Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
I’d never seen someone so beautiful.
Even now.
Even with a bruise on her jaw and shadows under her eyes. Even with the weight loss from sharing a dungeon for a month and the faintest mark around her wrists where the cuffs had imprisoned her.
Taking her hand, I ran my thumb over her knuckles. “I thought I’d lost you once, little nightmare. If you think I’m going to lose you again, then you don’t know me very well.” I brought her hand to my lips and kissed her. “I won’t let you go, Ily. If you open your eyes, then we’ll exist in this world. But if you die…we’ll exist in another. Your choice, mon cœur. Either way, you’re not leaving me again.”
Q cleared his throat behind me. “I’ll do everything in my power to ensure she survives, Henri. You have my word.”
I glowered at him. “And you won’t stop me from following her if it comes to that?”
He held my stare.
Finally, he nodded. “No, I won’t stop you because I know nothing could.” Stepping toward the open door, he rested his hand on the door frame. “Be smart and take care. You’re not worth anything to her if you don’t look after yourself. I’ll send some food up.”
He turned to go.
My shoulders slouched in gratefulness as well as exhaustion. “Q?”
He looked back, his eyebrow raised.
“Merci beaucoup.” I placed a fist over my heart, my casted arm twinging. “For everything.”
“That’s what family’s for.” He half smiled. “I didn’t learn that lesson until I found Tess, and I think you’re only just starting to now that you’ve found Ily. Rest, brother. I’ll leave you two alone. We’ll talk again soon.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
………………………….
Henri
“ILY, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME…please don’t leave.” I shuddered as I sat on her bed. The sun had set an hour ago, and I still hadn’t left. Q hadn’t returned. The doctor had tried to kick me out and failed.
I’d refused lunch because the thought of eating turned my guts into knots.
All I wanted to do was talk to Ily. To tell her she was safe. That she didn’t have to hide any longer.
Stroking her hair back, I murmured, “If you’re with Peter, tell him he can’t have you. Not yet. You’re not done with this life, mon cœur. Tell him he’s welcome to haunt us, but you have to wake up. I can’t do this without you.”
I studied her face for any signs that she’d heard me.
The serene blankness reminded me of how she’d checked out when Victor raped her. How she said she didn’t watch and went somewhere he couldn’t reach.
“You can open your eyes now, alright? Victor is dead. We’re in France. No one will ever harm you again.” My heart fisted. “Especially me.”
Twilight turned to darkness.
Suzette, Q’s housekeeper who I’d met once before, bustled in and turned on the lights. She returned an hour later with a bowl of rich pumpkin soup and bread, placing it on the sideboard.
She didn’t speak. She merely smiled, gathered a few empty water glasses from the doctor, and left.
Kissing Ily’s floppy fingers, I begged her in every language and dimension to wake up. “We’re free, little nightmare. The collars are gone. The pain is gone. All you have to do is open your eyes.”
Pressing my forehead to her wrist, I whispered, “Please, Ily. If you come back to me, we can go anywhere you want. I’ll take you home. We’ll go see Krish and your parents. I’ll take you to any gem store—” My mouth twisted. “On second thoughts, no gems. I don’t think I’ll be able to look at another diamond again.”
She didn’t move, didn’t sigh.
Fresh fear tiptoed up my spine. Believing she’d died had almost killed me. But seeing her in limbo? Being utterly helpless to bring her back…it was almost worse. I didn’t know if her mind was free. Was she in a good dream or bad? Was she still on that island being tortured and starved?
Running my thumb over her wedding ring finger, I whispered, “Six months isn’t long enough, Ily. I want six goddamn decades with you. So open your eyes and—”
“Still no change?” Rachel asked quietly from the doorway.
I sucked in a tattered breath and looked up.
Staggering from Ily’s bedside, I tripped across the room and snatched her close. “You. Dammit, Rach, first you saved my life and now you’ve gone and saved hers. How…how can I ever repay you?”
She grunted with discomfort as I squeezed her with every shred of gratitude.
Her hard, round belly dug into my hips as I said, “You put your own life on the line. You gave her your blood. You saved her—”
“No.” She sniffed back tears and tugged out of my embrace. “Peter did.” She winced. “Caishen told me how Peter grabbed her and spun her around. The bullet went into him, not her. He did it in a split second. He was the one who saved her, not me.”