I was hobbled by the cast in my right shin and still felt the occasional twinge of pain in my arms and shoulders, but, overall, it looked like I was recovering well. At least that was the case physically.

Dr. Brooks was happy that I was able to remember everything I’d been told ever since waking up, indicating I was successfully forming new memories and that the tests she’d run all showed that there were no life-threatening issues that could have lain hidden in my brain. By all accounts, this seemed to be a temporary event.

But I wasn’t out of the woods.

I knew that, once I returned to New York, I’d have to undergo physical therapy to help me regain use of my leg, once the cast came off. The deep bruising in various parts of my body would also need therapy.

And there was all of that psychological therapy I’d need to help me deal with the trauma of everything that had happened, including losing my memories of the past week.

Eventful memories, it looked like, that revolved around a woman I’d been told I’d fallen in love with. I was eager to see her; anxious to know if by meeting her all these lost memories would come rushing back in, and fill this vacuum in my brain. The anxiety was eating away at me.

“At least that’s what you told me, Aerin,” Jules explained.

She, Helena, Alice, and Shane had all convinced me that that had actually happened.

“Where?! Where is she?” I asked Jules again.

“Like Brom said, Aerin,” Jules answered patiently. “She decided to stay in that inn so that she could help … and, as Brom just told us, it’s a good thing, too, because that man did return to the inn, and she played a huge part in luring him and capturing him …”

“But I need her here!!!” I complained loudly, cutting into Jules’ explanation, surprising another patient and her family who were sitting in the bench next to the one we were sitting on in the garden.

Jules gave them an apologetic smile as they stood and headed towards a bench in the opposite end of the garden.

“Aerin …” Jules tried again, in as soothing a voice as she could muster. I could see she was getting irritated at my irritable attitude, but she was giving me some leeway.