“Faith?” Ryker’s voice anchored me.
But it wasn’t enough. Not this time.
The memories clawed their way up from whatever dark corner I’d buried them in, demanding attention like needy cats.
The forest. God, the forest.
Cold air burning my lungs. Pine needles crunching beneath my feet. My bare feet because I’d lost my shoes in the fight. My breath coming in desperate gasps. Each inhale tasted like copper and fear.
No. I pressed my fingertips to my temples, willing the fragments to make sense.
Daniel’s face in the moonlight. That smirk that had haunted me for years. “Did you really think you could keep running, Faith?” His voice so calm. So fucking sure of himself. Like he’d already won.
“Faith?” Ryker’s hand moved to my elbow.
But I was already drowning. Going under.
I got away from him and hid behind a tree, its bark rough against my palms. Splinters digging into my skin. My heart hammered so hard, I was sure he could hear it. But wait … was I hiding? Or was I watching? Waiting to pounce?
The memory shifted, twisted. Suddenly, I wasn’t behind the tree. I was standing in the open, my spine straight, my fear crystallizing into something sharper. Deadlier.
“Maybe we should get you upstairs.” Ryker’s voice came from far away, muffled like I was underwater. Or like my brain had decided to take an impromptu vacation.
“Stop!” My voice, raw and desperate. “Leave me alone, or so help me God, I will fucking kill you.”
The words echoed in my skull. Mine, but not mine. Had I really said that to him that night? Had I meant it? Christ, I think I had.
“Fuck. I think she’s going into shock.” Ryker’s voice sharpened, cutting through the fog.
The knife. Silver in the moonlight. But whose hand was it in? Mine? His?
The memory fractured, split like a broken mirror.
And suddenly, two warm hands pressed against my cheeks, snapping me out of the past and back into the present.
“Faith, look at me.” Ryker’s blue eyes burned with concern. “You’re safe. You’re here with me.”
I tried to speak. Really, I did, but nothing would come out.
“Dude, she looks like she’s about to pass out.” Axel’s voice floated up from somewhere below.
I guess that had him all sorts of worried because, in one fluid motion, Ryker swept me into his arms.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered against my hair. “I’ve got you, Faith, and I’m not letting go. Not now, not ever. You hear me?”
The solidness of him, the steady thrum of his heartbeatagainst my cheek, was the only real thing in a world that kept shifting between past and present, like a broken TV channel.
“Blake should have been right behind us. Call him.” Ryker’s arms tightened around me. “Now.”
“On it.”
Ryker carried me up the stairs and set me down on a bed. The mattress dipped under our combined weight as he sat beside me.
“Faith, I need you to hear me. Can you hear me?”
I managed a nod.
“Should I call an ambulance?”
