“Don’t you go dying on me,” I muttered. “You’re not going to leave me alone to raise this baby. They deserve to meet their father and know what type of man he is.”
My hand found Sam’s and wrapped tight around it, holding onto him as if that would stop him from slipping away from me altogether.
Chapter 24 - Sam
I was suspended in nothing. No thoughts, no senses, no sense of being. Then images flickered in the void. Rachel’s concerned face as she held onto me. Her clutching a baby—ourbaby. The three of us all together.
Part of me wanted to slip away. I knew I could if I decided to. But I held on, because I didn’t want to lose Rachel. I didn’t want to leave her alone. I wanted to be by her side always, to protect her and our baby. I wanted to be with her, even if that meant letting her be her own person and not smothering her. I wanted to meet our child. I wanted Rachel.
Then I floated back to consciousness, my senses coming back to me. I heard trickling water, could smell damp and moss. Something was crushing my fingers. Hard. On top of that, I could feel cool water wrapping around me, up almost to my neck.
I let out a slow groan, my head moving from side to side as my fingers flexed, testing the grip of whatever was holding me.
“Oh my God. Sam?” a voice said, the relief in it palpable.
It took a moment to place the voice, and then it hit me. I should have recognized it immediately. I had dreamed about her enough.
When I opened my eyes, Rachel was staring down at me. Relief broke across her face as her entire body seemed to crumple, as if she had been holding her breath for a century.
“Thank God,” she said. “How are you doing?”
At first, I couldn’t figure out what she was talking about. I still didn’t know where I was. I tried to sit up and winced asa stabbing pain lanced through my stomach. Frowning, I looked down. Only then did I notice my body rippling below the surface of shallow, crystal clear water and the cool air all around me. The stone walls with moss and water trickling along the crevices came into focus, along with the light that seemed to have no source but illuminated the entire cavern.
The memory of the attack came rushing back in a flash. The wraith, a shard of glass piercing my chest, Rachel hovering over me, a burning sensation on my chest. A scar ran down my chest to my stomach, far thinner than it should have been, as if it were years old instead of hours, or however long I had been here.
I barely thought about it, though. I pushed myself to a seated position and studied Rachel, taking in every inch of her, looking for any injuries, any indication she was hurt or something bad had happened to her. A few scrapes from the sand dotted her face and arms, but besides that, she was fine. I breathed easier, reaching out and cupping her face.
“I’m all right,” she said, leaning into my hand.
“Emma?” I asked.
“She’s okay,” Rachel said. “Everyone else is fine.”
I let out a relieved breath as I gave a slow, satisfied nod. We had at least managed that much.
“What about the wraith?”
Her relieved smile fell, replaced with a guilt-ridden grimace. She sucked in a breath as she glanced at the ground, her grip on my fingers slipping a little.
“He got away,” she admitted, biting her lip. “I had to pick between going after him and saving you. So I saved you.”
I glanced back down at the scar running straight down my chest, just below my sternum. It was a miracle it hadn’t killed me. I probably should have bled out.
Not a miracle, a voice in my head told me.Your mate.
I twisted to look at Rachel, who was gnawing her lip as she watched me anxiously, shifting her weight from side to side as she sat next to me.
“Thank you,” I said. “Your quick thinking back there saved my life.”
“I should have done more,” she said grimly. “I was supposed to help. Instead, you got hurt, and I let the wraith get away—”
“Hush.” My hand reached up and cupped her face, my thumb swiping away her tear. “We got Emma out, and you saved my life. You did amazing.”
“It’s my fault you got hurt,” she said.
I snorted, rolling my eyes. “Yes, it’s your fault that the wraith managed to weaponize his glass hand in a way we couldn’t have anticipated.”
She gave a choked sob that did nothing to conceal the guilt radiating off her. “Of course, you manage to be glib after everything that’s happened.”
