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Chapter Twenty-Six
*
Aslan
*
(Heart in Turkish: Kalp)
“ASLAN? ASLAN, YOU NEED TO WAKE UP.”
Something tapped my cheek with annoying repetition.
I floundered on the bottom of my nightmares, swimming in storms, drowning in moonlight. Panic was my only emotion as I searched for everyone I’d lost. My parents, my sister...Neri.
My chest exploded as seawater poured in.
My heart tumbled in on itself.
Fuck.
Neri.
What if I never saw her again?
What if I’d lost her for good and I never got to touch her again, kiss her again, love her—
I couldn’t.
I can’t—
“Aslan. Wake up. We don’t have much time.” The tapping turned to slapping. It offered me an anchor in a drowned world of salt and pain.
I clung to it. I hauled on it.
My eyes ripped open as I coughed and choked, retching up phantom water, crying out as my ribs stabbed and my shoulder pinched and every bone in my body became my enemy.
“That’s it. Easy does it. You’re okay. Just breathe slowly and gently.”
The blinding lights kept my vision stark white as I slowly adjusted back into a body riddled with agony. Fear from my nightmares chased me into reality and I struggled to sit up.
Neri.
I have to find her.
A gentle but firm hand landed on my sternum.
The white spots organised themselves into pictures, and I frowned as a woman leaned over me.
A woman with a kind smile, brown-black hair, and age marking her pretty face. Her fingers stroked my hair, pushing the unruly strands off my forehead as she willed me to become coherent.
The past slammed into me.
Another hospital.
Another night.
“You,” I croaked.
