before.
I tell him the name of it, and the dosage, and then the frequency, and he took all of this in like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Now I’m praying that I haven’t done some sort of irrevocable damage by cutting down on my medication. What if I damaged my heart doing that, and now there’s nothing he can do? What if I’m going to die, all because I didn’t have enough medicine?
God, why didn’t I say something sooner? They have a freaking cardiologist who vacations in Wood, which means help was always right around the corner.
Only I was too afraid to ask. Afraid that Mars and Orion would see me as a burden if I wasn’t completely healthy.
Now I see how stupid that was, but at the time...
At the time, I didn’t realize anyone would ever want to help a girl like me.
Dr. James looks up to Mars, and then back to me.
“I’m going to prescribe the exact same medication you were on, at the same dosage.
Take one every morning. Stop rationing. I don’t think you’ve done any permanent damage, but I want you to go down the hill to where they can to some testing.
I don’t have that kind of equipment up here, but they need to check you and make sure this dosage is still right. Can you do that for me?”
“Of course she can,” Orion answers. “We’ll make sure of it.”
Dr. James looks at me for a long moment, then asks, “Do you want to go back home to your doctor in the city for them to check you there?”
“No,” I say, too quickly.
“Why not? It would be the easiest route.”
I go through the answers in my head, searching for the right one. Because I’m scared of going back to New York and getting stuck. Because I never want to see that place again. Because I’m frightened of my father.
But then I land on the one that sticks. The one that’s right.
“Because New York isn’t home anymore,” I say simply. “Hawke’s Wood is. And that means I don’t have any reason to leave it ever again.”