Part Fifty-Six

We got Malachi’s car at the airport in Anchorage and started the two-and-a-half-hours drive back to Seward. I wanted to shift and run home since I knew it would be quicker. The hardest part was being patient. We still couldn’t reach anyone, until finally Karani had called the hospital to ask if they were working.

“Yes ma’am. Dr. Thomas and his son are in the waiting room and Dr. Stephanie Thomas is in surgery,” the woman said.

We decided to go straight to the hospital and I felt a little better knowing James was alive and in the waiting room. That could only mean that it was Shoran undergoing surgery, but that also meant that she was still alive.

The drive to Seward felt extra long and tedious. It was snowing and Malachi had to slow down, but we still made the journey in two hours and forty-five minutes. The moment Malachi slowed down in the parking, I jumped out of the Navigator and ran inside.

“James!” I called out when I saw him sitting in a chair next to his father. His face didn’