Iron Crowned Page 0,30

a better understanding of physics might have realized my injuries didn't quite line up with what I'd get crawling through a jagged hole in a window. Fortunately, this group's talents were elsewhere. The myriad scratches and cuts were dealt with by bandages and painful antiseptics. The big cut required a fair number of stitches.

I was restless the whole time, wanting only to get back and see what had happened to Dorian. The medical staff was thorough in its work, however. I decided I should just be grateful that they were letting me go and not forcing a longer stay. I was the walking wounded, in bad shape but not in life-threatening danger.

"Here," said the doctor, just before letting me go. He scrawled out a prescription and handed it to me, along with reams of paper on wound care and cleaning. "Antibiotics. Get it filled tonight."

"I will," I said glibly.

He gave me a warning look. "I mean it. I know your type. You think you're invincible, but any of that could get infected. Get the prescription. Clean and change the bandages on the cuts."

He was right that I thought I was invincible. I'd had stitches and wounds before, my gentry blood usually expediting the healing. But I nodded meekly, promising I'd obey.

"Good," he said, following me out to the waiting room. "Follow up with your family doctor in a week. I think your ride's over there."

"My ride ...?"

I stared around the room, freezing when I saw a familiar face. "Mom?"

She'd been leaning against a wall, eyes anxiously studying everyone in the room. Spotting me, she practically ran over, staring at my bandages in alarm. I had no coat, and the tank top showed my battle wounds. "Eugenie! Are you okay? What have you done now?"

For some reason, that made the doctor snort a laugh before walking away. "I'm fine," I told her automatically. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm your emergency contact. And that is not fine."

I was still stunned to see her. It felt like it had been so long. Ages. "It is now," I said dazedly. "All patched up. And I've got all this ... stuff." I waved my stack of paper around.

She brushed dark hair from her face, her expression both weary and distraught as we headed for her car. "It never gets easier. Not with you, not with him."

I gave her a sidelong look. "Does he know you're here?"

"No," she said, getting out her keys. "Not that it would matter if he did. Nothing could have stopped me from coming when they called me. I thought ... Well, I never know what to think...."

I couldn't look at her as I sat gingerly in the car. My eyes were filling with tears. I'd missed her so much. I'd missed her, well, momness. Lots of people cared about me, but it wasn't the same. Plus, I felt horrible, horrible that I made her worry. And because of me, Roland was out endangering himself again too.

I hastily ran a hand over my eyes and turned to her as we pulled out of the parking lot. "When did you get glasses?" I asked in surprise. Delicate wire frames rested on a face very similar to mine. It was our coloring that was different. My red hair and violet eyes had come from Storm King.

"A few weeks ago. They're just for night driving."

I looked away, fearing the tears would return. Glasses. Such a stupid thing. There was a time, though, when I would have known every little detail of her life. There was so much distance between us now. My churning, guilty thoughts only came to a standstill when she turned into a pharmacy a few blocks from the hospital.

"Mom, no! I have to get back to my car and - "

"You can go back to endangering your life again soon enough. Here, let me see those."

"It's not my usual pharmacy," I said petulantly.

She was skimming the wound care instructions. "Yes, well, I'm sure this one still has a couple bandages stashed away somewhere."

"You're such a mom."

She glanced up, a small twinkle in her eyes that reminded me of how things used to be between us. "I'm your mom."

I followed her sullenly as we waited for the prescription, and she forced me to get a basketful of gauze, bandages, and other first aid supplies. I already owned a lot of them, but she wouldn't rest easy until she actually saw them in my hands.

"I really appreciate you coming," I admitted as we waited.