AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course.” Aberto smiled and stepped away.
“Nothing for you?” I asked.
“I want to keep my hands free.” He shrugged. “Plus, you’ve been fidgeting your fingers since we stopped moving. You need something to keep them busy and your mind distracted.”
My gaze fell, realizing I was indeed playing with my fingers.
“Ilias,” Lucca’s deep voice made my skin jump, startled from his sudden appearance. His dark eyes moved toward me. “Davina,” he said, acknowledging me.
I gave him a small smile as my drink was lowered to the bar. My hands glued to the bubbly glass flute as Ilias and I turned toward him.
“In an hour, the event will be over. As I give a thank you speech, head over to my study,” Lucca instructed casually, too casually with a smile I’d never seen.
A quick look at Ilias, and I noticed how he, too, had changed his posture. It didn’t take me long to understand, Lucca had mastered the illusion of having an easy and pleasant conversation. When in reality, he was giving an order for us to wait for the danger.
In the corner of my eye, Arlo stood a few feet away, facing the crowd but watching us. Me in particular. His brows raised and his head moved slightly before he crossed his eyes. I couldn’t help the chuckle of surprise that escaped to see Arlo do such a thing.
“Good, you’re learning,” Lucca commented with his white teeth showing without his smile fully reaching his eyes.
Comprehending what Arlo had done, I looked past Lucca in search of him again. With a nod, I thanked him. All his face showed was annoyance before shaking his head and looking away.
“Will we be the firsts there?” Ilias asked.
“Yes. Now, if you both excuse me, I have a few more loose ends to tie.” With a grin, Lucca lifted his glass before taking a sip and leaving us behind as he made his way through the crowd.
I knew we’d stepped down to the gala hours after it had started, but being aware of only having less than an hour before I would face Tattoo and Nightmare together again, it all seemed too quick.
My mind couldn’t fool my body from letting the rising anxiety spread. My fingertips prickled, and the tight grip of the flute’s stem didn’t help keep my hand stable.
“Davina,” I heard my name as it fell from Ilias’s lips, but it’d blurred into a small whisper as the conversations around grew louder, and the laughs, the whispers, and the music suffocated my mind as it began to crack into the depths of my darkest thoughts. “Davina.” Ilias strong tone stopped the cracks from continuing, and when his touch stroked my chin, pulling my gaze to his eyes, I gasped for air. He pulled me out of the pit my anxiety was ready to throw me into.
Ilias grabbed my elbow, guiding me away until the voices were only a distant noise and fresh air filled my lungs. My gaze moved around, finding us alone as the backdoor stayed open and the bright light of the kitchen spilled into the dark night.
Ilias turned my head to face him, his eyes were intense and careful, and as his jaw clenched, he said through his teeth, “I need you here. I need you to remember what you’ve been through, but most importantly, where you are now. Here, with me.”
“I thought I could do this.” My voice broke, and his throat made a gruff sound.
“Because you can!” Ilias held me between his hands. “You were fucking afraid of every creak a house made, terrified as you walked in the dark for necessities. Sleep wasn’t your friend, and you’d lost your appetite from the trauma you’d been through as you lived stuck in the past. But this is the present, and your future. I need you to come back to me and remind yourself who you fucking are.”
I’m not weak.
I’m a survivor with scars that told the tale.
I’ve outrun death, and the depths of my conscience.
I was Davina Cohen, a girl from New York who now walked in a man’s world.
And I was strong.
“Now, kroshka,” Ilias breath whispered through my hair as his head lowered toward my ear. “Remember who you are. Remember you are mine, and who you’ve become.”
I took a step back to look up to him, but as the feel of the grainy brick scratched against my bare back, I was taken back to the cold winter night in the streets of New York, trying to hide.
I wouldn’t hide. Not tonight. Not ever again.
I pulled away from the rough wall, squared my shoulder for the last time, and looked up to Ilias’s wild blues.
“Thank you,” I managed to say.
