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I can’t stop shaking. Can’t open my eyes out of fear that he’ll be gone again. He’ll vanish, and that coldness will sweep in once more and finish freezing my heart.
“Tell me you remember now,” he says calmly, that warm breath brushing over my face. “Tell me you remember me, baby.”
Somehow, I’m instantly enlightened that this isn’t Kane or Dessin or any of the other alters. It’s all of them fused together. Without a lifetime of trauma. In death, they are now one.
Tears rush to my eyes, spilling out the sides. My heart throbs and turns runny in my chest. My god, I thought I’d never feel his presence like this again.
“Tell me,” he urges.
I nod, peeling my eyes open to look at him. “I remember you.” My sun. My warmth. My childhood best friend. My knight to fend off the darkness. My avenger of those who meant me harm. My love. My home. Iremember.
His eyes close slowly, and he smiles in pure bliss.
“That’s my girl,” he breathes. And I want to fall into his arms, stay there forever.
“Is this real?” I ask.
His eyes flutter open, and I gaze into the heat of those dark-mahogany depths. It’s watching the clouds part for the sun, waiting for the rays to beam down on me, sink into my skin, and fill my body with serotonin.
“You’re not done yet,” he insists. “Honey, it’s time to go back now.”
I shake my head furiously.
“Everything will be okay. But you have to go!”
“I’m not leaving you!” My voice rips through my throat in a shrill scream. “I’m nothing without you there! I’m cold and lost and so so alone!”
“Oh, my girl, you areeverythingnow. Far more powerful than you can imagine.”
I can feel him slipping away, fading like a dream.
“Please,” I whine. “Don’t make me go back.”
“Skylenna, you know what you have to do. It was always you. The asylum is only the beginning and the start of your reign.”
With one blink, I’m on my back in a sodden heap on the cold tile floor, coughing up a fountain of water. My abdomen flexes and contracts as I heave, gagging up the inhaled tub.
Someone is over me, hands pressed to my chest, staring down with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.
“Thank our merciful Father,” he sighs, lifting his hands from my sternum. “I almost lost you.”
Old, withered skin. Glassy blue eyes. And a cross dangling from his black clothing.
I turn my head to the side, letting the water spill freely from my lungs until I can breathe easy again.
The priest pivots his head toward Meridei, glaring with his upper lip curling back.
“Meridei! You could have killed her!”
I glance at Meridei, still sitting in her chair, unflustered. She shrugs.
“Get this poor woman back to bed and make sure she’s fed!” he barks to an orderly, then looks down at me with regretful eyes. “I apologize, my dear. I’ll visit you after I have a word with this sinful child.”
I’m scooped up roughly by two orderlies, dripping water in a long stream as I’m hauled back to my room. I remember this hallway being lifeless, the asylum as silent as a cold, windless night in the forest. And he was here.
My chest aches, and I drop my head, remembering the way he looked. The way he was so desperate for me to remember him.
I’m thrown onto my bed in the thirteenth room. The door slams shut as the orderlies go to fetch me a meal. But, truth be told, I’m not hungry. I’m boiling with a purpose that can’t be described with words, a set of chaotic actions that would put my morality in question.
