“Fine. I accept your terms. I will release his mind, but only briefly, so you'd better be quick with your questions.”
“So, we have a deal?” I asserted, making him nod.
“We do.”
“I’d shake on it, but I remember what happened the last time you touched me,” I said wryly, making him grin.
“Very well, I will release his mind.”
My heart started to hammer in my chest, knowing this was it, I was getting my friend back… or at least a piece of him, for a short time. Something that started when his head suddenly dropped, making me gasp.
My heartbeat continued to speed up at the shift in him, but I tried to keep my composure, not wanting to show the effect he had on me. Not yet, not until I was sure this wasn’t just a ploy on his part to hurt me. But then his eyes snapped open and darted around the cell before landing back on me. I couldn’t stop the emotion that flooded my body the second I saw those clear hazel eyes staring back at me.
Riley’s eyes.
He was alive.
He was really here.
My Riley.
“Alex.”The sound of his voice pushed me over the edge. The tears came, and this time,I let them.I let them burn my eyes as they we first held suspended before they ran down my cheeks.
“Riley!” I cried before I did what I promised Aster I wouldn’t do. I threw myself against the mesh, the solid cell bars digging into my torso, but I didn’t care. His face held so much pain, so much suffering.
“Alex… God, how could I have let…” His voice broke as he looked away, and suddenly I realized what this was.
It was shame.
Shame for what his hands had done to me.
I started shaking my head in small, rabid motions before telling him, “No, no, please, Riley, don’t think about that now,” I pleaded.
“How can’t I think about it, Alex? It'sallI can fucking think about, trapped in this fucking hell that is my own body!” he snapped angrily, the tears there but refusing to fall, unlike mine.
“Riley, no, don’t do that to yourself, okay? Look, we don’t have much time here,” I tried again, sniffing back the sob that threatened to burst out of me.
“I’m so sorry, Alex. I… I… don’t deserve…”
“Don’t you dare fucking say it! Do you hear me? I am going to get you out of this! I am going to save you if it’s the last thing I do, but right now, you have to help me,” I said, rubbing my sleeve under my nose, catching the tears clinging to my skin. And finally, he started nodding, as if I had shaken him out of what looked like an apology that was ready to burst from him any second.
“If you tell me everything you know, it could end all of this. End everything to do with that fucking Rift, and we will be able to help you, Riley. We can get whatever it is out of you. We can help you fight it, I promise you.” My voice was high-pitched and raw with emotion. Half of me had expected to see Aster come racing in, but he didn’t, and I appreciated the space he was giving me.
“But if you can’t, Alex… if you have a chance… please, promise me you will take it. Don’t risk it all for me… not after… what I did to you.” His pained voice felt like a vice seizing my lungs.
Which was why I let my head rest against the bars and told him,“God, you’re breaking my heart here… there is so much I want to tell you… but…”
He placed his head where mine was resting, and he was so close yet so far away when he finished my sentence…
“We don’t have the time.”
I shook my head in a hopeless motion, telling him that we didn’t, but then he made a pained sound and jerked his head back.
“I can already feel him pulling me back. He knows what I want to show you. Quick, Alex, touch me, take my hand!” Hereached out, and though Aster told me not to let him touch me, I knew the real Riley wouldn’t hurt me. So, I decided to trust him one last time, and in doing so, all I could hope for was that…
It wouldn’t kill me.
The second our fingertips touched through the mesh, I gasped as pain seared through my whole body. My scars burned, and the regret that I had been so naïve was all I could think about. My trust had been broken again. Another betrayal. My heart was used as a weapon against me once more.
