Page 104 of Midnight Curfew

What the fuck is going on?

“I can’t enjoy anything because of you!” he fires back. “And him!”

He pulls her to him, shaking her, and I fire up every muscle, ready to get her away from him.

But then he shouts. “I warned you!” he blusters in her face. “I fucking warned you, didn’t I?”

Warned her about what?

She squirms in his hold.

“Stop it,” he bites out.

She slaps her fists into the sides of her head, still shaking it back and forth, back and forth.

“Stop it, or I’m calling Silver Lane!” he shouts.

One of the institutions she was in while he was in college.

All of a sudden, she sucks in a breath, a jolt straightening her spine, and she folds, Callum falling to the floor, catching her as she collapses.

She inhales and exhales rapidly, almost hyperventilating, and all I see are her sneakers kicking as she struggles to breathe.

Callum cradles her, his back to me, but he doesn’t call for help. He doesn’t try to get her to breathe.

Instead, he starts rocking her.

The soft sound of humming drifts into the space, and I crane my neck, trying to see her face.

I can’t, though.

Then I hear him.

“Someone holds me safe and warm,” he sings. “Horses prance through a silver storm.”

I go still, watching them. Her legs calm, the kicking subsiding.

He sings quiet and serene, and for a moment, I don’t breathe.

What is he doing? She needs help. Is it a seizure? A panic attack?

Slowly, though, her legs calm. The kicking subsides, and her voice joins in the next verse, singing with him.

I have no idea where the tune is from, but it’s familiar. A children’s tune. Paisleigh might’ve listened to it or heard it in a movie.

Callum holds her, and I listen, both of them singing as her voice grows stronger, and I watch as her arm circles his neck and he pulls her in closer.

Her breathing quiets again, and in a moment, both of them are the only sound filling the house.

I blink, realizing my eyes have started to burn.

He cares about her.

She’s the only person on the planet who loves him.

It’s Callum Ames and Anna-Katherine against the world.

And all the monsters.