Their shouts rushed past her with the sound of the wind.
He might not make it.
As if from a distance, she felt an oxygen mask press against her face. Everything in her body surged forward at it, her soul flinging itself at the air in a desperate attempt to breathe it in.
She knew she should be listening for Penelope’s arrest, looking on as agents cuffed the girl’s arms behind her back, noting the look on her faceas she met Sydney’s gaze, as if this wouldn’t be the last time they’d cross paths.
She should be thinking about what to say when she had to confront Niall and Sauda.
But in this moment, all she could do was fight to breathe in, breathe out. She could hear a paramedic above her, shouting encouragement.Breathe in, breathe out.
Even as she felt herself lifted onto a gurney and strapped down, she kept her head turned in Winter’s direction, afraid to lose sight of him. The first time she ever saw him, he had walked into Panacea’s headquarters with all the swagger and insecurity of a star, back straight, eyes burning with life, hungry for the chance to prove himself. Desperate forsomething.
Even now, she couldn’t look away from him, could feel the aura of him in the air.
She tried to envision the world’s grief, should Winter not pull through.
If she were to die, would anyone mourn?
One of the paramedics was shouting something in her face. It took her a moment to recognize the man’s furrowed brows. Not a paramedic at all.
It was Niall.
“Cossette!” he shouted down at her, but Sydney could barely hear him over the noise of the helicopters. “Breathe, kid, come on.”
The only time Niall ever called Sydney by her last name was when he was afraid for her. Sydney felt a wash of relief at his presence, then a wave of anguish. She knew this would be the end of everything.
“You’re such a goddamn pain in the ass,” Niall interrupted. “Stop trying to argue with me and just breathe!”
Sydney blinked, embarrassed by the tears that suddenly welled in her eyes. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry. She wanted to ask him what had happened between him and his real daughter. She wanted to know if he could ever forgive her.
She reached out weakly for his hand, as if she were a child, and he grabbed it, as if he were a father. Niall wasn’t looking at her now; he was shouting instructions at others. She tried again to speak, but the world was closing rapidly in, and the edges of her vision faded into black. She looked again for Winter, but the darkness had turned opaque.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Then even that instinct dissipated, and she fell into an endless black.
35
The Family You Find
The first thing Winter Young learned upon waking was that headlines about his shooting had blanketed the world. He could hear the commotion outside the hospital from his suite, a spacious room with a set of double windows that overlooked the building’s front courtyard. They were chanting his name down there, and every now and then a ripple of cheers would rise up, and Winter could only guess it was because they had seen some update on his status.
The other news he saw on the screen in his room—and the news he found himself much more interested in—was a headline about the seizure of a cargo ship in the North Sea. In a daze, he watched authorities swarming the ship’s deck, their flashlights shining inside opened containers to find thousands of tons of illegal chemical weapons meant to be transported through the Suez Canal.
No news about Sydney.
Aside from the chanting outside, the room felt serene. Sunlight streamed in thick and golden from the windows, illuminating the vases of flowers that lined the far wall in rows. The scent of roses filled the space with their heady sweetness. Was he still in London? The light was so bright and cheery that he couldn’t be sure. It reminded him of waking up in the hospital after collapsing onstage two years back—the sense that nothing felt quite real, that he wasn’t really here, that this wasn’this body. Even the ache in his chest from his wound felt distant, a dull throbbing that he could tell was being held back by a massive dose of painkillers.
Winter’s eyes shifted to the rest of the room. Two of his usual security team were in here, too, seated quietly on either side of his bed.
Their presence brought Winter’s reality into focus. He stretched a little, winced as the movement lit up every part of his body with pain, and pulled himself laboriously up into a full sitting position. He rubbed his temples as the fog in his head began to clear and sharper thoughts came through. Sydney must be here, too. Or maybe she’d been discharged already. Or maybe Panacea had come for her and taken her somewhere else. Had she survived? Was she okay? He had no idea, and the not knowing tugged at his chest.
One of the security guards smiled slightly at him. Winter nodded in return.
The man’s eyes darted to the doorway, where a pair of figures now arrived at the doorframe. One of them had an unmistakable serenity about him, while the other was wringing his hands nervously.
Leo and Dameon.
