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My necklace wasn’t there.
Most likely still in the gutter and lost forever.
I don’t care.
If it were a tax I had to pay to have Aslan returned to me, I’d happily pay it.
I’ll sacrifice anything and everything.
Just please...let him be okay...
With tears stinging, I ripped open the bag, grabbed Aslan’s shell, and fisted it close.
I stroked it and begged it to fix everything that I’d broken, all while my fingers went to my engagement ring. The ring with the Latin inscription: Per lunam tuus sum, per mare meus es. Aeternum. (By moonlight I am yours, by sea you are mine. Forever).
I started to spin the wave-trapped diamond.
Nervous and worried.
Spin.
Spin.
Afraid and terrified.
Spin.
Spin.
Spinning away time until Aslan was mine again.
Chapter Twenty-Four
*
Aslan
*
(Heart in Polish: Serce)
THUNDER CRASHED OVER MY HEAD. LIGHTNING FORKED. I clung to the rigging as a wall of water appeared.
The boat screeched as it struggled to stay in one piece. The wave sent us higher, higher up its face.
I turned to grab my sister and cousin.
But in their place sat Neri.
With big sea-blue eyes, drenched hair, and blood smearing her cheek.
“Neri.” I reached for her.
She reached for me.
The wave broke.
It slammed between us, ripping us apart, flinging me one way and pushing me down, down, down.
“NERIDA!”
Depths sucked me.
Tentacles lashed around my legs.
I fought—
“Easy there. You’re okay.” Fingers cupped around my flying fist, absorbing my strike, and planting my arm down.
My eyes wrenched open.
Bright painful lights shone. Sounds of people and beeping machinery filled my ears. Agony tore through every part of me, throbbing in my head, ribs, hip, and shoulder. Even my long-healed ankle twinged, feeding me memories of tripping off the footpath, stumbling, falling—
He pushed me.
That motherfucker pushed me.
I frowned.
Everything was black after that. I had no idea what’d happened or how I’d ended up here.
Shit.
Where is here?
Pain.
It struck from nowhere.
Everywhere.
Gasping with agony, I glanced around the room.
Wires, monitors, sterile equipment, and a man towering over me in scrubs. His hazel eyes met mine as his lips lifted in a smile. A smile that was supposed to be comforting but merely looked like an executioner’s grin.
“Glad you’re awake. You slept through all the fun stuff.”
I swallowed hard, wincing at the rusty, metallic taste on my tongue. “Wh-Where am I?”
“Townsville University Hospital. You were in a car accident.”
Car accident?
I hadn’t been near a car.
I’d been fighting the bastards who’d threatened Neri. One of them broke her necklace and pushed her to the ground.
I’d lost myself.
I’d won—
I shook my pounding head as everything went blank apart from one thing.
One excruciatingly important thing.
Neri.
My heart thundered. “Where’s Nerida?”
“Nerida?” The male nurse with shaggy brown hair frowned, peering into my eyes as if checking me for concussion. “Who’s Nerida?”
“Nerida Avc...I mean, Taylor. She’s my wife. They were hurting her. They touched her—” Fury blazed through me. I wanted to kill that bastard for daring to lay a finger on Neri.
I’d promised her no one would ever touch her against her will again.
And I’d failed.
I’d fucking failed just like I failed by losing her.
Anger bled deeper than any wound. Physical pain didn’t stand a chance. “Nerida. I need to see Nerida. Right fucking now!”
“No need for language, sir. I’m here to help—”
“Please,” I snarled, remembering my manners. “I need to see her please.”
“Just calm down and—”
“I’ll calm when I see her.” Rage cracked through every limb. Pain burned like wildfire. It felt as if the barrier of good and wrong was broken inside me. My temper was out of control. My fear making me violent.
Neri.
Where the fuck are you?
Shaking my head, trying to get free of the thickness inside, I snarled, “Don’t you get it? I’m the reason she was hurt. I’m the reason she’s always hurt. I need—” Agony stabbed in my skull. “I need to find—” Excruciating pain stole my words. I swayed and gagged on sickness. My fingers went to the back of my head, searching for a way to be free of the blinding discomfort. A bandage was stuck in my hair, thick and padded, covering a wound I couldn’t remember.
“Easy,” the nurse soothed. “I know you’re concerned, and you have every right to be, but you need to calm down.”
Tearing my hand away, I fought for stability in a sea of misery. “I need to find Neri.”
“Neri being your wife? Nerida Taylor?”
What a waste of time.
What an idiot.
“Yes! Take me to her. I can’t be here. I need—” The pain was back, pulling me under with suffocating agony.
“Like I said, what you need is to calm down. You’ve suffered a head injury and your ability to regulate your moods might be a little impaired. Just take a deep breath and—”
“It hurts to fucking breathe!” I howled, gasping as my ribs threatened to stab me.
“Yes, well that will be the three cracked ribs you sustained.”
“What?”
“If you just relax, I can let you know where you are, what happened, and what to expect from here.”
