Page 244 of Lethal King

“Morphine,” I whisper.

“That is a good excuse,” Rian nods. With a great deal of effort, he shimmies close enough to touch me. “But I want to hear you say it when you’re sober.”

Before I can answer, he kisses me.

It’s a soft kiss. A kiss unlike any I’ve ever experienced before. It melts away everything bad, and leaves only the good.

An electric warmth sizzles away the numbness on my lips. For a beautiful moment, my mind swims above the black waves I was once plunged beneath.

“It’s going to take a long time before I’m sober enough to say that again,” I sigh, ready to pass out.

“We have until the end of time,” Rian whispers. “I’m never letting go of you again, angel. Never.”

His arm falls onto my shoulder and I sink beneath his weight.

“Promise,” I say. Closing my eyes, I let the warm heaviness win. It’s the most comforting sensation I’ve ever felt. The dark world fades away.

I don’t even flinch when I hear someone burst into the room. It sounds like they’re a million miles away.

“Are you a fucking doctor?” someone demands to know.

“Yes… I… I am…” another voice answers.

“Well, don’t just fucking stand there. Help me with these two.”

The commotion that follows hardly phases me. My mind has left my body. It floats in some warm dark endless pool.

Rian floats beside me.

It feels like home.

“It’s going to be alright, angel,” I hear him sigh. “I promise.”

“I know,” I reply, though I’m not sure if the words ever leave my lips. “I know.”

33

Rian

At first, all I have are nightmares.

I see myself passing out beside Rozalia’s unconscious body. I feel myself sink into a dark abyss. I sense the foreboding of what’s to come.

Even after I wake up in a hospital bed, surrounded by friends and family, my dread remains.

I’m too weak to speak, to ask about the only thing that matters.

Her.

What was in that needle? What happened to the girl I chased beneath those dark waves?

I need to know.

But I’m not strong enough to ask.

Tubes pump me full of fake warmth. I slip in and out of a deep sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see Rozalia in that red dress. I see her stunning green eyes.

But I can’t reach out and touch her. I can’t recapture that blissful warmth we found at La Forcina. It’s always just out of reach, blocked off by that dreadful possibility. She’s dead.