Tears were stinging my eyes as I looked at her. Why wasn’t she awake yet?
“I’ve been reading to her so she can hear me talking to her,” I confessed. “I speak to her as if she will roll over and answer me. This is torture, Abe.”
His eyes glided over her slowly before he smiled.
“I can feel her power pulsing inside of her. I couldn’t before. That is a great sign.”
I looked at her and smiled softly. Abe sat in the chair next to the bed and held her hand.
“I’ll give you a moment alone.”
I shut the door and heard him start talking to her, telling her about his day, and I smiled softly. When I went downstairs, everyone was eating a ridiculous amount of food my mother made. They had been coming to cook and take care of me while I took care of Della.
“Come eat.” My mother came over and pulled me to the table. I was starving. When I looked at the food, I felt guilty for eating. Abe told me that Della’s magic would keep her alive without food or water, but I still worried she would need nourishment of some kind. I brought her food every day and set it next to her on the bedside table, just in case.
I took a few bites but mostly just zoned out, staring at my plate, thinking about Della. At some point, Abe came downstairs and joined us. I listened to them talk and laugh, but I did not join in much. Della was probably lonely upstairs. Guilt slammed into me.
Ezra watched me from across the table and gave me a soft smile.
“I can tell you want to go back up and see her. We won’t be offended if you do,” he said.
I glanced at everyone who was watching me. They would understand if I stood up and went upstairs to her. So, I stood and thanked them for coming to check on me, but I wanted to be next to Della.
Then I went upstairs and crawled back into bed with her, curling up next to her as I stared at the dark clouds moving over us, knowing it was my own storm coming. My grief and longing for Della were all-consuming. I pulled myself into her side, breathing in her scent of heaven and flowers. My hand gripped hers before I fell into a restless sleep.
?????????
Della was standing in front of me, smiling. I reached for her, but she moved away from me.
“Haden, save me,” she begged. “Bring me back.”
“Please,” I begged as she moved away again. I started running for her, but I could never catch up to her. She was crying now; her face had the same terror on it as it did when I gave her soul back. I leaped forward to grab her, but I fell through her and started free-falling from the cliffside near my old home that I had shared with Remiah. It was the very cliff I had thrown myself off repeatedly trying to end my life.
She watched from the cliff’s edge as I fell to my death, her pretty eyes locked on mine as I plummeted to the ground.
“Be with me,” her voice called down to me. I would if I could. I closed my eyes.
As soon as my body hit the ground in my dream, I jolted awake. I sat up in bed, sweat dripped from me as if I had been running for hours. I uncovered myself and swung my legs over the side of the bed, running my hands through my hair.
There was something so odd and chilling about the dream. I couldn’t sleep, so I stood and walked to the desk in our room. Isat down and worked on the finishing touches of a present for Della. I did not know what would happen when she woke up, but I wanted her to know that I thought of her every second she was healing.
I swept my hand across the large, leather-bound book I'd made for her. It had everything about our life in it. I had written down every memory I could recall so she could read it. I had even drawn pictures of us together. I wanted her to remember us, all of us—everything that we had been through and how it forged a bond that would never be severed.
I started working on a portrait of her even as my eyes grew heavy again. After a few hours, I glanced down at the picture of Della I had been drawing and smiled. When I turned toward the bed, she was still lying unmoving. Standing up, I went and grabbed the vase of flowers next to her so I could pick some new ones.
I gave her a kiss on the forehead.
“I love you.” I smiled down at her before I headed down the stairs. The rain was pouring when I stepped outside. My grief refused to let the storm pass, so I gathered flowers in the rain—mostly orange ones. Smiling, I took them inside, trailing water on the floor but not caring at the moment.
I rearranged her flowers in the vase and set them next to the bed. She should wake up to something pretty. Turning toward the window, I glanced outside when a movement caught my eye. But it wasn’t what I saw outside; it was what I didn’t see in the reflection of the window. My head whipped around to the bed, and I realized that Della was not there.
“Storm?” I called out in a panic. I ran through our room and all the rooms in the house, looking for her.
“Storm!” I yelled again before running outside. Where the fuck did she go? What if she was gone for good, and I didn’t get to say goodbye?
I ran outside in a panic.
“You know that much water for so long should have killed all of these pretty flowers.”
