"Where are you?"
Alec turns around as I'm craning my neck to find a street sign or some landmark to give to Silver.
"Who is that?" Alec asks me and shoves his phone in his pocket. "Give me the phone, Cora." He snatches it out of my grasp and remains on his feet, way far out of my reach.
I lean my head against the building and close my eyes.
"Who is this?" Alec says into my phone. "Uh, Alec, yeah, that Alec." He pauses. "Haven District. I'll text you her location. Yeah, thanks. See you soon." A second later, he's back at my side and returns my phone.
"I can't breathe," I say with my eyes still pinched shut, tears rolling down my cheeks.
"Cora." Alec pulls my legs onto his lap and tugs me toward his chest. "Come here. You're safe, okay?"
I sob into him and wish I could make it stop. "I'm sorry," I blubber.
"Shh." He smooths my hair off my forehead and presses his lips to my skin. Alec rocks me and I lose track of time, the only thing I know is the steady beating of his heart and his arms wrapped around me.
I hate myself for being mean to him, for making a scene. I yelled at June and Simon, and I lied to Alec about my feelings for him. It's better this way, I remind myself, because here pretty soon, I'm going to go away and the relationships we had will be a thing of the past. If I don't cut these ties now, it will only make things harder in the future. I don't know why I thought I could enjoy these final few weeks.
"I'm going to lift you," Alec says moments before he rises to his feet with me still in his arms.
I blink through my swollen lids as he walks me away from the building and lowers me into a passenger seat.
"What happened?" Silver asks him, his voice gruff and demanding.
"Rough night." Alec exhales. "Promise me you'll keep her safe?"
"On my life." Silver clears his throat. "You're okay with me taking her?"
"You're the one she called." There's a sort of sadness in Alec's voice that rips my heart in two. "She chose you."
Someone shuts the door and I remain curled into myself even when Silver climbs into the driver's side. I can sense his dominating presence without even opening my eyes.
"You came," I whisper.
He lets out a breath. "You called."
23
CORA
Iwake up in a bed that's more comfortable than mine in clothes that don't belong to me.
I rub my eyes and yawn, my breath foul and lingering of the excessive booze I drank last night.
"How did you sleep?" Silver's voice is calm and even and when I turn, I find him sitting in the chair in the corner, one of his legs crossed over the other.
"Okay, I think." I try to recall how I got here, but I come up short.
"There's coffee on the nightstand. And a water." Silver nods past me and rises to his feet. "When you're ready, come into the living room. We need to talk." He leaves the room without another word.
I feel like a child who's just been scalded and is about to get in even more trouble than they already are.
But because my bladder is screaming at me, I decide I better get moving sooner rather than later.
In his bathroom, I find three boxes of tampons lining the counter, the tops of them ripped open. My stomach cramps and reminds me that at some point last night, I started my period. I vaguely recall struggling to open the boxes, but how I got them to begin with is lost on me.
I make quick work of freshening up—changing my tampon and brushing my teeth being at the top of my priority list. On my way to the living room, I chug some of the water and take the coffee he had left out for me.
