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Prologue
Darkness consumed me.Cold, unforgiving darkness.
It coursed through my veins, an unrelenting storm dimming every speck of light.
“Peyton. Stay with me, you have to stay with me,” a voice said somewhere in the distance.
But it was cold.
So freaking cold.
My teeth chattered as I slipped deeper into the black abyss cocooning me.
I just wanted to close my eyes. To drift away… away… away.
It would be easier… the pain would stop.
Everything would just—
“Peyton. The EMTs will be here any—thank fuck, they’re here.” Warm hands held me, trying to tether me to the light. “They’re here. Down here.”
But the lull of the darkness was too strong. It cloaked me, smothering out all of my senses. Except the chill. That didn’t abate. It was in my bones; icy-cold water coursing through my veins. My body trembled as I hovered on the thin ledge between consciousness and unconsciousness.
“Down here,” the voice said again, a featherlight touch running across my face.
“What happened?” another voice asked.
“Peyton… sh-she fell in the river. I dragged her out, but she was under for at least half a minute.”
“Okay, move over and let us do our job. Peyton, can you hear me?”
I tried to answer, only a murmur escaping my lips.
“We’re going to get you warmed up and into the ambulance, okay?”
Something rustled around me, wrapping me up like a burrito, then I was lifted onto a gurney, the air whooshing around me.
“X-Xander?” Panic swarmed me as I fought against the claws of darkness, my eyes flickering open. The edges of everything were blurry but I saw his face. The deep lines of concern, the grim curve of his lips.
“I’m here.” He loomed over me. “I’m right here.”
“D-don’t leave me.”
I was scared, so freaking scared.
She was gone… my mom was gone, and I was all alone in the world. And I was supposed to want this. I was supposed to feel a deep sense of relief.
But all I felt was bleak despair.
I was alone.
And as the darkness consumed me, and I lost the fight against the bitter cold, the last face I saw was his.
