Chapter 29 #2
Straightening, Soren dropped his hand from the wall and caught one of my own clammy, shaking hands. His fingers were ice-cold, while mine were practically on fire. The combination sent a jolt through my veins, straight to my core.
Everything about us was different. He was tall, and I was short. He was cold, and I was warm. He had complete control over his life, and I was a fugitive/prisoner.
I didn’t chance looking up, but walked with him anyway as he pulled me toward my death.
Why am I allowing this?
Speak up.
Say no.
“Look at me,” he spoke again, tugging me out of my spiral.
Both his hands clamped down on my shoulders, pressing hard as if he were trying to anchor me, steady me in place.
I ground my teeth and tried to lift my chin. But I couldn’t move. I was shaking from head to toe, but I couldn’t voluntarily move. And for so many reasons.
One hand dropped away, and a cold thumb and forefinger lifted my chin.
My eyes, wide as they could stretch, met his, darker than anyone’s could possibly be. My vision blurred as I tried to maintain eye contact. My stubborn streak wouldn’t allow me to break away first and appear any weaker in front of this asshole than I already had.
“I won’t let anyone or anything hurt you,” Soren said.
Sincerity. It oozed out of his eyes and through his words as he looked me over.
Then he bent to whisper in my ear, “You're mine.”
Without warning, he wrapped an arm around my waist, hoisted me up like a fricking toddler, and hauled us both up onto the extra cable Marigold had set up.
“No, no, no!” I screamed. “Put me down. I can’t do it!”
My feet scrambled to find purchase, and I ended up standing on top of his boots, balancing on my tiptoes. I pushed against his chest with both hands, but he only tightened his arm around me until I was crushed against him.
“You can close your eyes,” he said, loud enough for me to hear over my screeches.
With a single motion, he rocked forward, and then we were moving, launched down the line, hurtling toward death.
I reversed course, no longer wanting him to put me down because down meant falling. Down meant splattering into a puddle of goo with bones flung out like some tragic art piece. So instead of pushing Soren away, I clung to him, my nails puncturing through his shirt, maybe even his skin.
I didn’t need to close my eyes. They were buried in his chest as I tried to burrow myself inside him.
Soren’s body muffled my screams, and the howling winds threatening to shred me apart midair drowned out any remnants of my vocalized terror that escaped.
At one point, I was sure I was going to pass out from the motion—or maybe from the lack of oxygen reaching my brain. If not that, then from absolute panic.
Somehow, this was worse than when he’d teleported me through space and time. Or maybe my body had just blocked out how awful that had been. ‘Cause that was pretty fucking horrible. I’d say just as deadly, knowing now how little regard Soren had for my life.
I was halfway through the third verse of my theme song titled “I’m Gonna Die” when Day Four managed to get worse.
All at once, the ride came to a violent halt.
That was it.
The end of the freaking line.
We’d slammed our way into the terminal station. Everyone disembark, please.
The force of the stop catapulted us from the zipline.
Or maybe Soren jumped.
Didn’t matter. Same result.
We were falling.
Plummeting.
Dying.
Called it.
If I’m going to die young, at least it’s in the arms of a hottie.
I would have cursed at myself for the second half of that thought, but I was too busy with the whole dying thing.
We crashed into something.
Pain shot up my legs as my feet slammed against a surface.
The fall slowed.
Then Soren’s arm disappeared.
And he was gone.
He left me to die alone.
I hadn’t realized I’d also let go of him until I realized that I shouldn’t have inhaled.
A wildfire exploded in my nose and throat.
Worse—my lungs were underwater.
No. I was underwater.
My eyelids flung open to the witness of a bright blue expanse with a ball of white in the middle and small bubbles floating overhead. My arms and legs flailed, but I’d never been taught how to make them work together in a way that would bring me to the surface and save my life.
The blue darkened from the edges inward.
My chest caved in.
I was plummeting to my underwater grave.
I was drowning.
“You’re sinking. Come to me. Find me.”
Ice and fire bloomed in my lungs and licked their way through my veins. The hissing voice made the blood in my body race faster, burn hotter.
“I’ll make you my queen.”
In the blackness, I gave up. I let go. The fury I’d been clutching to slipped from between my stiff, frozen fingers.
Azazel’s name burned as it surged up from my gut and scraped through my throat like molten glass.
But in the dark, a light began to grow.
Not ahead.
Inside.
"In the deep, I am with you.”
The voice was so small this time, but somehow not a hiss or a whisper.
“And the waters will not have you. The flames will not take you. The darkness will not touch you."