I wanted to die.

Okay, maybe that was just a slight exaggeration. But I felt like I was dying. I was in a hospital, after all. People died in hospitals all the time.

Hadi refused to leave my side, even when I eventually stopped acknowledging her. It was when she noticed my unresponsive self that when Jet, Stefen, and Pen came to visit, she'd turned them away. Fuck, it felt like I hadn't seen them in ages.

Still, I was glad she sent them off. I didn't think I could handle speaking with any of them at the moment.

I stared at my hands, at the mirror I loosely held. My eyes had returned back to normal after Locman and his men left, but I kept expecting to see something else each time I lowered my gaze from the wall to my lap. Now that things have slightly calmed down, the weight of everything rested heavily inside my head, like someone gradually trying to lower a cemented building on my chest.

It was light at first, but then it started getting heavy.

There was the fight in the bathroom, with Odnay and his buddy. Me getting a gun pointed at my head while Odnay threatened to rape me - me, knowingly dislocating my shoulder so that I could defend myself.

Then there was the terror of Ven's 'friend' having me placed on my knees while another man waited to put a bullet behind them.

And then there was Liam, in his monstrous form, without eyes. Dying for a girl that, if she'd had things her way, would have left him to die long before she met him. I couldn't get the image of the man in the drama mask ripping his blade across the boy's throat out of my head.

There were other things, too. Port telling me to obey Frenice. Watching Jaxon unload his gun into another man's body. Running out of a building with an eyeless boy on my shoulders, waiting for everything to come falling down on me.

Being pinned down by the body of a guy that might have been my father before his head exploded on top of me.

How was I supposed to process this? How was I supposed to forget the fact that I had been soaked in actual blood? I'd seen men get stabbed before - shot, even. I knew a couple of them, even if I wasn't close.

But that didn't compare to any of this, not in the slightest.

"Tria?" I heard Hadi speak softly, as if she was afraid that if she spoke any louder, I was going to shatter. When I didn't respond, I felt her reach out to grab my hand. "Tria?" she tried again.

"Do you know what my name means?" I asked, my voice not much louder than hers. From my peripheral, I saw her tilt her head.

"What?"

"Liam was going to tell me what it meant."

"Liam?"

"The boy I was with. He's dead, but he was going to tell me before. So do you know?" Because I didn't, and as stupid as it was, I wondered why I never bothered to think about it before. I, for one, had never met anyone with my name.

"I'm sorry," Hadi responded awkwardly. "I don't know."

I nodded. I knew it wasn't likely that she would know, but I still wanted to try.

"Liam," I tried again. "Did they find his body?"

"I - I don't know." Hadi sounded like she might be sick. I sounded like a sleep-deprived, overworked cashier.

"He was a seven-year-old boy. Had incision scars all over his body, missing both of his eyes. Couldn't mistake him."

"Oh my - no, Tria. There hasn't been any talk of - of a boy like that."

"He was murdered in the woods, not far from the road." I looked up to meet Hadi's terrified eyes. "Are you telling me that nobody looked?"

"Tria, they don't know where you were," Hadi explained slowly. "A hunter claimed he stumbled into you while you were running."

I stared at her. A knowing look passed over her face.

"They found a small shack somewhere in Birewood, not far from where the hunter found you being chased by a man, who he shot."

"And Ven?" I asked bleakly, glancing back down at the stupid mirror. "The man in critical condition," I added, remembering Jaxon's words.

"He was unconscious back in the shack, presumably having fought an older woman and another man to buy you time to escape."

"This is what the public thinks?" I wanted to laugh and scream at the same time.

"This is what the public knows."

"And you?"

"Just as blind." There was a pause, and I knew what question she was going to ask before she parted her lips. "Is it true-"

"No." I shook my head. I guess it made sense why Locman didn't try explaining any of this to me. Who would believe it if I said anything about what I went through?

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Did I want to relive what was now a constant blur behind my eyes? No. Did I want to risk pulling Hadi into something she would never be able to get out of?

Hell no.

"Hadi, I just want this nightmare to be over."

I'm a half-giant. Or part giant. I couldn't deny what I saw. And while the prospect of me seeing what I saw could have resulted from some sort of drug . . .

Fuck, what was I supposed to do? I felt tears spring to my eyes, and Hadi dropped the questions. Instead, she gingerly moved to wrap her arms around me, and I turned to bury my face in her chest.

"It's okay," Hadi soothed, running her fingers through my hair. "It's over. All of it is over, now."

But it wasn't over, not really. There were giants in the world.

I might be one of them.

And if Locman hinting at me now having to prove my worth suggested anything, this was far from over.

No, this nightmare was only beginning.