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“In a minute.” She rests her elbows on the railing. The wind picks up her long brown hair and slaps it away from her.
Her stubbornness increases my ire.
I see Shanel’s inclination for rebellion is rubbing off on her friend.
Biting back a growl, I look away. Such insolence. This is why I never show leniency. If one person gets away with it, everyone thinks they have a right to ignore me.
“Beautiful night, right?” Catherine says.
I grunt.
“You know… I get why you like Shanel.” She rises to the tips of her toes and stares at the water. “To be honest, I thought she was weird the first time we met.”
“Weird?”
Catherine laughs fondly. “She kept saying that I wasn’t real, that I was a figment of her imagination. I remember thinking ‘this girl is crazy’. But the more I saw her, the more intrigued I was. I wanted to be like her. Confident and strong.”
Pain strikes my head suddenly.
The familiar keening wail.
The drill-like ache.
It tears through my skull.
Beats down on every soft tissue.
Every blood vessel.
Every vein.
I hiss aloud, my knees buckling from the bright lights that sear my vision. I hook an arm over the railing to keep from crumpling to the ground.
“Hawk?” Catherine bends over me, her pale face coming in and out of focus.
“I’m fine.” I blow out a breath. “I’m fine.”
“I’ll get Shanel.”
“Don’t,” I croak, but she’s already sprinting away.
A second later, the dock vibrates with the urgent thump of someone’s approach.
I smell flowers. Cocoa butter.
Shanel.
She drops to her knees, her voice heavy with concern. “Hawk, are you okay?”
Her presence sharpens the noise in my head.
It’s like a thousand bells clanging at once.
“Hawk!” Shanel’s breath thickens. She barks at Catherine. “Get the server. Tell her to bring me some ice water and any headache medicines they have.”
Catherine runs off.
Shanel takes my head and pulls it into her lap. Stroking the side of my face, she worriedly mumbles, “This didn’t happen in the movie.”
