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Chapter 1
Marley
The smell of Wyatt’s aftershave burned my nostrils. I’d been running for so long that my lungs were on fire, the muscles in my legs trembling.
I was trying to get out of the forest and get back to civilization, but with only the full moon lighting my way through the thick canopy overhead, every tree looked the same. If I could stop and catch my bearings, I might be able to discern which way was east and west. Use one of those tricks my dad had once taught me on a camping trip.
But what was I supposed to look for? Moss on a stone? A stick that could get exposed to sunlight? I didn’t remember.
As I tucked myself into the hollow of one of the trees, all I could do was hope that Wyatt wouldn’t hear my exhausted breaths sawing in and out of my mouth. That I could block the sound with my dirty, scratched hands.
I clapped those hands over my mouth as I heard the soft thuds of his feet on the forest’s loamy ground. Closing my eyes, I forced myself to hold my breath, forced my heart to slow. I stayed like that for a long time, listening for Wyatt’s footsteps, hoping he would stalk past me so I could run in the opposite direction.
The loud snap of a twig had my eyes flying open, and I looked straight into Wyatt’s dull, glassy stare. He’d shifted back into his human form. I couldn’t tell which form of his was more terrifying.
“I’m going to wring your fucking neck,” he said in a voice that sounded like a recording. Like a voicemail saved from years ago.
He grabbed me and wrestled me to the ground, sitting on my stomach and choking me, choking me, choking me.
Not again, I thought. I don’t want to die again.
His thumbs pressed harder and harder against my windpipe until I heard a sickening snap.
I shot up in bed with a loud gasp, clawing at my throat, trying to tear Wyatt’s hands away from me. I scrambled in a panic, and then reality started to leak through the holes in my sleep-addled state.
Wyatt wasn’t here. Wyatt was dead.
I wasn’t in a forest; I was in the condo, and in bed with Cole. Cole, who was sitting up next to me, smoothing a hand over my back.
“Easy, baby. You’re all right,” he murmured. “You’re all right. You’re safe. You’re safe.”
Those words had become my mantra over the last three weeks. The nightmares seemed to be endless. It was a good night when I didn’t have at least three instances of lurching out of bed like this.
I gulped in greedy breaths and nodded as the rest of my body woke up. I rested my hand just below my collarbone, reminding my body that it wasn’t being choked. That I could breathe just fine.
After a few minutes, I managed to still myself and calm my erratic breathing. I shut my eyes and let out a long, low exhale through pursed, dry lips.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“No need to be sorry, babe. You want me to get you anything? Cold rag? Warm milk?”
“I think I’ll just get myself some tea,” I said. “You should go back to sleep. We have a flight to catch in a few hours.”
“You’re part of that ‘we,’ you know.”
“Yeah, but I can sleep on planes. You can’t,” I said with a little wink.
He stared at me, his lips pressed together like he didn’t believe me.
“Cole,” I said, “I promise I’m fine, okay? It was just a bad dream—not like those early ones where I woke up in a full-blown panic attack. Go to sleep. I’ll be fine making my own tea.”
He let out a soft sigh and nodded. “All right. Just call me if you need me. I’m not far.”
Nodding, I slipped out of bed and pulled on my robe, tying it in front. I quietly made my way from the bedroom through the dining room and into the kitchen, reaching above the stove to click on the overhead light. I blinked against the brightness—the dimmers at Cole’s old house had spoiled me. He’d said he’d install some in the condo when he had a chance, but I didn’t want to make too much of a fuss when he was so busy rebuilding the house.
After my eyes adjusted, I filled the electric kettle with some water and turned it on. While I waited for the water to boil, I took out some herbal tea, honey, and half and half.
I had never been a huge tea drinker before Cole, but a cup of tea was one of the best ways for me to get back to sleep after a nightmare. He’d introduced me to tea after the nightmares I’d had back at his house and then here at the condo after we got out of the hospital.
