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A loud scream catches in my ears, one single word holding enough force to draw my attention. I turn toward the sound, my heart lurching through my chest when I see the face looking back at me.
It’s not possible…
Fright plunges me away from the darkness. I gasp against the air, trying so hard to catch my breath. My lungs burn with every inhale, and my chest feels like it’s ready to explode. There’s a noise buzzing in the background, a muffled voice I swear is calling my name. It’s calling me back. But back from where? Where was I?
The blur surrounding me begins to fade, and everything falls into focus. I’m in Rhenn’s room. He’s here too, kneeling in front of me. He looks different, worried. Like he’s seen a ghost.
My right arm rests in my lap, the left one ignites a deep ache. I look up, seeing it’s secured above my head by a white cloth that’s tied from the bedpost to my wrist, while ruby red soaks through a tightly wound wrap on my forearm.
Why…why am I tied up? Why is my arm bleeding?
Mumbles cut through the fog in my brain. My focus returns to the front of me, realizing Rhenn is talking. He’s talking, but I can’t make sense of the sounds. Everything feels so…fuzzy.
Untie me. I want to tell him, only, I can’t get my mouth to form the words.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
RHENN
She got out.
Sumner. Got. Out.
At first, I’m not sure it’s real. It can’t be. No one escapes him. No one leaves. It isn’t possible. So how are we back in my room?
Her face is distant, dazed. I can’t imagine what she’s thinking, how she’s feeling. Does she have any idea what just happened? What she managed to do? So many questions, and I couldn’t give a damn about the answers, because none of it matters. Sumner is here. She survived.
The immense relief, the ability to breathe again, it all comes to a plummeting halt when she finally looks at me and I see the overwhelming fear in her eyes. It isn’t for what she’d seen in the Reaper’s realm, nor for the dreams he cast her into. It’s for me.
Sumner shakes me away when I attempt to aid her in getting up after freeing her arm, unsteadily navigating her way through the house. I rush to follow her, needing to make sure she’s okay. She’s just come back from something impossible to wake from. As incredibly shocked and beyond glad I am to see her, she shouldn’t be here.
“Vix, wait.” I grab her arm just before she slips through the door to her house. She turns, cheeks pale and eyes rimmed red.
“Let me go,” she begs. The terror streaking across her face has me doing exactly that. Why is she afraid of me?
“Please come back inside. I’ll stay on the other side of the room if you need me to, just…please.”
Her head shakes back and forth. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Stay away from me.”
“Wait a second.” I prop my hand on the door so she can’t close it. “Tell me what’s going on inside your head right now. Let me in.”
To this, she straightens. Less than scared now, she looks hurt. “Death stared me in the face, Rhenn, and do you know what I saw?” Sumner pauses, looking at me like I’m someone she doesn’t recognize. “I saw you.”
Me? “I was with you, Vix. I was there. But you can’t possibly think I had anything to do with what happened. Fuck, I was trying to help you.”
“You held my head under water.” A single tear falls, tracing the curve of her cheek. “I was drowning, and you held me there.”
My brows pull together so hard I can feel the crease between them. What the hell did she see in there?
That’s when I remember the gurgling, the water falling from her mouth. I knew she was choking, not drowning by what she thinks was my hand. Sumner was in a world outside this and the Land of Shadows. She saw me because I was there. I was holding her. That’s what she saw when she looked up. Me above her and a pool of water that was never there.
“No.” I shake my head. “I didn’t. I wouldn’t. He had you, Vixen. He made you see that, think that. You only remember what he wants you to. I swear I would never hurt you. Not like that.”
“He?”
“The Reaper.”
She lets out a sad laugh, looking up at me in disbelief. “Right.”
