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Without answering her, I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder.
“We have to go.” I head back to the small clearing we passed a short while ago.
The sound of the helicopter propellers is getting further away, but I’m hoping they are circling back around, giving us enough time to get to the clearing. With each step, I feel like I’m getting weaker, my legs more unsteady, and my vision blurs. I push through all of it, knowing that if I give up now, there will be no hope.
“Quinton, put me down. You’re not going to make it carrying me.” Her voice is trembling, and her hands are grabbing my jacket at my back.
“I can make it,” I assure her, even though I don’t know for sure. All I know is that it’s both of us or no one.
The helicopter seems to get closer again. I pick up speed even though my legs protest it. I push through the pain and exhaustion until we finally make it to the clearing.
Not even two steps in, I finally collapse on the ground. Aspen yelps out in pain before crawling off my back and rolling me over.
“Quinton? Quinton! Oh my god. Stay with me!” Tears stream down Aspen’s beautiful face, and I don’t understand why she’s crying. We’ve made it. She should be happy. “Don’t you fucking die on me now!” She presses her hands down on my arm, pain shooting up my shoulder before my body goes numb.
I want to tell her I’m fine, but my tongue feels heavy in my mouth. Just as heavy as my eyelids feel.
I wake up in the sky and see the helicopter hovering right above us. Its propellers projecting icy winds toward us. The cold pricks my skin painfully, but on the inside, I’m glad that they’re here because that means that Aspen is safe.
I did it, I saved her, and that’s the last thing on my mind before the world goes black.
9
ASPEN
I should feel something, dread, anger, sadness, but all there is, is numbness. I’m numb to the chaos swirling around me, circling the drain called my life. There are people talking, and the engine of the helicopter roars loudly in my ears, but even the noise doesn’t affect me. My brain refuses to digest anything I’m hearing.
All my attention is on Quinton and making sure he doesn’t die on me before we get back to Corium. As soon as the helicopter lands, people move around us, and still, I feel nothing.
Everything happens at lightning speed. Guards rush toward us, grabbing hold of the stretchers and rushing us both toward the double doors that lead inside Corium.
I lift my head and look around, and the moment I do, I wish I hadn’t. My stomach drops to my feet when I see Quinton’s family standing at the doors. Their faces are stricken with fear watching Quinton. Except Xander Rossi. He’s glaring daggers at me.
The intensity of hate in his gaze makes me want to curl into a ball. All I wanted was to go unnoticed, and instead, everything I’ve done has brought attention back onto me.
The guards’ feet slap against the floor, and I force my gaze down to my hands. As soon as we reach the infirmary, I’m set on one bed while Quinton is carried into a separate room.
Everyone rushes into that room, and I realize then I’m not going to be seen, at least not until after Quinton is. While his injury requires more medical attention, it feels like I’m being brushed aside.
That thought becomes more and more apparent as the minutes tick by and I sit here silently waiting for someone to give a shit about me.
Bitter rage lingers at the back of my mind. Not because these people are ignoring me. I’m used to that, and I’m glad they make sure Quinton is okay before they look at my leg.
No, it’s because my family ignores me. Quinton’s family came to see him—they probably came as soon as they were told he went out into the forest. My mother hasn’t even answered my calls for I don’t know how long. I could’ve died. Hell, I almost did, and that wasn’t even a sufficient excuse for her to leave her hideout. I mean, there is a chance they didn’t tell her, but I doubt it.
Does she even care about me?
The question lingers in my mind for much longer than I care to allow. I don’t want to be mad or permit myself to feel anything resembling anger toward my mother, but you would think she would be here, like Quinton’s family.
A little more time passes, and eventually, Dr. Lauren comes out of Quinton’s room. I recognize her from the last time I was here. She gives me a genuine smile as she walks up to me.
