Chapter 21

Fat drops of icy rain splat upon my cheek, my nose, my lips, and I emerge from a sludgy sleep I want to fall back into. Everything rocks beneath me with a violent sway that tips my hollow guts, the deep, painful throb boring through the side of my neck so raw, tender, and exposed. A hurt that feels filthy and wrong.

So wrong.

A hurt I want to slap my hand over and hide.

Another raindrop splatters against my forehead, obliterating some of the thorny vines bound around my mind, muddying my thoughts. I tune into the banging, sloshing beat as my world glides forward in slow, steady increments, the smell of a summer storm heavy on the air.

I open my eyes.

A churn of bulbous clouds clot the slate sky—

Shock blazes through my chest, making my breath hitch.

Cainon let me out.

It worked.

Relief surges up my throat, then chokes me when a vision flashes: short swirls of rosy hair; wide, terrified eyes and frightened sounds; cells and cells of battered lives, now entirely dependent on me.

My new reality kneels on my chest like a mountain.

Me.

Crushed beneath the mighty weight, my lids yield to the downward tug, and I close my eyes.

Another raindrop strikes my lips with a splash of cold that shivers through me.

The sky is crying.

I want to scream. Tell it to stop.

To not waste its tears on me. Tell it I deserve this burden.

The backs of my lids flash with a burst of white that electrifies the air, and a deafening crackle follows, so violent I flinch.

Another forward shove sends water sloshing up the side of the boat as a fervid gaze rakes across my skin and leaves a prickly trail. “You’re mine.”

The familiar voice cuts through me, curdling my blood, spilling my will to think and feel.

I fall eagerly into the dark.