AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 25
Margo
The pack had been on a run, so I was studying alone at Dorian’s house. Perdita had gone to bed to rest, barely able to keep her eyes open. I checked my watch, bored and lonely. I hated studying alone because I struggled to focus, and my attention was on my phone in case Dorian tried to contact me. The last message he’d sent had warned he’d be out of range of reception for a while, but that was all I knew. I should have gone with him. After all, it was my problem he was trying to fix.
Sighing, I checked my watch again, willing time forward. The pack were probably on their way home already, and my mother would pick me up after work soon enough. I thought about giving up on studying when I heard a loud thump from upstairs.
“Perdita?” I called out. “Everything okay up there?”
There was no answer, so I decided to head upstairs, in case she needed help. I passed Dorian’s room, filled with a strong sense of longing. When he came home, we had to make the best of our time together.
“Perdita?” I knocked on her bedroom door, a feeling of unease creeping over me. “I’m coming in, okay?”
I opened the door. She wasn’t in the bed. I crept into the room and found her on the floor, her face snow-white, and her eyes closed. I couldn’t remember moving, but suddenly, I was next to her, shaking her shoulders, trying to wake her.
“Perdita,” I called to her, “please wake up.” Panic flooded through me. My hands shook as I sent messages for help to her father and boyfriend. The phone slipped out of my hand. I couldn’t think straight. I kept remembering last time, her desolation, the blood, how worried and upset everyone had been. Again, I had no warning, but this time it was because I had been taking those stupid tablets. Dorian and Nathan would be destroyed when they realised encouraging me to take the pills had harmed Perdita.
I had to do whatever it took to help her. To protect the baby. To make sure that Dorian didn’t come home to bad news. The numb feeling surrounded me like a netted cage, pressing against my skin, trapping me. I was inside of a shield, but that shield protected only me. I gripped Perdita’s hand in terror. She looked so lifeless, and I was so helpless.
I squeezed my eyes shut, breathing hard. When I focused, I keenly felt a heavy shroud pressing against me that I was sure I could touch. I had to be able to push past it. It was my body. It had to obey me. There had to be something I could do.
Tears rolled down my face. I pushed, seeking out the cold fingers of death. The protection around me cracked, letting me breathe. I sucked in a gasp, stretching those cracks as much as I could. Pain pounded in my head, but I couldn’t let go of Perdita’s hand, couldn’t stop seeking what was already there. If death was in that room, then I was going to send it away. I had to.
The chill seeped into my mouth, forcing its way down my throat, but it was familiar now, an old friend, one I welcomed. Concentrating harder, I flexed my free hand, imagining myself pulling at the nets over me, freeing myself. The cracks deepened further, making my head spin.
Like shedding skin, I outgrew my casing, becoming something new. I left the shell artificially created by medicine behind, and let the cold grasp me anew. It flooded me relentlessly, nothing to harbour it, nothing to hold it back, nothing to protect me from the onslaught. I felt vulnerable and newborn, thoroughly exposed. I immediately wanted to turn back, to undo what I’d done, but it was far too late.
Gasping for air, my insides froze. I sought out the threads of death between me and Perdita, but there were none. Why were there none? The answer came to me with a huge sigh of relief. She was okay. The baby was okay. They weren’t dying, either of them.
Still, the cold rushed at me, driving me back from her body for fear of freezing her, too. Noises came from the distance, but I couldn’t tell if I heard them or imagined them.
Either way, it didn’t matter. Help would come for Perdita, but as long as there was no death, there was nothing else I could do. If I had somehow opened the door that protected me from death, I struggled to close it now. There was no lock any longer, and I had no control. Death swept around me, ice-cold inside me. I was helpless.
Black spots ruined my vision, and I fell backwards, losing sense of everything. All I felt was cold. All I knew was darkness.
Somebody was calling my name. Perdita’s, too. I came too with a start, sitting up until I was face to face with Nathan Evans. “What happened?” he kept asking me.
“She’s okay. I mean, they’re not dying or anything,” I gasped, shivering. “I heard a bang, so I came upstairs, and she was on the floor. I panicked, so I tried to see if death was here, but there was nothing. I dunno what happened then.”
He was too panicked to hear the lie.
I looked around him to see a woman patting Perdita’s face, calling her name. It was the woman from Dorian’s birthday party, Evelyn.
“Perdita,” she said in a firm voice. “Open your eyes, Perdita.” She sounded confident and reassuring like she knew exactly what she was doing.
“What’s happening?” Nathan asked in a strained tone. His shoulders were tense, but his eyes were wild, as though he were barely holding on. For the first time, I realised what people meant when they said harming Perdita would break Nathan. For the first time, I was scared of him, of the unadulterated ferocity he kept tamped down on a daily basis. It was nothing compared to Pavel or Victor, or even Dominic.
“They’re not dying,” I repeated, desperate to reassure him, to reassure myself.
He shot me a weak smile, but it was more like he bared his teeth. The agitation rising from him was electric somehow, infecting me. I shuddered, wishing for Dorian’s steadying touch on my shoulder.
“She fainted,” Evelyn said. “Probably from low blood pressure. Have they warned her about that in the hospital?”
“Yes,” Nathan said. “How did you know?”
“I’m actually a midwife. I see this all the time. Can you go get some orange juice and maybe a snack for when she wakes up?”
He scurried off. Evelyn grinned at me. “I hate when they freak out and hover over me.”
