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I couldn’t say when sleep took me. I couldn’t even be sure that it did. All I knew was the darkness, and the cold seeping into the box.
Don’t give up, Snow. Don’t you dare.Jamie whispered in the back of my mind.I don’t’ care if you hate me, or never want to see me again, but I need you to stay alive. Stay alive.
Letting my body sink against the wood, I smiled.Jamie. I wish you were here. It’s cold.
Stay alive. Stay alive and I’ll be there soon. I’m coming, baby. I’m on my way.
As the darkness overwhelmed me again, I slipped beneath a wave of disappointment. There was no way that Jamie would find me. I was buried in the ground, and he was in a cage, all because of the mating bond. He was going to be punished because he loved me. It was all my fault.
A tear rolled down my cheek, and I could feel my head beginning to throb as the effects of the low oxygen started kicking in. Low oxygen. It’d been some time since Adrian disappeared above me, but I was still breathing. How was I still breathing?
Frowning to myself, I tried to make out the edges of the box in the non-existent light, but I couldn’t move to get a better look. The chains and the blade still pinned me to the box. But I wasn’t in pain either. I couldn’t really feel anything, but cold.
I was trying to get a sense of how much blood I’d lost in my shoulder when I first heard the scratching. Not a critter type of scratch, but turning my head to the side, using my wolf’s extra sensitive abilities, I could hear the sound of metal hitting dirt.
My heart lurched into my throat. Could that really be…Was I hearing that right? Was someone digging me out? The panic, and nervous energy that had overwhelmed me as Adrian shut the lid came back with a vengeance.
“Hello!” I screamed, squeezing my eyes shut. “HELP! Help me, please!”
The sounds above me continued, moving faster. The cold around me seemed to shift, and after a few minutes I could definitely hear a shover hitting dirt in a quick rhythmic fashion.
“Help!” I sobbed, smacking my hands against the lid of the box as best I could at the weird angle, I’d been trapped in. I tried to shift my shoulders, but the blade pulled inside my shoulder, and I felt fresh blood start pooling beneath me.
“Eve, can you hear me? We’re coming, baby, we’re coming. Just hang on,” a familiar voice shouted above me.
My breath came out in a grateful sob. “Jamie.”
The shovel hit the top of the box with a loud scrape, and then suddenly I felt something moving me, the box groaned and then with a loud crack the lid broke in two, as the top half was snapped off and sent flying.
Flinching away from the sudden rain of dirt down around the edges of the box, I found myself able to take a deep breath, and when I looked back, Jamie stood crouching over me, fiddling with something around my wrists.
“Jamie,” I whimpered.
“I’m here. I’ve got you,” he said. “You’re safe now. You’re safe.”
I cried, and as he released the cuffs around my wrist, I felt another presence hovering somewhere near my head.
“I have to take this blade out, Evie. Brace yourself, okay?” Maria said, leaning into my line of sight.
Through my tears, I nodded. “Okay.”
She wrapped her hand around the hilt. Took a steadying breath and then pulled upward. The silver slipped from inside my body, and I coughed, feeling it burn as it cut a little deeper on one edge of the wound.
“Sorry,” Maria winced.
“Of course, he had to use these chains. Of all things. They’re a pain in the ass,” Jamie grumbled, breaking open the bottom of the box to free my legs from the tangle. It was only then that I realized they both had gloves on.
My right leg came free, and then my left, and Jamie smiled up at me, his joy wavering as he thought of something unpleasant. “Can you walk?”
“I don’t know,” I said, my heart beating like a drum in my ears.
“I can help,” Maria said.
“No,” Jamie snapped. “I’ve got her.”
I watched in surprise as he shuffled around to the side of the box and guided my arms around his neck. He slipped an arm beneath my knees and hoisted me from the ground with ease. He squeezed me tight, and then made a surprising leap up and out of the hole.
