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“I never make wishes,” I’d said. I’d given up on wishing, hoping, dreaming a long time before. All I did was plot and plan.
“Don’t be stupid,” she’d said firmly. “When you wish on a dandelion, it always comes true.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Eventually,” she’d promised, so insistently that I’d taken the flower and blown the fluff ball to make her happy. When I opened my eyes, she’d still been watching me carefully. “What did you wish for?”
“Can’t tell.”
“You didn’t really wish for anything.”
But she’d never stopped handing me those dandelions, and in time, as my friendship with Sophia and Stellan warmed my heart, I’d started making wishes.
I wanted to make a wish. A last wish for her.
The guys were already getting into the car. I paused, then said, “I’ll be right back. There’s just… One more thing I have to do.”
I slammed the car door on their objections.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to make a wish in order to find Sophia. As silly as it might be. The world was a weird and dark place, and I might as well give in to my whims when they were harmless.
I went over to the edge of the road and picked two dandelions, one for each of us. I could feel the guys watching me from here, keeping an eye on me, trying to make sure I was safe.
I pretended to be Sophia. The two of us used to make wishes for each other; we thought altruistic wishes had to be more powerful. So I pretended to be her. “I hope you have a happy life, Delilah. I hope the darkest days are behind you and love and light is in your future. Even if you choose love and light with idiots.”
I could hear those words in her voice so clearly, even though she’d never said them. It was such a Sophia thing to say. I closed my eyes and blew the fluff, imagining that I was her for a moment, picturing that she was still on this earth the way she should be.
Then I lifted the other dandelion to my lips. “I hope you come home, Sophia. And I hope wherever you are, even if you already left this earth, I hope you know how very loved you are. Stellan and I are both a mess, but we’re a mess in part because we both adore you. And you’re worth it. I’m glad you were my friend. And I’ll miss you for the rest of my life.”
I blew out the puff of dandelion, convinced that if she were just a body to find, her body would come home to us.
Then I heard a warning shout from the guys. My eyes flew open, just in time to see a van barreling down the street right for me.
The guys were running toward me, and I started to sprint toward them. But I was too late. The door of the van slammed open. I had my back to the vehicle, racing away, as suddenly something dark flew over my head. I choked as it tightened around my neck. And I was dragged backward. I fought with everything I had, feeling myself slam into the edge of the van’s door. I threw myself toward the street, kicking and flailing. I heard someone curse, and I almost escaped them. Then they got lucky and reeled me back, and I felt myself slam into the floor of the car.
The vehicle lurched, the engine revved. In the distance, I could hear the guys shouting.
But the car was hurtling off with me inside it.
Chapter24
Stellan
As the van drove off with Aurora inside it, I leaped onto the back. I desperately scrambled for any handhold on the smooth white panel. There was a handle for the hatch, and I managed to get my fingers around that, clinging to it one-handed with my feet on the bumper. It wasn’t very stable, and I desperately grabbed for the roof of the van with my other hand, trying to mold myself to the back.
My stab wounds screamed with every move. As the car frantically wove back and forth across the street, trying to shake me off, my grip loosened a little bit every time, and my arm wasn’t as strong as it would’ve been if I hadn’t been stabbed through the shoulder muscle. I gritted my teeth, desperate to cling to the back.
“Aurora,” I shouted. The driver obviously knew I was here, so there was no point in trying to be stealthy anymore. “Hang in there. We are going to get you free!”
I could already feel my grip slipping. I tried more desperately over and over to get a better hold.
The driver yanked the wheel sharply to the right and then to the left. I tried to hang on, but he finally managed to throw me.
I slammed into the concrete and rolled over and over. As I finally came to a stop, I was already jumping to my feet. I raced after the van. I was limping, my knee badly hurt and the stab wounds screaming with pain. But nothing could stop me from trying to reach Aurora.
A car suddenly came to a stop beside me. Someone threw open the back door. It was Cain. “Get in.”
I threw myself into the car and reached to slam the door shut, but we were already rocketing off and momentum slammed the door.
