Forty percent? He didn’t want to even contemplate what degree of blindness comprised the other sixty. It was sad when Syn was excited by a number that made him sick to his stomach.

“I know you know that they did a lot of other damage that you’re probably worried about, too.” Syn paused. “Guys? Can you give us the room?”

Cold dread consumed him as he waited for the really bad news Syn was obviously about to give him.

Syn didn’t speak again until they were alone. “They seriously screwed you up, little brother. But you should be able to have sex again. At least eventually, though there’s a fifty percent chance you might have chronic and severe pain with either an erection or ejaculation. Possibly both. And you have a seventy-five percent chance that you’ll have some erectile dysfunction.”

Oh yeah, there was something a guy wanted to hear. Welcome back, Darling…

Why the hell was he still alive?

Syn took a deep breath and continued to make him feel even worse. “You’ll have to use stool softeners for the rest of your life, too. Any bowel movement is going to hurt like hell, and you are not going to want to ever allow yourself to be constipated. Hopefully, some of that pain will dull over time.”

He pressed his hand against Darling’s shoulder as if bracing him for the next round of Let’s Make Darling’s Day Bright and Shiny. “As your doctor, I have to stringently advise you against any kind of anal sex ever again. It’s just not going to be worth the pain you’ll have from it. Never mind the risk of infection. And while we did reconstruct a lot of your intestine and rectum, there’s no telling what further damage any intrusion there might do to you.”

That had never been his problem, but Syn didn’t know that. Only Maris did.

Syn covered his hand and gave a light squeeze. “I should probably tell you that I’ve had you in a chemically induced coma for a little over four months now.”

Four months.

Shit… Darling’s heart thumped hard in his chest as that news slammed into him. Something that caused the monitor in the background to pick up tempo and start squealing. Syn stepped away to turn the volume down.

How long had he been out of things entirely?

Horror filled him as he realized he would have had another birthday during that time. I’m a year older.

So was Drake.

Just how long had Lise been dead? I missed her funeral.

Maybe that was for the best. Yet…

Why couldn’t they have killed me, too? Why the hell was he still alive?

“Your family’s fine,” Syn said, completely unaware of the rising panic that was shredding him. “Nyk sent them to the Summer Palace the day after you were abducted so that your uncle wouldn’t suspect anything. As far as anyone knows, you were simply visiting your sister at school when the two of you were ambushed.”