Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
FRANKIE
I had no recollection of even stepping foot inside. One second I was there next to Tenn outside, the next I was in my bed. I had no idea how much time had passed or if everyone else got home safely because I couldn’t stay awake long enough to find out. Yet it seemed I couldn’t sleep more than a few minutes at a time. By the time I decided to get up and find out, I’d been sucked down into darkness again.
And then I’d wake again, gasping and kicking my legs like I was fighting someone.
It was torture. I couldn’t stay asleep nor could I stay awake. I just alternated between the two every few minutes.
Someone had put the television on in my room. One of the national news channels was on and the reporters were discussing the string of tornadic activity and how bizarre it was. They kept showing the damage left behind and it made my stomach turn. Because tornadoes had not done that damage. It was us. I didn’t want to hear this.
I was back in darkness.
I cursed and kicked my legs, slicing through the haze in my brain. The TV was still on, but instead of the damage they were now focusing on all the missing persons from the storms. They showed pictures of faces and names. I recognized them. But how? Why do I know those faces? Why does that name sound familiar?
My brain was blurry inside.
Darkness swallowed me. “NO!” I screamed and dove forward only to land on all fours on my bedroom floor. My heart was pounding in my veins. My arms and legs trembled. The runes on my bracelets kept flashing pink from within but nothing else happened. Oh Goddess, what’s happening to me? What is this? It’s the Unseelies. It has to be. What did they do to me? Why? What good is me falling asleep on them?
I groaned and tugged on my hair.
A shadow in the corner behind the TV grew thicker and darker. It swirled within, then seemed to move. A normal person would’ve been terrified. They would’ve cried out for help or at least tried to fight the monster off. But for me, the fear vanished. Relief washed through me like a tidal wave. The figure stepped out of the shadows, yet it was cast in darkness still. I rocked back onto my heels and craned my neck back. Then I threw my arms out toward him and let the tears I’d been holding fall.
Everest emerged from the dark.
He didn’t speak. His face showed no reaction. He just rushed over and scooped me up into the cradle of his arms. I took a deep breath to try and get a whiff of his cinnamon scent, yet all I could smell was fire and burnt flesh. Everest laid me on my bed, then, to my surprise, slid in behind me. With careful, warm hands, he spun me around so he could hold me tight against his chest with my face over his heart.
There was no way this was real. Everest was still in Avolire. Everest hadn’t held me like this since I left Avolire—because those nights in Tampa didn’t count. I hadn’t remembered him and he knew it. That gave us both freedom. He held me now though and nothing had ever felt better. Actually, he’d never held me like this. His arms were warm and strong as they held me flush against his chest. The feel of his fingers fisting my shirt made me squirm in all the best ways. It meant he was as messed up over all this as I was. That he needed to hold me as much as I needed him to.
Even if this wasn’t real at all.
This had to be a figment of my own imagination giving me what I desperately wanted and needed from my soulmate. And if it couldn’t be real, I was thankful, for once, for my ability to lucid dream because it made this feel real.
I wasn’t going to miss my chance, real or not, so I slipped my arms under his and held him tight. My face nuzzled into his neck. I pressed my lips to his throat, right where I felt his pulse beating. One of his hands lifted off my back to run through the strands of my hair.
I sighed and fisted his white shirt in my hands, then whispered against his throat, “ I wish you were really here .”
“Francelina—”
“I miss you,” I heard myself whisper as I kissed his jaw.
He let out a ragged breath and squeezed me tight. “ My days and nights are a cold, empty void without you, and I am drowning in my need for you.”
Tears spilled over my eyelashes. A hot lump formed in my throat. I dug my fingers into his clothes, needing to be closer. “ Everest ? —”
“ Sleep, Francelina ,” he whispered back. “I shall not let them harm you, and by dawn their magic will be a memory.”