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The moment I wrapped a non-existent hand around the rope Eleanor had braided for me, I felt better.
I shoved off the remaining cloak of darkness and remembered.
Shit, I remembered parts I hadn’t before.
I remember…me.
I am Sully Sinclair. I’m thirty-three, and I’m in love with a woman named Eleanor Grace. She’s trustworthy and kind and whenever she touches me, she grants me power to keep fighting.
The strain of recalling even that much threatened to pull me under again.
I refused, chanting my name and the woman I loved like an incantation to stay.
I’m Sully Sinclair, and I love Eleanor Grace.
I’m Sully and Eleanor is mine.
Why she loved me or how we met I couldn’t recall, but I pictured her perfectly—her chocolate hair that fell to her ass. Her smoky grey gaze that never let me hide or lie.
And I remembered that I was happy with her.
She could be trusted.
And for some reason, trust was my most fundamental law.
I paused, straining for more pieces.
I work for…
Nothing.
I am a…labourer? Accountant? Builder?
Shit.
I live in…New York? Hong Kong? Manchester?
Blank emptiness.
Why can’t I remember those things?
Why did I have holes where instinctive facts had fallen free, leaving small pockets that’d stored just a few basic knowings.
My name is Sully, and I love Eleanor.
Jinx.
Why did I call her Jinx?
Why did I ever think she was a curse?
My head throbbed as I tried to push the gathering blackness away and remember.
However, something outside my realm of internal entrapment happened.
Voices.
Eleanor’s wonderful lyrical tone followed by a man I did not recognise. A man I was obscenely jealous of as he was with Eleanor and I was not.
“How are you holding up?” he asked, his voice sympathetic and soft.
“As well as to be expected,” Eleanor replied. “How are you, Dr Campbell? How are Cal and Jess doing?”
“To steal your words…as well as to be expected,” the man answered with a slight chuckle, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Better. Calvin has cabin fever and wishes to resume his duties. He doesn’t accept bullets were inside him, scrambling his organs, only ten days ago. And Jess has chosen the same method of healing as Sinclair. Her vitals are steady, but she’s yet to wake up.”
I flinched.
This man knew me?
Who the fuck were Calvin and Jess?
“I hope Jess wakes soon.” Eleanor sighed.
Her hand squeezed mine.
I tried fucking everything to squeeze her back, but nothing.
“Just like I hope Sully wakes up too,” she murmured.
“You did the right thing by bringing him home, Eleanor.”
She sniffed as if tears had escaped.
Don’t cry.
Fuck, please don’t cry.
“I’m not so sure. He’s no better here than he was there. I’d hoped…” She inhaled hard. “I’d hoped he’d snap out of it the moment he smelled the beach and heard Pika but…”
Pika?
What the hell was a Pika?
“These things take time.” The man’s presence moved closer.
I snarled in my mental cage.
“At least the police are gone. I don’t know what you said to them, but I’m grateful. They’ve been a pebble in my shoe for days. Getting underfoot while I tried to keep my patients alive.”
“They’re coming back, though,” Eleanor said. “With a search warrant. They suspect we’re keeping things from them.”
“Ah.” The man clucked his tongue. “That is not good news…not for Sinclair at any rate.”
“I need to release the goddesses,” Eleanor said. “Now. Today.”
Goddesses?
What the fuck was she on about? Was I in purgatory after all, and touched an angel instead of a human girl?
“You need to talk to Calvin. He will help arrange it.”
“Will he, though? He’s not exactly been glad of my existence. Why would he help me destroy everything he helped Sully create?”
“Because he knows it’s time too. Enough is enough.”
“He’ll still hate me.”
“Does it matter?” the man said. “Come, I’ll sit with you. I’ll offer moral support while you tell him what needs to happen.”
“Can he come here? I can’t leave Sully.”
“Cal can’t travel, especially over the sand. He’s not strong enough yet. It’s best if you go to him. He’ll help you with the logistics of freeing the goddesses and show you what documentation and evidence to destroy before the police return with their warrants.”
“Why are you helping me keep Sully out of jail?”
Jail?
What the fuck?
Jail?
What the hell had I done to deserve jail?
My willingness to remain awake faltered. No wonder I couldn’t snap out of this limbo. Self-preservation had kicked in if my fate included being locked up like a beast.
“He’s paid enough. And I don’t want you to suffer any more than you already have. You love him, and I’d be an idiot not to see that he’s head over heels for you too. If anyone can change the king of these islands, it’s you.” The man moved closer still.
I growled, wanting to rip him apart for being so close to what I loved.
I couldn’t protect her in my current state.
I had no way of keeping her safe.
