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Murderer.
The girl who killed her parents.
And now I’m going to be the girl who killed her parents and paid for it when she sank to the bottom of a river and froze to death.
This is going to be my tomb.
But as soon as my feet touch the bottom, my instincts kick in, and I try to swim to the surface.
“Just kick your feet, Raven,” my dad tries to encourage as he stands in the pool with me, helping keep me afloat as he tries to teach me how to swim. “You can do this, sweetie. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. You’ve got to learn how to swim. If you don’t, you’ll be at risk.”
As the chill of the water burns my muscles, winding them into knots and making them useless, I start to sink again, darkness taking over. And I start to let it …
Blood on my hands.
“Hide, Raven,” my mom begs. “Hide and don’t come out. Do you understand?”
I frantically shake my head. “No. I can’t leave you.”
She grabs my shoulders and looks me in the eyes. “You have to. And you have to promise to forget what’s about to happen. Promise me.”
I shake my head again, tears burning my eyes. “No, I’m not going to. I’m staying with you. I’m not going to hurt—”
Arms wrap around me, and then I’m being pulled upward, toward the sky. I’m dead, and I’m going upward. But that can’t be right.
No, when I die, and if there is a heaven and a hell, I definitely won’t be going up.
You’ve got it wrong.
You’re going the wrong way.
I need to go back down—
I gasp as I break the surface of the water then cough as the air burns my lungs.
“I got you,” Jax breathes out as he holds me in his arms, swimming us over to the shore, the water rushing around us.
I want to answer him, want to ask him how he found me, but I’m chattering too hard to form any coherent words.
My eyelids start to lower as water drips down my face.
“Don’t go to sleep,” he says as he drags me onto the shore. “Whatever you do, keep your eyes open.”
My clothes are soaking wet. Everything feels heavy, even breathing.
“Willow, please just stay with me,” Jax begs as he swims us out of the water.
I give a feeble nod. Or, I think I do. My head feels so heavy.
Moments later, I’m being laid down. I peel my eyelids open and try to move, but my arms are useless lumps of frozen flesh. So, I just slump into the dirt.
Jax is muttering incoherently under his breath, panic taking over him as he stares down at me, water dripping from his face.
“What do I do?” he mutters as his gaze sweeps across mine.
Snowflakes start to drift from the cloudy sky.
“You were right … It did snow today,” I whisper, totally out of it as I reach up and brush my fingers along Jax’s lips.
