Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
39
OPHELIA
Chaos around me. Sound and movement, shadows and light and pain. Searing, hot pain.
Someone shouts orders and I blink, the bright light above me blinding. I turn my head, and a moment later, the pain bleeds away, numbness a physical thing filling me up from the tips of my fingers and toes into my limbs, my torso, taking me under a veil of nothingness until it’s quiet and dark and still. So still.
I see Hamish. He’s lying in that circle of blood. He’s dead. I know.
Sinistral. The Fox house. The pool. As a little girl, I’d been so excited to see our new neighbors building a pool.
Now all I recall is the freezing water.
He was going to kill Silas.
Silas, who’d come for me again. He’s always coming for me. Rescuing me.
But I slid out from under Ethan’s shoe and this time, I rescued Silas and the bullet ripped into me rather than him.
Light flickers momentarily, the pain beginning, but it’s gone again and I’m lying in a huge bed with feathers all around me. White feathers. Thick blankets. I’m wearing white, too. Everything is white and bright and light and I’m floating in this bed of Esmerelda’s feathers. I’m sure they’re hers.
“O? O, can you hear me?”
Silas.
I blink, flashes of darkness breaking into the serenity of light. Pain comes again, the bullet setting my skin on fire.
“Ophelia.”
I turn my head. There he is. Silas. But he’s soaked in blood.
My blood.
“Wake up, sweetheart.”
Warm hands on my face. Calloused thumbs trying to be gentle as they wipe away my tears.
“Wake up.”
I’m trying.
40
SILAS
Three days have passed since that night. Since Ophelia threw herself into the pool and took that bullet for me. Three days since she almost died to save me.
I squeeze her hand, careful not to touch the bruise that’s formed where the IV is attached at the back of it.
She was lucky, they say. I’m not so sure. The bullet was barely a centimeter from her heart. It almost killed her. It would have killed me. She saved me.
I wipe yet another tear sliding down over her temple. She doesn’t move, doesn’t respond, but she does cry. Surgery to remove the bullet and repair the damage lasted eight hours. She could open her eyes any minute now. Any minute. I haven’t left her side because when she does, I need her to see me. To know I’m here for her.
Horatio brought me a change of clothes. I showered here, in the bathroom in her hospital room, exactly once. I’ve smelled better. I won’t leave her side, though.
I brush her hair away from her face then slip my hand around hers.
“I’m thinking when you wake up, we should go away for a while. Somewhere warm. Somewhere no one knows. A warm beach. Yes. Your favorite beach in Mexico. What was the name? You said you loved it once, a long time ago.” I don’t remind her where we were. “You said that the sea was the color of my eyes and then blushed so red I couldn’t help my smile. Do you remember that? You were so embarrassed, and I thought you were so sweet. So beautiful. Do you know that?”
I feel something then, a light squeezing of my fingers. I look at our hands, at her face. I’m sure I felt it.
“O? Squeeze my hand again, sweetheart.”
I wait, but nothing.
“Maybe we can get married on that beach. What do you think?” I continue, hoping to prompt her to do it again. “I mean, properly married. Because it’s what I want, O. You to be my wife forever for no reason other than that I love you and you love me. What do you think?”
Squeeze.
I smile, wipe away my own tear that comes out of nowhere.
“Again. Do it again for me. Please. Please, please do it again.”
Her eyelids flutter and that’s better than a squeeze. I stand, lean over her, watching her.
“We’ll invite your dad this time. He can give you away.”
Another squeeze.
“Wake up, O. That’s it. Wake up. You’re safe now. No one’s going to hurt you now. It’s time to wake up, sweetheart.”
And as if she was waiting for just those words, her eyelids flutter and slowly, so slowly, her eyes open. I smile and watch my tears drop on her cheek and I wipe them away as they keep coming, mine or hers, I’m not sure, because she’s awake. She’s awake.
41
OPHELIA
Ido remember that moment when I’d told him his eyes looked like my favorite beach. God, how embarrassed I’d been.
I feel myself blush thinking about it.
Silas, my beautiful Silas, weeps. I reach up. It takes so much effort, but I do it and I cup his bearded face. I smile.
The door opens then and the little cocoon around us is gone, just like that. Back to reality. Doctors. A hospital room. Needles and pain and painkillers and examinations. Silas watching me all the while. Never taking his eyes from me.