Chapter 17 - Reid
I toss the phone down into the center console after ending the call to my sister.
She’ll charter a flight and be here as soon as possible.
I turn and reach into the back seat for one of Luna’s hands.
Her skin is so fucking cold that I bring her fingers to my lips to try and breathe warmth into them.
This is a nightmare. This can’t be happening.
I can’t lose her. I can’t lose her, too.
I want to scream at her, beg her not to leave me.
It feels like something deep inside of me cracks and widens the longer she goes without opening her eyes.
Hate for myself fills me. This is my fault. I should have seen this coming. I’ve been where she is. That desperate hole of emptiness that you would do anything to escape. To end. I’ve made this choice before, myself. I should have been there for her!
A hand that I know almost as well as my own slides over our joined fingers and squeezes before those elegant fingers stretch and brush gently under the black leather cuff that covers the scar on my wrist. He saved me then, brought me back from that end, so of course he knows exactly what I’m thinking of.
When I lift my eyes to meet his, I pull in a painful breath at what I see in those icy blues.
Broken. Julian’s eyes are completely filled with how broken he is right now.
And I know exactly what’s going through his mind.
He's thinking that this is the second person who chose death over staying with him.
That crack in my chest widens a little bit more at knowing what that must be doing to him.
Luna makes a small whimper, driving those thoughts from my head as my hand tightens on hers and my gaze zeroes in on her face.
The car rocks to a stop and doors fly open as we scramble to exit.
Gage starts yelling for help as soon as the emergency doors slide open.
Nurses and doctors come running, pushing a gurney, and I know they’ll take her from us any second, so I turn and step in front of Torrin and lean over to press my head against her chest, right above her heart.
I’m shoved away as she’s pulled from his arms and spread out on the gurney with medical personnel yelling out instructions.
They push her down the hall through doors that close behind them, cutting off our view.
I fall to my knees on the hard floor, brace my head in my hands, and focus on the one thing that will keep me from following her down into the darkness.
The sound of her heartbeat in the seconds I had with my ear against her chest.