Chapter 56 Rook
ROOK
The hours Asha had been in surgery had nearly finished me. I’d felt as helpless as I had when I’d learned of Niall’s murder. I’d been thousands of miles away in Belfast, with no way to fix things.
While I’d waited to find out if Asha would survive, her scared voice replayed in my mind.
Her telling me that she thought Baranov would kill her.
That she forgave me.
That despite everything, she bloody loved me.
I’d done enough terrible things to deserve bad karma. I didn’t understand why the people I loved paid the price.
When the surgeon had approached, scrubs creased, expression grave, I’d thought I was about to lose the only thing worth living for.
But she’d made it. She’d survived.
Now, I sat beside her bed, staring at the tubes and wires that kept her alive. Asha lay pale and motionless. The beeping machines never let me forget that I’d almost lost her.
I should’ve been happy. All I felt was guilt clawing through my chest.
“You’re a fighter, Wildfire.” I brushed a strand of red hair off her brow. “Even in the face of death, you’re still the most beautiful and stubborn thing I’ve ever met.”
Asha didn’t stir. Those stitched-up slashes on her cheeks were a constant reminder of the agony Baranov had put her through.
Christ, she looked frail. Breakable in a way I’d never seen.
And it was all my fault.
“I thought I’d lost you.” My voice quavered, and I dragged a shaking hand down my jaw.
“I swore if the doctor told me you were gone, I was going to follow you to the afterlife and trade my soul for yours. I’d wreak havoc in the underworld until I pissed off death so much that he’d give me what I wanted. ”
I leaned closer and rested my forehead against the back of her hand. “I love you,” I whispered. “God help me, I love you more than my own life.”
Which made everything so clear.
I knew what I needed to do.