Collapsing to my side, I wrapped my arms around myself and heaved. My throat howled from drowning. My head pounded. And through it all, all I could think was...
This would never have happened if Jethro were here.
His very soul was an anchor.
The one I needed the most.
I groaned at the horrible irony.
I was free at Hawksridge in a way I could never be free in London.
I couldn’t live without him.
I didn’twantto live without him.
I need to save him.
And soon.
Chapter Eight
Jethro
THE CURE BEGAN slowly—whispering across my thoughts.
The unravelling Nila had achieved slowly stitched itself back together. The love, the panic, the pressure...it all faded.
My intense world became shrouded. The glare of intensity diminished and, tablet by tablet, I grew delightfully numb.
I liked this new blanket.
I was grateful to my father.
Without him, I would’ve resorted to opening the scars on my soles and living in pain to survive. What he hadn’t factored in was my conviction to save Nila. The drugs gave me strength to do that.
So I took another and another...believing they would be my salvation and her key to surviving.
How fucking stupid was I?
* * * * *
Seventy-two hours.
Three days since Nila left.
My injuries from Daniel’s beating were stiff and mottled. I refused to look at myself in a mirror, as I couldn’t stomach the yellow and purple bruised arsehole staring back at me.
Whereas my body hurt, my soul was miraculously floating. Every day the overwhelming hazards of my disease bleached further and further into a watermark rather than a vibrant stain.
Cut let me leave the dungeon under the condition of medicating myself. The choice between dank darkness and pills was no hardship.
I kept to myself. I didn’t visit Jasmine to protect her from my appearance. I didn’t go on shipment runs or seek out my father. I spent the days in the stable, finding solitude in Wings’ silent presence and slipping deeper into the drug’s embrace.
However, lying in bed at night couldn’t stop my mind filling with her.
Nila.
I missed her smell, her taste...her heat.
