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I ignored him.
Aslan ignored him.
Our eyes locked, and the frost inside me melted a little. He was still in there. Still the soulmate I knew and loved. The man who wouldn’t hurt anyone instead of the murderer who was far too good at it.
I smiled.
I raised my hand.
Aslan swallowed hard and raised his bloody one.
Everything was better now.
Everything would be okay.
“I love you,” I whispered.
But then...it happened.
Death that’d stalked Aslan since he’d escaped the shipwreck eight years ago chose that exact moment to pounce.
The older guy charged.
With a war cry, he ran straight into Aslan, arms outstretched, palms smacking against Aslan’s chest. He shoved him so fast, so fiercely, Aslan didn’t stand a chance.
He went reeling backward.
His ankle rolled as he tripped off the curb.
His arms went flying.
Screeching tyres split the night sky—
Chapter Twenty-Two
*
Nerida
AGE: 20 YRS OLD
*
(Love in Hindi: Pyaar)
I DROPPED MY PHONE AS THE RED car that was meant to take us home drove directly into him, smashing him over the bonnet, crashing him against the windscreen, and flinging him into a broken heap on the street.
No.
No.
NO!
Screams filled my ears, my mouth, my heart. “ASLAN!”
I sprinted to where he lay unmoving in the headlights of the stopped Mazda. The windscreen had exploded into cubes of safety glass, littering Aslan and the road. It crunched beneath my sandals as I bolted to his side and froze.
No.
Please no.
All I could see was blood.
“Aslan...” My stomach eroded with acid, spilling through me, turning my bones into puddles of horror.
“Aslan.” I choked on sobs as I dropped to my knees and wedged both hands over my mouth. I couldn’t touch him. Couldn’t believe this was real.
Open your eyes.
Come on.
Open your eyes.
Please!
I need you to open your eyes!
Any second now, he’d open them, spring to his feet, and gather me in his strong, immortal arms.
“Fuck. Come on!” The guy who’d shoved Aslan into traffic kicked his mates on the ground. “Gotta go. Get up. Get up!” The drunken bastard roused his friends, helping them up, pushing them, shooing them stumbling and limping down the street.
I couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe.
I trembled as if a hurricane had replaced my heart as I slowly dropped my hands from my mouth and reached out to touch him.
I did this.
This is my fault.
I shouldn’t have stopped him.
I shouldn’t have distracted him.
My fault...
My fault!
The guys kept running, lumbering.
They left us.
Left me as I bit my bottom lip to stem my sobs and choked on a breath as I touched Aslan.
The spark between us was missing.
The hum and thrum and everlasting connection was non-existent as I wiped his blood-drenched bronzed hair off his ruby-wet forehead.
“Aslan...please.” My heart hammered with an agony I’d never felt before, muted but excruciating, quiet but as loud as thunder. “Please, Aslan...open your eyes.”
I didn’t know what came over me.
All my life, I’d been strong and brave.
I’d fought for those less fortunate, championed for animals, and never shied away from those in pain, but this?
Him?
I couldn’t cope.
Parts of me shut down. My eyes refused to compute that Aslan—the love of my life and my absolutely everything—was unmoving, unbreathing, unblinking in the middle of the road. My mind rejected the images as if this was a horror movie I could turn off and forget. My body refused to accept that the conduit of electricity that always flowed between us was now dull and dead.
Piece by piece, my body folded in on itself as well as my heart and soul.
I hovered in a space of disbelief, distrust, and rejection.
This can’t be real.
It just can’t be.
It’s not.
I rested my palm against his cheek.
He’s fine.
See?
He’s fine.
On the coattails of denial came the violent need to bargain.
To haggle with angels, negotiate with the devil, and offer up any contract with any entity that somehow had the power to make this all a silly mistake.
Please...
“Aslan...” I ran my fingertips over his closed eyes, smearing blood like a death mask. “Darling, dearest Aslan...please. You’re okay. I know you are.”
He didn’t move.
Didn’t do anything.
Just lay there.
Like a corpse.
Like a body that’d lost its soul.
No.
Wrongness flooded my fingers where I touched him.
Hope ruptured inside me.
The worst kind of violation of being left alone and—
No.
With a deep breath, I cupped his cheeks and shifted him onto his back. “You’re not gone. I refuse. I won’t allow it. It’s not possible.”
His lips parted as his head fell to the side.
Glass cubes dug into my knees as I bent over him and wedged my ear against his chest.
Come on.
Beat.
Beat for me.
Stay for me...
My ear burned I pressed so hard.
My own heart stopped, waiting for his to reply.
Insidious ice slithered through me, leaving laces of frost in its path. My ribcage glittered with snow. My organs froze solid. I shook my head as sleety fog fell over my mind, whispering that this was just a dream.
Just a silly little nightmare, and I’d wake soon.
