When she immediately begins to climb down, my heart just about rips out of my chest.
I don’t breathe until she’s close enough for me to step forward. The twins fall back as I carefully place my hands on her waist and lift her down. She stares at my chest, not even looking up.
She feels breakable. Nothing like the strong Anastasia I used to know.
And her skin… it’sburning. The heat works through the cotton of her shirt, and sudden understanding makes my fingers clench.
I rest my hand against her forehead. Take in her glassy eyes. “She’s got a fucking temperature.”
Kit tests it for himself. Curses violently. “I’m calling a doctor.”
Rafe just stands silently, his face pale with shock as I lift her carefully into my arms. She doesn’t look at me. Doesn’t look at any of us as I take the stairs two at a time. I don’t stop until I’m shoving open my bedroom door, placing her carefully down on my bed.
She starts to struggle. “’M not allowed.”
“Fuck,” Rafe whispers. We glance at each other before he reaches down, carefully capturing her hands in his. “Yes, you are, Stasi. You’re staying here tonight.”
She collapses back against the covers, her face damp. “I didn’t finish the list.”
Fuck the list.
But she twists, pulling it from the pocket of her black trousers, and my throat closes up as I carefully take it from her, opening it up to see lines upon lines of my fuckingorders.
As though her whole life has narrowed to a list I came up with on a whim. To torture her.
That’s exactly what it is, I realize abruptly. Day after day of cleaning and scrubbing and barely fuckingexistingwith barely a moment to herself.
Kit was right. This isn’t a punishment. This is fucking torture.
When he bursts through the door, Rafe and I look up. “The doctor – he’s tied up. Something about that fucking virus doing the rounds. But he said it sounds like exhaustion. She needs to sleep it off.”
“The temperature?” I ask hoarsely.
“We need to monitor it,” he says. I watch as he leans over, carefully stroking the hair back from her face before checking her pulse. “But it should disappear, if it’s only rest she needs.”
I perch on the edge of the bed, my eyes on her face. “If it doesn’t change, we’re taking her to hospital.”
Her eyes are already closing as we settle in around her, her body limp. Kit picks up her hand, cradling it between both of his, violet eyes flashing to us as if daring us to say a fucking word.
I don’t say anything.
I watch, and I wait.
I don’t take my eyes from her for a second.
19 – Stasi
Ijerk awake in sudden, terrifying awareness.
I’ve overslept.Shit.
When I jolt upright, hands land on my shoulders and I jump a mile. “Stasi.”
My hands clench in the… the cotton?
What?
The sleep clears from my eyes as I look down, taking in the soft material beneath my fingers.
