My phone explodes with notifications—her heart is dangerously close to stopping. Her pulse is weak.
“Keep digging!” I scream. “Stay with me, princess!”
We hit a coffin.
My phone wails like a siren.
I look down.
Her heart stops.
“Don’t leave me, baby!” I yell.
We tear the coffin lid open. Lilac’s face is pale, her lips blue. I yank her out and press my mouth to hers, starting chest compressions.
“Wake the fuck up, Lilac!”
I continue doing compressions.
Seconds later, her eyes snap open. She coughs violently, then freezes when she sees me.
I scoop her into my arms, but she fights—kicking, slapping.
“Lilac, baby. It’s me. It’s Irvin.”
She collapses against me, wrapping her arms around my neck, squeezing tight. Tears stream down her cheeks. She buries her face in my chest, trembling, making incoherent sounds. She kicks and screams, smacks me in the face.
“Get off me!”
I wrap my arms around her tight, kissing her forehead. “I got you, baby. I got you.”
She stares at me wide-eyed. “I’m alive… I’m alive…”
I tilt her head to meet my eyes. “You are, my love.”
“Irvin…” She squeezes me tighter, and I let her.
Rage eats at me.
“Princess. Who did this?”
“Emerson.”
My blood runs cold.
“Who the fuck is Emerson?” Jameson asks.
“Her ex-boyfriend. He works for the Quiet Gods. He killed her parents—but apparently, he faked his own death.”
“He… came… back,” Lilac struggles to say.
“To finish the job,” I answer for her.
My jaw tightens. “We’ll find him. And we’ll prove I didn’t do this.”
“I have a cabin in the middle of the woods,” Jameson says. “No one knows about it.”
I arch a brow.
