Page 46 of Barinov

ZEKE

Eden

13 days since I got my sister back.

Over eight hundred days since I lost my sister.

Thirteen since I got her back.

I walk down the long, dark hallway, mindful to step only over the floorboards I know won’t creak. Can’t risk waking him up. Not tonight.

I ease open Luca’s door and peer inside. He’s curled on his side, blankets pulled tightly around him. His chest rises and falls in slow, even breaths.

Peacefully asleep.

Good.

I keep moving down the hall and come to a halt at the last door on the left. My hand hovers over the handle. I swallow hard, leaning my forehead against the door with a quiet thud.

“Just do it, Zeke,” I whisper, flexing my fingers. I reach in my hoodie pocket and run my fingers over the cool, smooth glass hidden inside. “This is your sister. She’ll understand.”

I turn the handle and carefully push the door open. A thin strip of light cuts across the room from the hallway, slipping in before the door fully closes. It washes over familiar shapes that don’t belong here. Razorback Stadium stretches across the wall beside her bed. Every perfect detail frozen in place.

A damn lie made to look like love.

The room plunges into total darkness as the door shuts behind me. I walk over to her bed and gently click on the lamp perched on the nightstand. My chest knots at the sight of her like this. Asleep in another fucking cage, all because of me.

I sink down on the edge of the mattress, careful not to jostle her. My fingers shake as I brush a strand of her onyx hair away from her face.

This is real.

She’s real.

Bella’s eyelids flutter open and she bolts upright. “What?!” she gasps, scrambling back and nearly knocking herself out on the headboard.

“Shh, Bells,” I whisper, quickly reaching out to cover her mouth before her screeches wake him up. “It’s okay. It’s just me.”

She stares at me with wide, glassy eyes. Her breath is labored. Almost like she’s trying to place what’s real and what’s just another nightmare.

“You good?”

Bella nods frantically.

I release my hand from her mouth and she launches forward, slamming her body into mine. Her arms cinch around my neck so tight it steals the breath clean out of my lungs. I wrap her up just as fiercely with one arm around her waist, the other cradling the back of her head as she starts to shake.

The sobs come fast. Tears she’s been holding in for years violently rip out of her in waves.

“I’m here,” I whisper into her temple, my own eyes burning. “Fuck. I’m here, Bells.”

She pulls back just enough to look at me. Steel gray eyes I’ve missed more than I can even put into words search my face.

“How?” she whispers, brushing her fingers down my face. “H-how the hell are you alive?”

“It’s a long story,” I say, lifting a hand to wipe away a tear tracking down her cheek.

“Always is.” She lets out a weak, broken chuckle. “Care to share?”

“Okay, but first.” I nudge her. “Scoot over.”