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I tried to answer, but the words wouldn’t leave my lips. From above, my body looked lifeless in his arms. I floated above us, watching him lift me into his arms and press a soaked rag to my lips, protecting me from the smoke. I wanted to scream, to laugh, to cry. To tell him it was already too late, I was already out of my body, I was already ready to go. I was leaving him, but I needed him to know I didn’t want this, didn’t want to go away. I wanted him. Needed him. It felt unfair to be torn out of his embrace like this, to be forced to leave him behind.
That’s when I found a part of me I never knew existed. I found the fighter within me. And she was screaming to be let out, so I let her.
I came back in my own body, sputtering and coughing as Thorn rushed me out of the burning rose garden, carrying me to safety. The smoke was impenetrable, a thick curtain of ash and the scent of burning roses making me feel sick to the pit of my stomach. I needed to get out, but my body was so fucking weak. But my mind wasn’t. My mind screamed to be let free, to be saved, to save myself. And I clung to that thought, to the small, tiny possibility of getting out of there alive.
“Rose,” he whispered against my lips as the world burned around us. “I’m going to get us out of here. I fucking swear. I promise, Rose. I fucking promise. I’ll never leave you again. You’re mine, Rose. You’re my destiny. I love you…”
I felt my eyes getting heavier and heavier, slowly closing until the smoke stopped burning them, stopped going in through my mouth and nostrils, and stopped killing me slowly. I felt the world turning around me, felt the wheels churning along and felt my life slowly slipping away, even though I tried to hold on for dear life, clinging to the last remnants with so much desperation I thought it would kill me.
Thorn’s arms were strong around mine and he held me closely, fighting, trying to make his way through the smoke and the fire. My eyes felt heavy as hell, the trouble of opening them almost too much to handle. He begged me to stay with him and I tried to obey, but it was so fucking hard. The call of the other world, the one that lay right above the smoke and the fire, was so strong. It would welcome me with open arms, and I would be happy there. Almost as happy as I was on Earth.
I felt something slapping me, hard and brutal, and my eyes flew open to see Thorn’s desperate face, streaked with ash as he stared down into my eyes.
“Stay with me,” he ordered, his voice so damn angry I wondered what I’d done to upset him this much. “Stay with me, for fuck’s sake. Don’t you dare close your eyes again, Rose!”
“I’m trying,” I whispered, but it came out as a raspy croak, the words barely forming when I spoke up.
We were trapped. This was hell. This was what the end felt like. This was where my life would finally come to its end. Not with Thorn hurting me. Not with Ellis going overboard. Not from my cut tendons… I would die because of a selfish, mean girl who was supposed to be my friend, and because of my own naivete. I should have known it would’ve happened this way. I should have known from the beginning.
“I’m not letting go,” Thorn promised me, and my eyes opened further, taking in everything around us.
The world was burning bright. The rose bushes had caught on fire, burning with billowing smoke raising around us. The fire, smoke and embers were almost too much to bear, the night sky beautiful above us. It was a show of what nature was capable of when the wrong person set fire to the spark. It was my end, mine and Thorn’s. At least it had come together. I was fucking grateful for that, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to live or breathe a single second without him by my side.
“Talk to me,” Thorn begged me, his fingers grabbing me by the cheeks, making me look at him drowsily. “Come on Rose, talk to me. Just stay with me. Just stay here, I need you.”
“I’m here,” I whispered, and for the first time, the words came out like they should have and the sky’s pull on me loosened.
I felt more like myself, more in the horrible burning moment of reality. And I wanted Thorn. Needed him.
“Get us out of here,” I begged him desperately. “I don’t want to die in here, Thorn, I don’t want to die, please, don’t let me…”
