Page 885 of Coal Hearts

Henri scowled. “Doesn’t matter—”

“Oh, it matters.” Peter scowled back. “No secrets between us. Spit it out. What happened?”

Glancing at the door, Henri lowered his voice. “I might have thought Ily was dead.”

“You what?” Peter gasped. “Why?”

I rolled my shoulders. “My heart might’ve stopped—”

“What!?”

“Only for like a few minutes—”

“It was longer than that. Or at least it felt like a fucking eternity.” Henri raked a hand over his face. “Seeing her die, Pete? Hearing her flatline? I...kinda went a little mad. I went on a little hunt. If you know what I mean.”

“Oh, shit.” Peter stiffened. “You went full Rambo on their asses?”

Henri snickered. “Rambo? Nah...I just paid a few men a visit that’s all.”

Peter touched his nose with a conspiratorial wink. “Right. A visit.”

Henri laughed. “A visit that they won’t forget.”

Peter puffed up with pride. “How many did you...visit?”

“Don’t know.” Henri glanced at the door again. “I wasn’t fully functioning. It’s all a bit of a blur—”

“Thirty-four,” I whispered.

Both men glared at me.

“Thirty-four?” Peter choked.

Henri frowned. “Was it? That’s not as many as I hoped.”

“Not that many?” I shook my head. “Henri, that’s...you saved so many people.”

“But there’s so many still out there.”

“Yes but—”

“You can keep going,” Peter muttered under his breath. “We could exterminate all of them.”

Henri’s grey gaze sparked. “You know, that’s not a bad idea.”

“Whoa, wait a minute.” I jumped in. “You’re barely out of bandages, and Paavak’s still in them. Let’s focus on living before we talk about dying again, shall we?”

Henri gave Peter a look. Peter returned it.

Laughing softly, Peter rested against his pillows. “Turns out everything fell apart without me, huh?”

Henri burst out laughing. “Yeah, you could say that.”

Leaning over him, I kissed Peter on the cheek. “Are you going to finish your story? You got shot in the shoulder and lung. You suffocated. That doesn’t explain how you’re here.”

Taking my hand again, he shrugged. “I don’t really know the full tale. From what the doctors said—doctors on your brother’s payroll, Ri—they said that the response team who joined the fight on Joyero stabilised me. They said one of them stabbed me in the chest again—glad I didn’t feel that—and released the pressure. I had a pneumothorax I think it’s called. The bleeding came from the bullet tearing through my muscle and shoulder blade.” He sighed and rolled his slung arm. “I’ll admit it hurts like a bitch. It’ll take time to use that arm again, but they sewed me up and fixed me. I remember the sensation of not being able to move when I landed on you, Ily. I was shit terrified that the bullet had torn through my spine, but it didn’t. I’m all good. I guess it was just shock that shut me down. Obviously, the doctors have their many rules so I heal properly. They’ve given me a bunch of precautions and other medical nonsense on rehab and how lucky I was, but...I’m here. I’m alive. And that’s all that matters.” He sighed. “I’m just incredibly grateful. It could’ve gone the other way so easily, so yeah...I’m just thankful.”

“And you’ve been awake this whole time?” Henri asked quietly. “Why didn’t you tell them who you were? Why have you waited weeks—”