Page 14 of Divine Oaths

His eyes fluttered wildly. His hands trembled, and he choked back a cry against the pain of the knife lodged in his body.

In the distance, the sound of sirens blared. The girl had called an ambulance to our location after all.

He was going to be okay.

Knowing that, hoping it desperately, I grabbed handfuls of the scattered bills and shoved them into my bag. It wasn’t my proudest moment, but I needed the money just as much as the Westfield University heir—Kasem—needed the air in my lungs.

“We’re even now,” I said, but even saying the words made me burn with guilt.

I was about to reach for the last few bills, when I felt something cool against my hand. I looked up. His hand brushed against mine. The moment was so intimate, so vulnerable, that I almost dropped all of the money I’d stolen then and there.

But then, just as his fingers grazed mine, the vision I’d been fighting overtook me, and I was transported into the looking glass once more.

I was surrounded by white lilies. But in this vision, I was looking at myself. I lay on my back and the Westfield heir carried me in his arms. I could see him clearly, as if I were looking into the night sky. He was trembling, and a voice in the distance snapped him out of his reverie.

“Let her go,” a voice said. “You have your inheritance. What more do you want, Kasem?”

This vision was different from the others. It wasn’t taking place in the past. Not like the other ones always had. This vision was of the future. It was the only explanation for seeing myself with a man I’d just met earlier that day, in a garden I’d never set foot in before. A garden I somehow knew would be in Westfield University.

I jolted forward, and I was back in the alley, kneeling over Kasem.

The vision was gone. Kasem’s voice drew me from my trance. When he spoke, his words were a light whisper.

“I told you I would die,” he said. He was teasing me. Even in this state, he had the nerve to be glib. If he hadn’t already been stabbed, I would have shanked him myself.

“You’re not going to die. You’re going to survive.”

“You’re making me doubt you.” He shot me a weak smile, one with the faint trace of a dimple. “No one lives forever,” he said. “You can’t promise me any different.”

“You’re not going to die now,” I said. “Is that better?”

His lashes fluttered and the light drained from his eyes as he began to lose consciousness.

“Wake up,” I said, bringing my hands to his cheek, my voice panicked, my own breath catching in my throat. The thought of him closing his eyes and never opening them again sent a current of dread through me. “You lost a lot of blood, and I know you’re in pain, but you need to keep fighting. The paramedics will be here soon.”

Their sirens drew closer and everything inside of me screamed for them to hurry. But I couldn’t stay. If the paramedics or the police found me here, I’d have to explain why I’d taken Kasem’s money. Or worse, I’d have to explain why I had the victim’s bracelet and where I’d found it. I could try to describe the attackers from my vision, but I doubted the police would believe a “psychic.” No one would.

Kasem tugged at the hem of my shirt as I made to stand.

“Don’t leave me.”

After everything, he was asking for my help. And with those three syllables, my heart broke.

The sirens were getting closer. Time was running out.

I moved away from him, zipping my bag stashed with the money as I crawled to the other side of the alleyway.

“I’m sorry. I need to go.” Faltering, I managed to stand. “I saw your future,” I said. “You’ll survive this. You’ll get that inheritance you wanted. You’ll be okay, Kasem.”

I slipped away, just before the paramedics raced into the alley. I watched from afar as they brought their equipment to his side, tending to his wounds before lifting him on a stretcher and away to safety.

I’d saved him. But the sinking sensation that something was wrong anchored me in the alley. Instinctively, my hand reached for him. But he was gone.

The moment my lips had found his, I’d brought him back from the realm of the dead into the realm of the living. But in the future I’d witnessed, surrounded by lilies and carried in his arms, a trace of death lingered in our kiss. Like a promise, like we’d sealed our fates with it.

3 MONTHS LATER…

CHAPTER FIVE