I laughed, even though it made my ribs clench with pain once more.

* * *

I wasn’t as bad off as Phillip had been, so it only took Jo-Jo a couple of minutes to heal me. When she finished, I drew in a breath, but the pain from Clementine’s punches had vanished like it had never even been there to start with. I still felt tired, though, and I knew I would for the next several hours. That’s how long it would take my brain to catch up with my body and realize that I was whole and well once more.

“Good as new, once again,” Jo-Jo said. “Sorry I can’t do anything about the blood, darling. Or your dress.”

I stared down at the ruined fabric. “Don’t worry about the dress. In a weird way, it saved my life tonight.”

Jo-Jo frowned, obviously wondering what I was talking about, but before she could ask what I meant, Phillip let out a small sigh and slowly opened his eyes. His blue gaze was tired and cloudy with confusion.

“Eva?” he rasped.

She smoothed back his golden hair. “I’m right here, Philly. Jo-Jo healed you up, and everything’s just fine now. So go on back to sleep. You need your rest.”

“Okay.” He nodded, closed his eyes, and drifted off once more.

Eva kept stroking his hair, although she stopped long enough to brush a few tears out of the corners of her eyes.

I turned to Jo-Jo. “Are the others still inside?”

She nodded. “Yep. In the rotunda, cleaning up the mess. They wanted to go check on you, but I told them that you’d be along in a few minutes.”

I left her to watch over Eva and Phillip and went inside. At first, everything was as quiet as ever, but the closer I got to the rotunda, the louder it got. Finally, I reached the entrance and stopped, staring at the scene before me.

Giants, giants everywhere. The bodies of Clementine’s crew littered the floor in a circular pattern—the same pattern they’d been standing in while they’d been guarding the hostages. From what I could see, most of them had been put down with headshots where they stood. I scanned the rotunda, but it didn’t look like any more of the guests had been killed. All the hostages were still here, clustered together on the right side of the room next to the elemental Ice bar. Everyone was talking at once, hence the noise.

I spotted Xavier holding hands with Roslyn, so I headed in that direction. The second Roslyn saw me, she opened her arms, came forward, and enveloped me in a tight hug.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she whispered in my ear.

“Me too,” I murmured back. “Me too.”

I stepped back, cleared my throat, and gestured at the closest giant. “Looks like our plan worked.”