Chapter 64
SAGE
A numb, almost calm feeling settled inside of me a few hours ago, and all I want to do is close my eyes and never wake up. I’ve been kidnapped, my death faked, my grandmother murdered, and now… Now…my last living relative has crossed a line that should never be crossed.
And he snapped photos of it the whole time.
Like father, like daughter, I guess.
There’s no doubt in my mind that soon, my death won’t be a made-up story. Soon, I’ll be murdered by my uncle too.
I’m sure the moment he returns from delivering the photos to the Hallows Boys, his revolting way to punish them for “staining his legacy and tradition,” he’ll end my life in a panic, unable to find another outcome for his actions.
Should I fight through it? Or just let the darkness take me one last time? Will death claim me in pain, or will I fade away gently? After everything I’ve been put through, I deserve for it to be quick, I think.
I’m thinking about Kai’s cocky smile, Beckham’s deep-blue eyes, and Vinny’s soft lips when sleep takes me into the dark.
“Sage? Sage? Sage?!” A voice startles me, my name on a loop, but I can’t seem to completely rip myself from sleep.
My eyelids are so heavy, and my limbs ache so badly from lack of sleep and water and food.
I can’t lift my head. I can’t bring myself to open my eyes even a millimeter to answer whoever’s shaking me.
“Sage, you’ve got to wake up, baby. Please. You need to wake up now.”
Like some sort of miracle, my hands tighten in the sweat-soaked sheets, and I manage to crack my eyelids open just slightly, letting the light in the room blind me for a half second before his face comes into view. Kaiden. My Kaiden.
Maybe I’m dreaming. Maybe he isn’t here at all. Maybe I’ve died, and this is my version of heaven, a place with the Hallows King.
Something inside of me feels real, though, telling me that this isn’t a dream, that I haven’t passed on. This is real. Kai is here, rescuing me.
“Kaiden?” I whisper, meaning to lift my arms, but finding no strength to do so. My stomach growls as if to remind me that I haven’t had even a crumb of food in days, not since I learned my uncle was drugging me.
“Oh, God. Sage, please, please, wake up right now. I need you to wrap your arms around my neck, okay?” Kaiden says, his tone panicked.
It’s not how I’m used to hearing him, and it makes my heart race.
His hands go under my arms, and he drapes them around his neck before he slides his arms under my torso and lifts me.
“Hold on, okay? I’m here. I’m never leaving you. Just hold on, Sage.”
“Kaiden,” I breathe, my face dropping into his neck, and I think it’s the smell of him—the smokey, manly, earthly scent of his skin—that makes me find a tiny morsel of energy deep in my gut, because I tighten my arms around his neck and open my eyes.
He turns us as he takes a step away from the bed, and I spot Beckham and Vinny at the door, my stomach plummeting when I see the gun being held to the back of their heads.
I’m still out of it, though, dizzy and unable to scream, even as they continue to walk into the room and my uncle comes into view, his expression hateful.
“Put. Her. Down,” my uncle grits out between his teeth, sliding his thumb against the metal so the gun clicks. “Now.”
Kaiden’s body stiffens, and he takes a tiny step backwards until his backside hits the bed. “No.”
My uncle shifts his arm, placing the gun on the back of Beckham’s head.
Beckham doesn’t flinch, standing strong, and my chest aches at what I might witness. “Don’t let her go, Kai. No matter what he does. Let him kill me if it means saving her.”
Before anyone can say anything else, my uncle pulls back the gun and slams it down on the back of Beckham’s head, making him fly to the floor in an unconscious pile.
Vinny spins, grabbing my uncle by the throat, but he’s quicker, and he has the barrel of the gun pressed to Vinny’s forehead before he’s able to disarm him.
My uncle and Vinny stare at each other for a minute that seems to last forever, then he pulls back and jams the gun into Vinny’s temple, catching him off guard. Vinny grunts, his grip on my uncle’s throat wavering as he trips backwards, blood dripping from his head.
“Stop it!” I finally shout, my voice scratchy but forceful, bringing my uncle’s attention back to me and Kaiden.
He gives me a small smile. “Are you okay, Sage?”
“Fuck you,” I spit, and Kaiden’s hands tighten around my body.
He sighs, like my words are a disappointment to him, and my head spins with anxiety as he walks across the room toward me. As my uncle’s eyes seek Kaiden out again, I feel sick to my stomach. “Put her down, boy. Now’s your last chance to leave here without a body bag.”
Horror snakes through me, because I don’t know if Kaiden knows everything I do, and I know that my uncle will have no problem pulling the trigger. I look up at Kai, his dark eyes serious as the stare burning daggers at my uncle, and I lift my arms from around his neck.
He flinches, grabbing me, urgency in his tone. “What are you doing?”
“He’s serious, Kaiden. He’ll kill you, all three of you. You guys need to leave.”
Kaiden shakes his head. “There’s no fucking way you’re leaving my arms, Sage. If I die, I’ll die trying to save you.”
My uncle clicks his tongue. “The big, bad, brave Hallows Boy. I know all about you, Kaiden Thorne… You were Student Body President, captain of the basketball team, most popular guy in town. Feared, loved, hated—a classic Andrew.”
Kai squeezes his fists in my shirt as my uncle continues.
“But you’ll never be able to protect her.
You aren’t what makes a king, boy. You’ll abandon your morals and your loyalties the second they stop benefitting you, just like Andrew did.
” My uncle laughs, the barrel of the gun pressing against Kai’s forehead now once he reaches us.
“Get your hands off her. This is your last chance. Don’t be a fucking hero. ”
Kaiden’s nostrils flare as he pushes his forehead against the gun, a twist to his lips. “You’ll have to shoot me.”
“No!” I shout, scrambling, pushing from Kaiden’s arms until I’m slamming into my uncle. “I’ll go with you. Just leave them alone, please.”
“Sage.” Kai reaches for me, but my uncle presses the gun against his forehead harder, holding him in place as I stand next to my uncle.
Beckham and Vinny stir on the ground behind us, so my uncle grabs me and shoves me in the opposite direction, then he takes Kaiden by the throat and shoves him toward Beckham and Vinny like he weighs nothing.
“Get on your knees, Hallows Boy,” my uncle sneers, and Kaiden stands frozen, with Beckham and Vinny behind him, who are holding their head wounds and staring up at my uncle. “Show the Hallows Queen how much of a pussy the leader of this generation really is.”
“Fuck you,” Kaiden seethes, and my uncle laughs before he slams the gun into Kai’s temple, making me flinch.
As Kaiden grunts, his hand going to his head, my uncle yells, “On your knees!”
Kaiden looks at my uncle, his dark, golden eyes filled with hate, then he drops to his knees. The gun is pressed to his forehead a moment later, and even as Kaiden looks up at my uncle, there’s no fear in his gaze.
“Look at you.” Uncle Aaron chuckles. “A once dominating and fearless leader reduced to a pathetic little boy on his knees, begging for his life.”
“I haven’t begged for shit,” Kaiden bites out, pressing closer to the gun. I swear I see a smile on his face when he spits his next words. “If you’re going to kill me, kill me, but it’ll make no difference if I’m alive or dead. She’ll always be mine.”
He slams the gun into Kai’s head again, making him grunt and fall back, then he cracks his neck before he lifts the gun to Kai’s head once more.
All my nerves unwind, knowing what’s coming if I don’t stop this. I find the last piece of strength I can muster, and I launch myself across the room, barreling right into my uncle, hoping the boys have enough sense to help me get him to the ground.
Everything moves in the blink of an eye then. Becks and Vinny are grabbing my uncle as I body slam him, sending him flying to the ground; Kaiden’s reaching for the gun that slides over the carpet, then a gunshot sounds that makes my uncle’s body drop into lifelessness.
I go in and out of darkness for the next day, pieces of reality sticking and others fading away, like I can’t keep the memories aligned in my brain for long enough to hold on to them.
A faint beeping pulls me from sleep, the cloud-white walls around me hurting my sore eyes as I crack them open. I groan, and then a hand is squeezing my forearm.
“Sage?”
Everything’s fuzzy at the edges, and there’s a pinch in my arm where a needle is sticking out of my vein, making me groan again as I try to bend my elbow to get myself upright.
“Sage?” the voice from before says again, and I finally bring myself far enough into the present to realize it’s Beckham, and he’s the one squeezing my arm in his hand for dear life. “Can you hear me?”
I blink—once, twice, three times—trying to get my vision to clear, and everything comes into focus.
I’m looking at Beckham’s bruised face, his features worried and filled with emotion.
Moisture licks at the backs of my eyes, forcing me to close them again.
My throat aches as I speak, finally getting his name out of my body like a prayer.
“Beckham?”
“Yeah,” he says, his voice cracking as he grabs me with both hands now, like he’s making sure I can’t go anywhere, and I find his dark-blue eyes glossy with tears.
“Where am I?” I ask, looking around slowly, having no memory of coming here.
Beckham leans closer, a hand going to my forehead. “You’re in the hospital, Savage. You’ve been here since yesterday.”
Shaking my head, I try my hardest to find the memory inside my muddled mind. “What happened?”
“I’ll explain everything, I promise.” He pulls my hand to his lips and kisses it softly. “When you’re better.”
“I’m fine,” I croak, so many concerns surfacing in an instant. “Where are Kaiden and Vinny? Are they okay?”
Beckham smiles at me, then he looks over his shoulder at the couch sitting at the edge of the room, where Kaiden and Vinny are fast asleep. “Do you want me to wake them up?”
“No.” I shake my head, feeling a tear slide down my face. “Let them sleep.”
“Why are you crying, baby?” Beckham puts the back of his hand to my cheek, and it makes the tears fall freely, like he’s opened the floodgates. “What’s the matter?”
I press my eyes closed again, trying to get the tears to slow. “Nothing… I don’t know. I’m so tired, Beckham.”
He huffs a laugh like he understands, brushing the tears from my cheeks before he kisses my forehead. "Get some rest, Sage. I’ll still be here when you wake up.”
“Beckham?” I say, opening my eyes to get a glimpse of his familiar face to soothe the sadness soaring through my soul. “Will you hold me?”
He doesn’t answer, just stands up and lifts my blankets so he can climb underneath them with me. I do my best to shuffle over, shifting a little so I can lie in his arms when he’s settled beside me.
“Always,” he says, and then I’m taken under by sleep again.