Felix appears again, with fear and desperation etched across his features. I shift her in my arms so Callie can see him, hoping he can do what I can’t.
“Pretty girl, you have to listen to me,” he beseeches the girl we both love who gazes back at us with empty eyes. “You’re not done yet. We’re not done yet. Kaleb…he says you promised him. He said you’d know what that was. And…you promised me. Us. Remember? I don’t exist without you. Also...” He hesitates, searching his mind for something else to say. “Also, Donovan, Nolan,andKaleb are currently holding back your aunt, who is literally threatening to roast them alive if they don’t let her back in.”
In a harsh whisper, I plead in her ear, “Live for us until you can live for yourself again,mi amor. I need you. We need you.”
“I’m so tired,” Callie confesses, her head falling to my shoulder. Tears drip from her face and down my chest. “It…it’s so hard. To keep breathing. To keep getting up. To keep living.”
“I know it is,” I murmur, cradling the back of her head with one hand, while the other holds her up.
“You’re not alone anymore,” Felix reminds her gently. His hand reaches up for her, hesitates, then stubbornly continues, brushing against her fingers that rest against my bicep. She shivers with the contact. “It’s okay not to be strong for a little while. Let us take care of you. We’ll hold you up when it’s too hard to keep going.”
“All of you?” Callie asks quietly, a different seed of pain and fear rising to the surface. The one that grows with the inevitability of her loneliness.
“All of us,” Felix vows, which I will do everything in my power to make sure stays true.
She cries harder, but the fires recede and we’re no longer frozen in place. As fast as possible, I sprint over and through the debris, with Felix floating right beside me. Within seconds, we’re outside, relieved that it’s over. Except Callie isn’t done.
Looking over my shoulder, she makes one last mournful cry that rivals that of the mythical banshees. There’s a deep rumbling sound, followed by harsh crack as the ground opens wide and swallows the remains of the house whole. Only the circular driveway we’re standing on is left behind. Desert fauna grows in the empty lot, leaving no evidence that a house once stood there.
When Callie collapses in my arms, exhausted, Mildred breaks free from the guys, throwing them across the driveway and into the side of the moving truck. They groan as they hit the ground and don’t try to get back up.
“I’m so, so sorry, my darling child,” she weeps, pulling Callie into her arms, while I keep them both from falling over. “I was supposed to protect you. I shouldn’t have let you come to this horrible place.”
“She’s going to be okay,” I soothe, trying to get Callie fully back in my arms so I can carry her to the car. “She needs rest.”
“Right, yes, of course,” Mildred replies, wiping at her eyes and straightening her clothes. “Let’s get her back to the hotel.”
Looking around, she finds her purse on the tailgate of the moving truck—left there from one of the times she had to take a phone call. She busies herself by opening the rental car’s doors for easy access, then digs for the keys to the moving truck.
Carefully, I put Callie in the back seat, buckle her in, and make sure she’s as comfortable as possible before closing the door behind me. Once she’s safe, Felix and I watch the guys slowly rise to their feet, with Nolan muttering that it might be safer to just stay on the ground until Mildred leaves.
“So much for my record,” Felix comments on a sigh, glancing up at me from our position of leaning against the rental car. “Hope you have clothes in the car or this is going to be one hell of an awkward drive for you.”
Dusting at the ash on my arms, I shrug.
Chapter 16
Callie
My body aches when I wake, and my face feels like it’s full of cotton. I don’t know where I am, but the bed feels like I crawled into a cloud with squishy pillows and soft sheets. Deciding the world can wait for a little while longer, I turn over and attempt to burrow deeper into the blankets, pulling on the thick comforter—except the comforter won’t move.
Sighing, I open my eyes to a large, finely furnished, dimly lit room…and a giant wolf at the foot of my bed.
“Don’t think this gets you out of our talk,” I rasp, my throat sore…probably from all the screaming earlier.Good job, Callie, with yet another fantastical meltdown.
Wolf Connor whines, dropping his head on my shins, and looks up at me with sorrowful amber eyes. His tail makes a single thwap against the bed.
“I won’t be swayed by sad wolf eyes,” I insist, shifting so I’m sitting up and forcing Wolf Connor to lift his head. “Go human yourself. I’ll be out in a minute.”
He whines again then hops to the ground. With a drooping head and tail, he slowly approaches me. Taller than the damn bed, he bumps his head against my arm. Unable to resist, I relent to his cute, wolfy ways, petting his head and scratching around his ears.
“Thank you for saving me,” I murmur, my hand running down his neck. “Still need to have that talk.”
Resigned, he makes a huffing sound, gives my cheek a gentle lick, and then reluctantly shoulders his way out of the door. His extreme dismay doesn’t bode well for our conversation.
After a minute of staring at the ceiling, I flip the covers back and drop my feet to the plush beige carpet. There’s a numbness inside me where normal human emotions should be mixed with messy memories. Moments stand out like chipped pieces—Felix’s worried face, Connor’s tight grip, the smell of smoke—but it’s all muddled, their context buried where they can’t hurt me. It’s welcomed at the moment, but it’s only a small reprieve from the eventual second meltdown from processing the first one. The memories don’t stay buried for long.
“So much for being strong enough to face my past,” I murmur to the fancy room, realizing we must have checked into the penthouse while I was asleep. “Time to face the music while I’m still coherent enough to deal with it.”
